Soccer Drills – Page 12

How to make heading less scary

Timidity can be defined as ‘easily frightened or lacking self-confidence’.

But while timid football players may lack self-confidence, they aren’t lacking in bravery. Indeed, timid players can also be the bravest – it needs real courage to go out on to the pitch when you’re frightened of getting hurt or letting yourself or your team mates down.

As a youth soccer coach you may not be able to turn a mouse into a tiger, but you do have it within your power to give a timid player confidence in their own abilities. And remember that the benefits of having a team full of self-confident players are not confined to improving your win:loss ratio.

A self-confident child who has enjoyed success on the soccer pitch will be more likely to succeed academically, and will have better relations with their peers and adults.

All you have to do is recognise that there are one key technique that, when mastered, will turn the most timid of children into a strong, confident player.

Heading the ball

How to remove the fear. Despite the fact that some football authorities recommend young children do not head the ball at all, I believe they are never too young to teach the right technique.

Step 1: Even children as young as four or five will enjoy keeping a balloon in the air with their head, and that’s a great starting point.

Make sure you teach the ‘mouth closed, eyes open’ technique from the start and encourage your players to jump up to meet the balloon on its way down.

You can also make it a fun team game. Have four or five children in each team and see which one can keep the balloon in the air the longest.

Step 2: When your players are a little older they can begin to head the ball with a small, soft ball or an indoor football. If they have been playing with a balloon for a while, they shouldn’t fear ball against head contact, but it’s still a good idea to take things slowly.

Have your players hold the ball in their hands and move their forehead to the ball (you want to ingrain the habit of meeting the ball with the head, not waiting for the ball to hit the head). Then ask them to throw the ball a couple of feet in the air and head it back into their hands.

Step 3: Now you need to introduce a purpose for heading the ball. Split your players into groups of three or four. Put three flat cones in front of each team and balance a ball on each cone.

One member from each team stands on one side of the cones about three feet away from them. His team mates stand about three feet away on the other side of the cones.

The single player tosses a ball to his team mates who attempt, in turn, to knock the balls off the cones in front of them with a header. The first team to knock the balls off the cones wins.

Step 4: The next step is to introduce movement. Put your players into groups of three and ask them to throw/head/catch the ball as they make their way up a football pitch. The first team to head their ball into the goal wins. If the ball is dropped they have to start again.

Step 5: Now combine heading with healthy aggression. Play a small-sided game (SSG) where every time the ball goes out of play you restart by throwing the ball in the air and awarding a point to the team whose player heads it first.

Don’t allow players to push each other to reach the ball. You’re looking for decisive jumping and a desire to get to the ball first. If the ball hits the ground before anyone heads it, throw it up again.

Playing simple heading games like these from an early age will stop your players having a fear of heading the ball from taking hold.

But if your players are not used to heading and are reluctant to begin, return to step 1 and gradually work through the sequence, only moving on when your players are confident and showing no fear.

Positions? Don’t bother…

If you’re new to coaching young soccer players, then you might be uncertain about when to introduce the concept of playing in set positions. As a broad guideline, U8s really don’t need to be constrained by having to play in fixed positions. At that age they should be practising their ball skills, dribbling, shooting and tackling all over the field and they will not learn very quickly if they are waiting for the ball to come to their own little patch of grass.

Don’t worry too much about coaching set positions at this stage. Sure, you might get some flack from parents and some amused looks from other coaches who have managed to plant their players in specific parts of the pitch but hey….your kids are having fun! And that is surely the most important thing. There’s plenty of time for positional play and tactics when the players get older.

A spin off from letting your players have the freedom of the pitch is finding that one or both of your defenders have the potential to be star attackers and vice versa.

Just make sure your players know that when the other team has the ball, they are all defending and when you have the ball they are all attacking.

And don’t forget the goalkeeper. Make sure she gets her chance to play outfield. Rotate all your players through the position of goalkeeper and you will reap the benefits:

1. The outfield players will appreciate how hard it is being in goal

2. You will have a pool of reserve goalkeepers for you to draw upon when your regular one is absent.

My advice? Let your players run around and enjoy themselves while they can.

Sneaky fitness

Number of players: Whole squad.

Equipment required: Training vests in two colours, cones to mark out the playing area.

Set-up: Create a playing area large enough for your players to move around in safely. For twelve 10-year-olds, it should be about 20×15 yards. Place a pole or distinctive cone on each side of the playing area, about five yards from the sideline.

Split your players into two teams.

Each player tucks a training vest into their waistband. Use a different colour for each team (e.g. team A has red vests, team B has yellow vests).

Send each team to opposite ends of the playing area.

How to play:

On your command, players try to take a vest from a player on the other team and drop it on the ground.

If a player loses his vest, he must run around one of the poles outside the playing area and rejoin the game, picking up his vest and tucking it into his waistband as he returns.

Play for one minute. The winners are the team who have the most bibs when you call “time”.

Play best of three.

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The transfer game

Objective: This soccer coaching game is a useful one to help youngsters practice overload situations (4v3, 5v2 and so on).

It also helps solve that old soccer coaching problem – how to pick teams for the end of session scrimmage!

Set up: create a playing area 30 yards wide by 40 yards long and divide your players into teams of four.

Use two teams per playing area.

Coaching note: if you have an odd number of players, you can make teams of either three or four but try not to have more than four players in a team. If you have a spare team, they can work as side supports.

How to play:

Play a normal match in each playing area with the condition that a player who scores a goal immediately transfers to the other team.

If you are playing 4v4, for example, as soon as the first goal is scored, one team will have five players and the other will have three.

Play for a set time or first to a certain number of goals wins.

What to do if you’re being marked

As well as teaching players how to mark, they need to be taught how to react if they are being marked.

For a start, any of your players who are being marked in open play should treat it as a compliment. They are clearly considered to be good players who are a danger to the other team.

Advice to a player being marked

To shake off a marker in open play or at a set piece, try jogging slowly then putting in quick bursts of speed coupled with changes of direction.

If you’re being marked in open play and you can’t get away from your marker, turn the situation to your team’s advantage.

Take your marker somewhere harmless. You can even make him look really silly by taking him to your own goal line or a corner flag at the opposite end of the pitch to the action.

Even better, mark a different opposition player yourself. Now you’ve taken two of the other team’s players out of the game and created a lot of space for your team mates.

How to practise marking and getting away from a marker

Put your players into pairs. One is an attacker, the other is a defender. Tell the defenders to get to within two feet of their attacker (the ideal marking distance) and stay with him as he jogs around a playing area.

Play it like tag. Tell your attackers to try to get away from their marker and all your players to freeze when they hear your whistle.

After 30 seconds, blow the whistle. Check that the defenders are all still close to their attackers.

Switch the roles of each player.

After a couple of repetitions, you can progress by putting a goal at one end of the playing area and asking the defenders to stick close and stay “goal side” (nearer to the goal they are defending) of their attacker. This is the position they should be in when marking at corners and free kicks in and around the penalty box.

Sometimes, however, the marking player needs to be between the marked player and the ball “ball side” rather than goal side. In midfield, for example, and when running back into the penalty box with an attacker.

Progress your soccer drill by playing a small-sided game in which all players except one are allocated a player on the opposite team to mark. This is the only player they are allowed to tackle.

If a player marks or tackles the wrong player, a free kick is awarded.

The spare player on each team has a free role and can mark/tackle whoever they like.

Conclusion

You shouldn’t spend too much time teaching your players how to mark and what to do if they are being marked. But it’s an important part of their football “education” and it must not be neglected.

Share the glory!

If you coach a young team, you will undoubtedly have come across a youngster who is a talented player and striker but doesn’t like to share the glory and pass to teammates.

These soccer coaching tips look at how to tackle this problem, without squashing your player’s enthusiasm for the game.

One simple solution, and an approach that works well with young players, is to reward the behaviour you want to see in your team. Where a player won’t pass the ball to his teammates, you could set up a situation where you can praise this player for assisting others to score.

In training, play a small-sided game (4v4) where players can only score with their first touch. This will force your talented striker to pass. When he makes an assist, make sure you stop the game and congratulate him in front of his team mates.

In matches, give a Player of the Match award to whoever assists his team mates to score.

If you consistently make it clear to all your players that you are as impressed by good teamwork as individual skills, the message that you don’t need to score to be a star will eventually get across.

Don’t talk!

A soccer coach contacted me concerned that his 11-year-old players were not communicating on the pitch, although they had been playing together for four years.

Very young children are too busy chasing the ball to talk but 11-year-olds should be able to warn their team mates when there’s a “man on” or call for a pass.

You can encourage your players to talk to each other while they’re playing by warming up with games that require them to call for the ball.

The best game I’ve come across for improving communication skills is a small-sided game where talking is banned!

Talk about the importance of good communication with your players then play a “match” where your players are not allowed to speak at all. If anyone does say anything, award a free kick to the other team. After a few minutes, remove the condition and see what happens. They will start talking!

Play this game regularly and pretty soon you’ll see a big improvement in the way they talk to each other during matches.

Category: Soccer Drills