This is the first of 11 soccer coaching and practice tips that I will post - Soccer coaching tip no. 1 - My most important tip might be to Practice in a Way that Prepares Your Players for the Pressure and Chaos of Real Games. Whatever you do in practice, try to do it with Pressure and Chaos. Standing in line doing a drill one at a time without pressure is NOT Game-Realistic. Dribbling through cones is NOT Game-Realistic - your players might be great at dribbling thru cones, but dribbling thru opponents is very different. A player might be great at a skill without Pressure, but fall apart under Pressure and in Chaos. By Chaos I mean there is a lot going on that can be distracting - like there is in real games. Our No Lines soccer drills are Practice Games that simulate real game experiences, so players are better prepared for real games. We build Chaos into most of our Practice Games and we build Pressure into our Practice Games for U8 and older. (If you coach U4 or U6, dont keep score - just play the Practice Games and have fun so your players learn to LOVE soccer). Our Practice Games for U8 and older create Pressure to play fast by keeping score or by timing the drill, so there is competition. Competition is great because it trains players to play fast and the coach can judge improvement. The legendary Anson Dorrance said - Competition is key to developing players. The only practice environment in which you truly develop a player is a competitive arena. Our Practice Games are easy to set-up and manage, and are self-teaching (players learn by playing the games). A great example of a Practice game for U8 and older is at soccerhelp/soccer_drills/Dribble.shtml - it only has 4 cones, all the players play at the same time, it is chaotic, score is kept so there is competition to play fast, and the coach can monitor progress, it is fast and easy to set-up, and it is a great warm-up - it is the best way to teach dribbling to U8 or older - you will immediately see the difference. An example for U4 and U6 is soccerhelp/soccer_drills/Hit.shtml , which teaches kids to dribble in traffic, with their head up, and to kick the ball while running. We invented these drills and most of the others on SoccerHelp - they are copyrighted and you shouldnt see them on other websites without our permission.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:58:05 +0000
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