How to coach youth soccer

How to get the best out of your players

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William A. Ward

If you’re coaching four and five-year-olds, this article probably isn’t for you.

Your players don’t need motivating to play the game to the best of their ability. They will run, tackle and shoot until they drop because they’re having fun and totally unaware of the pressures that lie in wait for them as they get older.

But it won’t be long before they become more and more aware of parental/coach expectations and the differences in ability between individuals. That’s when fun can begin to be replaced by fear of failure. And worried players won’t perform well in matches or give 100% effort in training.

At that point – usually when players are seven or eight years old -their coach faces a big challenge: How to remove the fear and motivate his players to work hard in training and play to their potential in matches.

The four motivational techniques I describe in this article are simple and pretty obvious – when you understand why children want to play football in the first place.

Why children play football

An Athletic Footwear Association Survey of more than 20,000 young football players found that children want to play football:

1. To have fun

2. To improve their skills

3. To stay in shape

4. To do something they are good at

5. The excitement of the competition

6. To get exercise

7. To play as part of a team

8. The challenge of the competition

9. To learn new skills

10. To win matches

Other studies have found that:

71% of the young football players surveyed said they wouldn’t care if no score were kept in their games.
41% said they have woke in the night worrying about an upcoming game.
90% said they would prefer to be on a losing team if they were able to actually play rather than warm the bench on a winning team.[1]

How to motivate your players

These findings suggest that we can satisfy our players needs – and thereby motivate them to work hard and play to their potential – by adopting the following strategies.

Well-planned, varied and competitive training sessions

Disorganised and poorly thought-out coaching sessions can demotivate even the most positive of young players.

You need to plan your sessions in advance and plan activities that are:

a) Competitive.

b) Mentally and physically challenging.

c) Within the capabilities of all your players.

You should also bear in mind the preferences of your players. If they like playing small-sided games (SSGs), (which they almost certainly will) then you should accommodate their wishes.

Setting objectives

Every player, no matter how skilled, will be motivated to give her best in matches if she is given an easily understood, achievable objective.

Your objectives should not include the word “win”. Winning is often out of your player’s control – an injury, poor referring decision or one small mistake can cost a good team the match. Instead, the subject of your objectives should be entirely within your player’s control. For example:

Block an opposing goal.
Make two throw-ins with both feet on the ground.
Make three shots on goal.
Make one good pass to a team mate.

Only set one or two objectives per game, praise your players for trying to achieve their objectives and change objectives from one game to the next as your player’s skills change.

Give feedback

Young players are usually not very good at assessing their own ability so they rely on parents, coaches and team mates to tell them how they are performing.

Out of all these, the comments made by the coach are the most valued and you will make a significant impact on your players’ enjoyment and self image by giving honest, regular feedback on their performance.

Try to give specific feedback as soon as you notice a player doing something well, e.g. “Excellent! I like the way you kicked that with your laces”. Telling your players exactly what they are doing well encourages them to repeat the action they were praised for.

If you need to correct a mistake, use the “sandwich” approach to giving feedback. For example: “That was a great shot (start with a positive). You would probably have scored if you had taken the shot with your first touch (a negative in the middle) but you made the keeper pull off a great save” (a positive to end with).

Don’t forget that feedback is a two-way process. You may well find it instructive to ask “on a scale of one to 10, how much fun did you have in today’s coaching session?”

Every player plays!

Finally, the best motivator of all: Playing time.

Children join a football team because they want to play, not sit on the bench watching their team mates have all the fun.

So please make sure that every one of your players gets a meaningful amount of playing time in every match, regardless of the game situation.

If you can’t promise to do that, then be up front about it and offer to release players who aren’t going to get their fair share of time on the pitch.

References
[1] Troubling Signals from Youth Sports, http://www.thecenterforkidsfirst.org/pdf/Statistics.pdf

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The right way to coach youth soccer?

There is no “right way” to teach football to children.

Youth football coaches come from a wide variety of backgrounds, coach football for different reasons and have different personalities. So it would be unreasonable to expect all coaches to conform to one particular style.

However, there are a number of tried and tested best practices that all coaches should consider when planning their coaching sessions and when deciding on their personal “coaching philosophy”.

1. Set up situations where the players can learn by playing the game

“The game is the teacher” is a bit of a coaching cliche but it’s also true – children won’t learn how to play football if you put them in lines and make them share a ball.

They learn by being given the freedom to play, to experiment and make mistakes. The coach’s job is not to instruct. It is to set up games that create the situations that she wants her players to experience and then help them find the answers to the problems they encounter.

2. Encourage creativity and ball skills, not tactics

For children aged from four to about nine, football is not a team sport. It is the time when they should be developing their individual relationship with the ball. The fact that younger children are made to play in a “team” is not their fault so don’t demand that the more confident players share the ball. Encourage them to be creative, dribble at defenders and to take on the world!

Enjoy watching your players express themselves without fear of failure and work at getting the rest of your players to the same level of confidence and comfort with the ball that your “best” players enjoy.

3. Never say “never”

Coaches should not tell their young players to “hold their positions” or to “never” do something.

Children should be encouraged to dribble the ball out of their penalty area, to pass across their six-yard box or throw the ball backwards instead of “down the line!”

If they try something that results in the opposition scoring a goal, great. Talk about what happened at your next coaching session and see if they can learn from the experience.

4. Set age appropriate goals

Most of the discipline problems coaches experience stem from expecting their players to master particular skills that are not appropriate for their age.

For example, children up to the age of about 10 may lack the physical ability to lock their ankle, a skill that is necessary to strike a ball with power and accuracy so there’s not much point to get frustrated with an eight-year-old who can’t hoof the ball from one end of the pitch to the other.

Coaches who coach six or seven-year-olds should also bear in mind their players are very egocentric; they see the world only from their perspective. As a result, they are not going to want to pass the ball to their team mates. They’re worried they might never get it back!

Also, very young children lack the ability to “look ahead” and see what is about to happen. This is a limiting factor that coaches need to bear in mind when teaching how to attack the ball at corner kicks, for example.

5. Get feedback

No matter how good a coach you think you are, it’s important to find out what your customers – the players and their parents – think about you.

Players should be asked occasionally what they like and don’t like about your coaching sessions and parents should be given feedback forms to fill at the end of every season.

Ask questions like these:

Does your child enjoy coaching sessions?
Do you feel your child has progressed as a player?
Did your child get a fair amount of playing time on match days?

Leave spaces for parents to explain their answers and act on what they tell you!

6. Walk away

If you have been coaching your team for more than three years (or if you have a child on the team) you should consider passing the team on to a different coach.

“Oh no”, I hear you say, “I can’t leave my team”.

But they are not “your” team and they never will be. Players and parents have their own expectations and needs and it is very likely that they have less confidence in you than you think.

Staying with a team for too long also leads to a coach developing a sentimental or overly optimistic view of the players’ abilities and the prospects of the team.

This can lead to the coach excusing poor performances and settling for less than 100% effort which, in turn, can result in coaching sessions that lack drive and energy. And if the coach doesn’t set challenging objectives, players will often lose interest, misbehave or simply leave the team.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

Pre-season training

by Eamonn Dolan (Reading FC Academy manager)

first published on BBC Sport

A good pre-season is a must for all professional players in the Premier League and Football League – but is also hugely valuable for all amateur and junior players.

Here Reading FC Academy manager Eamonn Dolan describes how he would begin to prepare a youth soccer team for the new season.

WEEK ONE – GETTING STARTED

Regardless of age and ability the basic principles of a pre-season stay the same.

Every training session should start with a good warm-up but for the first one of pre-season I would probably make it a little longer than usual, perhaps 20 minutes.

I’d be tempted to lead the first part of this, with five minutes of jogging followed by five minutes of static stretching (which involves holding a position).

Follow this with another five minutes of jogging and five minutes of dynamic stretching (using speed of movement, momentum and active muscular effort to produce a stretch).

The jogging gives the players the chance to have a bit of a catch up if they have not seen each other for a while and allows you to make an initial assessment of the fitness your squad is in.

Running is good for aerobic conditioning but can hit the body quite hard, so I would not do too much of this.

After the warm-up set up a ball circuit. Players are always motivated by sessions with the ball – and not only find it more enjoyable but tend to work harder than drills that do not involve any ball work.

Mark off a square with each side four metres in length and position a player at all four corners. Use two footballs for this drill.

One player dribbles at his own pace from one corner to the next, where a player without a ball takes over and dribbles to the next corner.

Players can regulate themselves during the drill dependent on how fit they are feeling and a coach can see when a player is fatiguing.

There are lots of variations available using this square – for example if the players are looking in good shape you can always get them to dribble to two bases.

Next I’d consider working on basic skills. Split the players into pairs, one serving and the other working on his first touch. Work through all the key surfaces like the foot, inside and outside, both knees, chest and head.

Finish the session with a small sided game, perhaps dividing your players into two sides but using a relatively small area.

When using a smaller area players can naturally take a rest if they are feeling tired.

Ensure the players warm down properly.

During the first week try to make sure that the players do not over exert themselves as their enthusiasm after several weeks off can often get the better of them.

Another key issue is hydration. This is really important. Make sure that all of your players have some kind of water bottle and are drinking water throughout the session. If they do not they will not perform at anywhere near the level they are capable of doing so.

WEEK TWO – DEVELOPING SKILLS

As always, I would start with a decent warm-up and then work on passing technique – which is very important.

I would suggest breaking down the players into pairs. Get them to pull the ball across their body with their first touch and then pass to their mate.

passing drills and games

They should use the side of the foot for accuracy and the instep for power, then bend the ball with the inside and outside of the foot.

Dependent on how well this session is going, incorporate an element of pass and move. This is excellent for conditioning without players actually realising how hard they are working.

I would also think about introducing an element of possession, which is a massive physiological conditioning tool and great for technique.

Use one ball and if, for example, you had 11 players, you could break down the session into seven versus four. Play for two minutes, challenging the four players to dispossess the seven.

The bigger the area, the more difficult it becomes for the four players trying to win the ball. If the four players are winning the ball easily, make it harder by setting two against nine.

Before warming down finish with a game.

If you have 16 players you might consider two four-a-side matches rather than one bigger game with eight players on each team.

The smaller game will give players more touches of the ball and therefore improve their conditioning and be more football specific.

As with many of these drills, you can shape the game to whatever you want. If you think your players are performing well you could even try two against two.

Can you play too much soccer?

I had an email from a parent concerned that his children (one U8, the other U10) were playing soccer four or five times per week during the off season, with their teams and in various clinics and that this was perhaps too much.It poses the question, is there such a thing as ‘too much soccer?’

My view is that playing four or five matches and/or training sessions per week is too much at any time of the year, let alone the off season!

For one thing, you have to consider the physical strain that such an amount of exercise exerts on a growing body. Over-training does not allow enough time for minor injuries to ligaments and joints to heal and serious, long-term injuries can result.

Young children are particularly at risk because their bones and ligaments sometimes grow at slightly different rates, causing an imbalance that makes it even easier for small “niggles” to turn into long-term medical conditions. Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome or MTSS) is an example.

Interestingly, research by the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS) has shown children are only likely to sustain stress-related injuries if they play too much organised football – they can play with their mates in the park all day, every day without any problems.

This is probably because in the park they can stop and rest when they want to. There’s no coach urging them on from the touch line.

In addition, too much organised football can simply take the fun out of the game. We all need a break… even coaches!

If you want to keep your players active in the off season, why not set up a few goals in your local park and let the children play without any coaching or instruction from adults? Free play is an essential part of a child’s learning process and we shouldn’t be afraid to let go of the reins occasionally.

Have mercy!

Parents, managers, coaches and players who end up on the wrong end of a thrashing can experience a variety of emotions such as anger, sadness, worthlessness and embarrassment.

“Losing 13-0 as a player makes you feel rubbish, and puts the pressure on you in many ways. You want to win the next game badly… so people don’t start to mock you.” (A 10-year-old player).

Losing by big margins can even result in players and their managers/coaches giving up the game and it’s pretty obvious that scoring goals virtually at will is not going to do anything for the development of the players on the winning team. And children on the receiving end of a 30-0 stuffing are only learning that they’re not as good as the other team.

So what can we do about it?

Some leagues have tried to introduce “mercy rules” or sanctions against teams that win by “too many” goals.

In Canada, one league actually brought in a rule under which any team that outscored its opponent by more than five goals was declared the loser!

Following an outcry from the clubs, this rule was rescinded and the league introduced a more traditional mercy rule instead. This stated that matches would be stopped once one team had a lead of eight goals. Whichever team was ahead at that time would be credited with the win and teams could then play on for “player development”.

Mercy rules like this do not meet with universal approval. Many take the view that making up rules that prevent big scores just sets children up for disappointment later on. “Life’s not fair, learn to deal with it!” is a fairly common reaction.

But regardless of whether the league your team plays in has a mercy rule or not, there is lot that you, as a winning coach, can do to turn a grossly one-sided contest into a learning experience for your players.

If your team is five or six goals up before half time, you’re going to win the match. To the best of my knowledge, no team (and I am prepared to be corrected here!) has ever come back from being 5-0 down in a league or cup match.

So the game is yours. There is really no need to score any more goals even if your league takes goal difference into account. Instead, you can put some meaning into the remainder of the playing time by taking one or more of these actions:
Tell your players to take no more than two or three touches of the ball before passing

Children who are playing in a team that is considerably superior to their opponents often try to show off. They usually become reluctant to pass, (‘I want to score another goal!’) and try to dribble the ball into the back of the net. This is not going to do them any good in the long term so why not impose a maximum touches rule?

But this has to done discreetly! Shouting the instruction “two touch only!” across the field would be very embarrassing for the losing team. It could even be interpreted as making fun of them.
Require a minimum number of passes before shooting

In other words, play keepaway. Ask your players (again, discreetly) to make four or five passes before they can take a shot at goal.

Move your players around

Your goalkeeper will be getting bored by now so get her out of goal and put her up front. Move your defenders into attacking positions and put your strikers into defence.

Use your subs

This type of match is an ideal opportunity to give your subs as much playing time as possible.

As soon as you see that the match is going to be one sided, take off your “star players” and give your weaker players a chance to enjoy themselves.

Allow the other team to have additional players or take some of your players off

If you’re in a winning position at half time you can have a quiet word with the opposition manager and see if he wants to put an extra player or two on the pitch in the second half.

Or (and this isn’t something I would do) you can make the contest more even by taking off one or two of your players. Personally, I think it isn’t really fair on your players to restrict their playing time in this way but it is an option.

Stop the match (the mercy rule)

If the match turns into a shooting gallery during the second half you can stop the game, balance the teams by mixing them up and play any remaining time as a friendly.

Whatever you decide to do, it is imperative that you respect the opposition and always keep the English FA’s Code of Conduct for grassroots coaches in mind: “Place the well-being, safety and enjoyment of each player above everything, including winning”.

How to prevent and treat injuries

Children get lots of benefits from playing football.

They learn new skills, how to be a member of a team and how to take responsibility for their own actions. They also make friends, improve their fitness and, if they are coached properly, their raised self-esteem will flow through and enrich other areas of their lives, both at school and at home.

Although youth football is a beneficial and relatively safe sport, the American Journal of Sports Medicine report that young football players in the USA suffer about 120,000 injuries each year sufficiently serious to require a trip to a hospital emergency room.

The total number of football-related injuries among children, including those treated outside of a hospital ER, is estimated to be almost 500,000 per year. These figures are from 2003 and, bearing in mind how many more children play football, they are likely to be considerably higher today.[1]

The most common injuries

The most common type of football-related injury is soft-tissue contusion (a bruise).

Sprains and strains are very nearly as common as bruises while fractures are, thankfully, relatively uncommon, accounting for only about 3% of injuries to children.[2]

How to treat common injuries

1. Strains and sprains

A sprain is an injury to a ligament, one of the bands of tough, fibrous tissue that connects two or more bones at a joint and prevents excessive movement of the joint. An ankle sprain is a very common injury.

A strain is an injury to either a muscle or a tendon. A muscle is a tissue that, when stimulated by nerve messages, contracts and produces movement. A tendon is a tough, fibrous cord of tissue that connects muscle to bone.

How to treat sprains and strains

Both sprains and strains should be treated by the R.I.C.E method.

R = Rest: Rest the injured area to stop further damage and bleeding.

I = Ice: Applied as soon as possible, ice slows down blood circulation which reduces bleeding and swelling. Ice also helps reduce pain.

Note: Applying ice direct to the skin can cause burns. Wrap it in a towel or cloth.

C = Compression: Applied to the area as soon as possible to restrict bleeding at the site of the injury. Pressure compresses blood vessels so preventing blood escaping through open ends of the torn fibres.

Note: Do not apply compression around a whole limb as it will starve other areas of blood.

E = Elevation: Allows gravity to assist the removal of swelling from the injured area and aids recovery.

2. Bruises

A bruise, or contusion, happens when part of the body is struck and the muscle fibres and connective tissue underneath are crushed but the skin doesn’t break. When this occurs, small blood vessels near the skin’s surface rupture and blood collects under the skin. With no place to go, the blood gets trapped, forming a red or purplish mark.

How to treat bruises

Bruises should be treated in the same way but with compressing the injury, i.e., rest, ice and elevate the part of the body affected.

Causes of football injuries

Poor coaching
Poor technique, timing, inability to control emotion and coaches who push players to be overly aggressive are all factors that can result in injuries to children.

So please make sure you teach your players how to tackle, how to keep calm under pressure and that they play according to the rules.

Training on poor surfaces

Don’t allow your players to train on surfaces that are uneven or slippery and don’t leave it to the referee to check the field on match days. Get to the ground early and check for holes, broken glass, stones or other debris.

Incorrect or no warm-up and/or cool-down

Warm-ups and cool-downs are essential and should not be skipped. Your players are much more likely to suffer strains and sprains if you don’t warm them up and/or cool them down properly.

Overuse

“The tissues in the body are a lot like a paperclip. If you just keep bending it over and over and over again, eventually that paperclip is going to break.”
Dr Michael Busch, Orthopedic Surgeon, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Playing too much, too often or ignoring pain can result in small injuries becoming chronic problems that result in players having take several months off to recover.

Players as young as four and five are often exhorted to “play through the pain” and that it’s good to take a knock for the team.

As coach, you must ensure a player who appears to be in pain stops playing immediately and that they don’t start playing again until you (not their parents) are 100% satisfied the child is happy and fit to resume.

Be sensible regarding training. While you may think that six-year-olds should train three times a week, bear in mind that they also have PE lessons at school, go swimming and play other sports.

Football is a game, not a vocation.

“Youth sports should always be fun. The ‘win at all costs’ attitude of many parents, coaches, professional athletes, and peers can lead to injuries.”
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

References

[1] Epidemiology of 1.6 Million Pediatric Soccer-Related Injuries Presenting to US Emergency Departments From 1990 to 2003, Am J Sports Med, February 2007, 35, 288-293.

[2] Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness, Injuries in Youth Soccer: A Subject Review, Pediatrics 2000 105: 659-661

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

How to prepare for a soccer tournament

Football tournaments can be a lot of fun.

Your players get to play different formats of the game, play against players they’ve never met before as well as get to eat lots of ice cream!

But coaches who take their teams to summer tournaments need to plan the weekend very carefully. It’s all too easy to make a mistake that will spoil the event and waste the (sometimes very) expensive entry fee.

So what should be on your tournament checklist?

1. What’s the weather going to be like?

If your players are going to be outside in hot, sunny weather all day, you need to make sure that they have plenty to drink.

While you might think parents will use common sense and bring plenty of fluids for their child, will they bring the right fluids?

Sports drinks are better than plain water. Plain water contains no carbohydrate or electrolytes, causes bloating and discourages further drinking. It also stimulates urine output and therefore is inefficiently retained.

And make sure your players drink to a schedule, say every 15 minutes, whether they feel thirsty or not – thirst is not an accurate indicator of fluid needs.

You should provide somewhere for your players to get out of the weather (hot sun or driving rain!) and rest between games so a gazebo or tent will be useful. If you don’t have one big enough to hold all your players, find a parent who has or hire one for the day.

Ensure parents bring sunscreen for the players and that it is applied every time they have a drinks break.

2. Know the rules!

Tournaments often play to non-standard rules. Slide tackling may be prohibited, goal kicks may be taken from the goal line, the ball might not be allowed to go over head height, etc. So make sure you check them and tell your players about them before the first game kicks off, not after!

3. Player preparation

a) Warm-ups

A series of short, intense matches requires good player preparation.

Warm-ups should be brief, intense, and take place before every match (not just the first one) so that your players are prepared physically and mentally.

Aim to finish each warm up with a game of keepaway or Swedish Handball a few seconds before your players take the pitch.

b) Player rotation

Tournaments are an opportunity to give every player in your squad an equal share of playing time. You simply can’t play your “best” players in every game – it’s unfair on the players on the pitch (who will quickly become exhausted) and the players on the sidelines (who deserve to play, not watch).

As soon as I can, I get a copy of the tournament fixtures and write a team sheet for every match, making sure every player gets a fair share of playing time AND gets to start in at least one game.

4. Coping with finals

Your team has played well and you’re through to the final stages of the tournament. Your players are understandably excited and some are clearly nervous.

How are you going to help them play to their potential in the big match?

Seeing your way to success

For some years now, I have used a psychological technique called visualisation to help my players overcome nerves and play without fear, no matter how important the occasion.

Visualisation will not give a player technical skills that he or she didn’t have before but it will make them believe they can play well and help them relax.

You can use the technique with players as young as eight or nine but the older they are, the more effective this technique will be.

I have used it with U11s who were so nervous before a final that they were couldn’t sit still and U15s who were terrified of letting themselves down in a final against their biggest local rivals. On both occasions, my players took to the field eager to play but calm inside and they played some great football.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

How to play the TTT way

“Simple football is beautiful. But playing simple football is the hardest thing to do.” Johan Cruyff

TTT (Total Tika Taka) is a combination of Total Football and Tika Taka – a fast, short passing style of play by players who are not limited to playing in one position on the pitch.

It’s an exciting way of playing that has it’s roots in Total Football, pioneered by Dutch football club Ajax Amsterdam in the 1970s.

In Total Football, a player who moves out of her starting position is replaced by another player, thus retaining the team’s original structure. Anyone can be an attacker, a midfielder or a defender depending on the requirements of the game at a particular moment.

Tika Taka is more recent. It’s the name of the fast, short passing style of play primarily associated with La Liga club FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team under managers Luis Aragones and Vicente del Bosque. Anyone who has watched Barca or the Spanish team will know how devastatingly effective Tika Taka (or “touch touch”) can be.

Having a team that plays like Ajax and Barcelona rolled into one may seem wildly overambitious to an U8s coach! But really there is no reason why children can’t play in this way… other than the preoccupation that most youth football coaches have with formations and playing children in fixed positions.

The common focus on formations and planting players in specific positions is not good for young players. It stems from the desire to win matches – rather than teach children how to play football – but it often results in young players becoming what Manny Schellscheidt (ex-USA national team coach) calls “position stuck”.

“When they don’t know exactly what to do,” Schellscheidt says, “they go to the spot they’re most familiar with, regardless of what the game is asking for.”

But, I hear you say, surely you need to have players in certain positions?

Well, yes you do. But you also need to remember that football, although it is played with a ball, is really a game that is played without a ball for 90% of the time.

And unlike some other ball games, (baseball, for example), football does not (or should not) have fixed positions except, perhaps, for the goalkeeper. Instead of having limited responsibilities, players – even U8s – have jobs to do that change as the game progresses around them.

So what does this mean in practice?

Improving your players’ ball control, especially their first touch, should be the focus of 90% of coaching sessions.

How to improve your players’ ball control

Players should be taught to receive and move the ball with all parts of both feet and be encouraged to move to a supporting position immediately after passing the ball.

How to coach movement off the ball

Teach the core skills of passing, shooting and tackling, and explain the various positions on the pitch but minimise the importance of formations and tactics. Players should not be labelled as a “defender”, “attacker” or “midfielder”.

TTT games

Pass and move drills such as Shuttle Passing are useful for embedding basic ball skills while simple keepaway games are excellent for encouraging players to switch positions with each other.

Small-sided games (SSGs) such as the 1-0 Game, the Four Goal Game and the Liverpool Game will help your players learn to use the spaces on the pitch to their advantage and also encourage them to pass and move quickly.

It’s up to you!

While these games and drills will help your team learn the TTT style of play, the biggest factor in their success will be your willingness to accept the fact that allowing your players the freedom of the pitch and discouraging them from playing the long ball is going to result in lost matches in the short term.

But over time, your players will learn how to play football – not just how to win games – and they’ll have a lot of fun doing it!

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