A soccer coaching session for pre-school children

Warm-up

A very brief warm-up is appropriate in order to get the players thinking about football and to prepare them physically and mentally for the practice session. This should involve individual body activities that may or may not involve the ball. They can chase a ball thrown by the coach and bring it back with different parts of their body. Or they can chase someone with their ball at their feet. When they've been running around for a few minutes you can do some static stretching but try doing it with the ball.  

**Try this favourite: anatomy dribbling - a fun soccer warm up that helps improve basic ball control skills

Individual activities

Follow the warm-up with some kind of individual activity, not a real 1 v.1 game, but some kind of activity where players act as individuals in a game environment. An example would be a kind of tag game, or "Red Light - Green Light", or a game where players are trying to knock their ball through gates. Keep players in motion at all times. Avoid having them wait in lines. Play games of "inclusion" instead of games of elimination.

Play the game

Move on to the real game, but, make sure it is a 2 v 2, 3 v 3, or 4 v 4 so that everyone gets plenty of touches. You can have more than one game going on at a time if necessary. Switch the game every 5 minutes or so. Be creative. Play with 4 goals or 2 balls. Play with or without boundaries. Use cones if you don't have real goals. Keep all the players involved.  

Warm-down

Finish the session with a warm down. Some slow jogging with the ball and a couple of gentle stretches is fine. 

Review

Check that the kids enjoyed themselves and ask them what they learnt.

 It is important to finish on time! 

pre-school soccer coaching section