Tags : Soccer training for kids, for youth, drills, shooting, Football, Tactic, Tips, Training, defense, attacing, dvd, Coaching dvd, skills, drills , Passing
The Tip
Should I use exercises over and over or should I have different exercises each day?
I think a combination is good. If there was an exercise the children liked it would be perfectly fine to do it more than once during the season; however, I wouldn’t do something everyday. There are a lot of practice games that have been made that require them to use the same soccer skills but in a different setting. Changing the setting (what they have to do, do they have to dribble to avoid being tagged by an evil monster or are they dribbling to get from one side on an area to another, either way they are still dribbling) can make practice more enjoyable for the players. Also, practice games usually have problems that have to be solved. For example, in sharks and minnows the minnows have to dribble from one sideline to another without being tagged by a shark that is in the middle. It is interesting to see how the children choose to solve the problem of, “What is the best way to get across the area without being tagged?” I have seen some kids wait back while their teammates charge forward; the sharks go after those players and then the players that waited back take off and get across the area while the sharks are distracted. There are ways to “beat” or do better at many of the practice games that require creative problem solving to figure them out. Different games require different problems to be solved. Isn’t that what soccer is anyway, one big problem. How can we, my team, get this ball past 10 other people and then shoot it so that it goes past the goalie into the goal? Practice games, unlike drills, require players to think on the fly and solve problems, a complex skill that will be required when they play “real” soccer.
