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Team shape

This is one of the very few soccer drills that I use with my older teams.

I’ve found it a very useful way to practise passing and receiving skills while at the same time maintaining a basic team shape.

Experience: intermediate (U10s) upwards.

Set-up: split your squad into teams of three, four or five. Two teams per 30 yards long by 20 yards wide playing area. The playing area(s) have a goal at each end.

Put one team in each half. Position them so that teams of three are in the shape of a triangle, teams of four are in the shape of a diamond and teams of five are a diamond plus a goalkeeper.

How to play: the objective of this soccer drill is for the players to move forwards, passing the ball between each other while keeping their shape.

Start by having the players pass the ball between themselves while they are stationary. The soccer drill should begin with a pass from a player in a defensive position or the goalkeeper, if you have one.

Progress to walking pace, (the two teams walk through each other), and gradually increase the pace until your players are passing and moving through each other at match speed.

Soccer coaching points:

Every move should finish with a shot on goal.

All players must touch the ball before a shot is taken.

Passes can be made in any order.

Encourage wide players to stay wide.

Start again if a pass is misplaced and the ball goes out of bounds.

Keep it short – this soccer drill should only last for 10 minutes, maximum. Any longer and your players will get bored.

Variations:

Challenge your players to get to the goal in 15 seconds.

Give your players numbers and call a number while they are moving. That player must be the one who shoots.

Players only have three touches, two touches, then one touch.

A simple dribbling game

This is a simple dribbling race that, at first glance, doesn’t seem to be very interesting but children of all ages love it and my U12s ask to play it at almost every session. It just goes to show that good coaching games don’t have to be complicated!

Objective: To improve running and turning with the ball, dribbling skills, fitness.

Set-up:

Split your players into pairs. One ball per pair.
Lay out a straight line of six/eight cones about five yards apart.
One line of cones per pair of players.

How to play: Both players in each pair stand at one end of their line of cones.

One player dribbles the ball at speed to the first cone in the line, turns quickly and passes the ball back to his partner.

He runs back to his partner, collects the ball and runs with it to the second cone where he passes back and repeats the exercise.

When he has taken the ball round each of the cones in this fashion, it’s his partner’s turn.

The first pair to complete the exercise is the winner.

Coaching points: Ask your players about the difference between dribbling and running with the ball.

Answer: When dribbling, a player keeps the ball close because an opponent is trying to take it away. When running with the ball, a player pushes it into unopposed (i.e. empty) space and runs on to it.

Ask them when they should run with the ball and when they shouldn’t.

Tell your players to try different ways of turning with the ball. Which is the fastest?

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Find space!

How often do you see your players watching a team-mate with the ball as they struggle to get away from pressure? I see it most weeks!

It’s frustrating – you just want to pick them up and move them a few feet to where they can provide a passing option for their team-mate.

But of course we can’t do that so try using a soccer drill to work on support play instead and help your players form good habits.

Before we can get young soccer players to take up supporting positions instead of trying to get a foot on the ball all the time, we have to introduce them to the concept of space.

For you and me, it’s easy to ‘see’ space on the soccer field. But it’s not easy for seven and eight year olds.

They are still very self-centered and find it hard to consider abstract concepts such as space – espcially when all they really want to do is kick the ball!

So let’s show them what space means.

Set up the space drill

Set up a very small soccer field, about 20 yards by 15 yards, complete with goals for this soccer drill. Then ask your players to play 5v5 or 6v6 in that area. After five minutes or so, ask them if it was hard or easy. They will say it was hard. Ask them why. Someone should say ‘it was too crowded’, if they don’t give them a few hints.

Great, we’re sowing some seeds!

Now stand your players around a small circle marked by cones, about 10 yards across, and put one player (the defender) in the middle. Ask your outside players to pass to each other, keeping the ball away from the ‘defender’.

After a minute or two ask the defender if it was easy to intercept the ball. He or she should say it was easy. Now ask the other players how they could make it harder for the defender and with a bit of luck they will say ‘make the circle bigger’. Get them to do that by moving the cones back three or four yards and play the game again.

Now it will be easier for the ‘attackers’ to keep the ball away from the ‘defender’. Get your players to recognise that (it’s important that they say it’s easier with more space), make the circle a bit bigger and play again. Keep doing that until they reach the point where they are so far apart from each other that the defender can easily intercept the attackers’ passes.

Stop the game and ask your players to show you the size circle that worked best for the attackers. This is the ‘perfect distance’.

Ask your players to remember that.

Finish off by playing a ‘match’ and stopping play when they bunch. Tell them to move apart so they are at the ‘perfect distance’ from each other.

Repeat, praising them when they keep a good distance from each other.

Well done, you’ve taught your players a very valuable lesson!

Visualisation

What is visualisation?

Visualisation is an established psychological technique. It has been used for many years to help people achieve their goals in life, overcome fears and reduce anxiety and stress.

Seeing yourself achieving your goal makes your brain believe that attaining that goal is possible, regardless of how difficult it may be.

Visualisation will not give a player technical skills that he or she didn’t have before but it will make them believe that they can play well, impress their team-mates, score the winning goal or make a great last-minute tackle. And if they believe they can do these things, then the chances of them actually doing them are greatly increased.

How can I use this technique with my players?

Children are experts at visualisation. They spend a lot of time in an imaginary world where they explore the possible consequences of their worst fears and brightest hopes. So all we have to do as soccer coaches is to guide our players to imagine (visualise) what they can achieve instead of what they fear might happen.

There are three ways to do this. We can either use internal visualisation (where a player imagines doing something themselves), external visualisation (where a player watches themselves do something as though they were standing on the touchline) or we can mix the two.

An example:

Before a match, in the changing rooms or a quiet corner of the field, I tell my players to spread out a little and make themselves comfortable.

First, I calm their minds. They close their eyes, take a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds before exhaling. We count together.

Then I ask them to remember the best game they ever played as a team. To help, I remind them when it was. Note: it doesn’t have to be a game that the team won, although it helps if they did.

I ask them to visualise (imagine) how they felt that day, how much effort they put in and how they played.

After a few seconds I ask each player to share something that they remembered about the game. A defender might remember a great tackle, an attacker the goal they scored, a midfielder a good pass or run.

They might remember how it felt to be congratulated by their parents on the way home or even what they had for tea that day!

Sharing these thoughts is an important step. It helps the team bond well and builds trust between your players.

Next, I ask them to visualise playing today’s game in the same way and with the same outcomes.

I give them a few seconds to do this then ask each player to tell the team what they are going to do to help the team today.

Again, sharing is important. If a player just keeps this thought in their heads it is easy to ‘forget’ the part they are going to play if the going gets tough. Vocalising makes the players more accountable.

The whole process takes five or ten minutes.

Summary

Visualisation can help your players overcome match day nerves. It can reduce fear, boost self confidence and will make soccer more fun for your players.

If your team consistently performs better in training sessions than in matches, loses to weaker opponents or has a problem with negative self image (‘we always lose to this team!’) visualising success will help them.

Simon says

Your young soccer players will already know how to play this popular game. It’s a lot of fun for the little ones and it’s great for improving their ball control skills and concentration.

Purpose of the Game: to encourage children to run with the ball, keeping it close to their feet, and to carry out instructions.

Age group: three years old upwards.

Area Needed: 20m x 20m.

Equipment: flat cones to mark out the grid and a ball for every player.

Number of players: whole team.

How to play: Players dribble round the grid waiting for an instruction from Simon, the King of the Ring (that’s you!).

When you preface a command with “Simon says” they must do it immediately. For example, if Simon says, “foot” they must stop the ball with that body part immediately.

If you don’t say ‘Simon says’ before the command your players should ignore it. If they forget and carry it out, just shout ‘gotcha!’ or similar. No-one is out of this game.

You can add other commands such as “change direction,” “go faster,” and so on.

Five indoor coaching games

Indoor soccer coaching brings challenges.

Obviously there’s less room, so some of the soccer games and drills you use outdoors simply won’t work.

On the other hand, there are benefits to be gained from training indoors.

One of them is the surface underfoot. It’s good for soccer skill development to practise on a nice, smooth floor rather a bumpy and sometimes muddy field.

Use these soccer coaching tips to maximise the benefits and minimise the problems associated with indoor coaching.

To get you started, this article suggests some simple games that always work well in a gym.

Warm up with the Wall Game

Place your kids in the centre of the gym. Identify the four walls as North, South, East and West (with very young children you could use colours or place different objects at each wall).

Tell them “I will call out a name of a wall and you have to run to it, touch it and run back”. You could make anyone who runs to the wrong wall perform a penalty, such as press-ups, but please don’t make the last one back perform a penalty – it’s not fair on the slower kids.

Variations

Ask the kids to skip, sideways run, etc (but not run backwards – falling over on a hard floor hurts!)
Give the walls numbers rather than names.
Point to wall; call a different one (always works!!)
Tell them to run to the opposite wall (you call ‘North’, they have to run to the ‘South’ wall).
Dribble a football to the wall and back.

Shuttle races and relays

Until the age of 13 or 14 you can adequately stretch kids’ muscles with basic soccer drills using shuttle races or relays. If you make sure the drills include elements that involve turning, bending, acceleration and stopping they will also improve aerobic fitness.

A big plus is that kids love the competitive element.
Start without a ball and then get your kids to do the runs with a ball at their feet.

Spiders and bugs

Divide your children into two equal teams. Each team should stand alongside the centre line, about two yards apart and facing towards the ends of the gym. Name one team Spiders and one team Bugs (or anything else).

When you call ‘Spiders’! or ‘Bugs’! that team has to sprint for the end line nearest them. The other team tries to tag them. Anyone who is tagged joins the other team. Continue until there are only a couple of children left who haven’t been tagged. Don’t carry on the soccer drill until they are all exhausted!).

Basketball/netball

This is great for encouraging support play and communication. Just make sure the kids play to the rules.

3v1 Keepaway

When the three make a mistake or get to a certain number of passes, bring in the next set of three players.

Make this soccer drill competitive by seeing how many passes each team can string together.

Differentiating

It’s always difficult catering for players of widely differing abilities.

One solution if you’re coaching a group with some children who have been playing for a few years and others who have only played football for a short while, is to separate the players into groups and get an assistant coach to work on the basics with the inexperienced girls or boys.

But if you don’t have the luxury of having assistants you might have to run extra ‘catch up’ sessions for the new youngsters.

There is, however, no reason why a mixed ability group shouldn’t work on the basics together. They all need to improve, even the children who have been playing for years.

For example: I work on first touch with simple games, such as Pass through the gate.

In this game (and others like it) pair up players so that the more experienced girls are playing with the less experienced. Then make the games competitive; who can play the longest without making a mistake?

It helps in this situation with a mixed ability group to take a more games-based approach to training. All your players will enjoy playing SSGs (small sided games) like the 1-0 Game.

Regarding tactics, all players can learn to defend, how to attack and the way different formations work. It shouldn’t matter how skilled they are.

Ten ways to boost your players’ self esteem

1. Greet every player by name as they arrive for football training sessions and matches – it’s the easiest way to make them feel wanted.

2. Take an interest in your players – find out what they like doing when they’re not playing soccer.

3. Make sure every player starts matches – don’t start with the same line-up every week.

4. Acknowledge effort – you want your players to give 100% so say ‘Well done!’ when they do.

5. Give your players responsibility – you don’t have to run every training session, let them choose what to do sometimes.

6. Be kind – never criticise a player in front of their team mates.

7. Encourage risk taking – don’t stifle creativity. If a player wants to dribble the ball out of defence, praise them. They will learn by the results.

8. Give players individual, achievable targets, for instance, for a player who doesn’t like to tackle you can set them the target of making two tackles in a match. That way all your players can be winners.

9. Make every player a key member of the team – there’s something special about every one of your players. Tell them what it is.

10. Rotate your team captain – all young soccer players like to be captain for a day.