by Greg Bach
As we cover in Chapter 4, one of the most important reasons to hold a preseason parents meeting is so you can learn about any children on your team who have special needs that you need to be aware of. If a child has a hearing problem, and you don’t know it, you can imagine the difficulty the child is having trying to keep up with what you’re saying. Or if a child has a physical limitation or past injury that hampers how she performs a certain skill, you need to be conscious of that as well. The same goes for everything from asthma to diabetes, all of which can impact a child’s performance.
Chapter 10
Fundamental Drills
In This Chapter
Having fun with the offense
Practicing defensive skills
Helping youngsters learn and develop the many skills needed to play soccer is going to take place during your practices. The players don’t learn on game days, when, right in the middle of the action, they may be more interested in waving at Dad over at the sidelines with his camcorder or Grandma in the stands snapping pictures than they are in kicking the ball rolling toward them. With all the hoopla and excitement that surround game day — the colorful uniforms, the spectators, the cheering — a young child simply has too many distractions to completely focus on the game and what you’re saying.
The best instruction and the most skill development take place during your midweek practices. At these sessions, you can share your knowledge of the game, pass along pointers, and enhance your team’s abilities in all aspects of the game through the fun-filled exercises you choose. Giving clear directions and closely monitoring the well-organized exercises ensure progress and are the springboard to long-term enjoyment of the sport.
The talent level of your players dictates which drills you use during your practices. If you have a group of exceptional players who have been playing soccer for several years and are pretty efficient in most areas of the game, you may want to jump to Chapters 14 and 17, which provide a series of intermediate and advanced exercises you can use. Or you can choose among the drills that we present in this chapter.
You can take some of the drills that we walk you through in this chapter that seem too basic for your squad and make adjustments in their difficulty level to best match the needs of your players.
Working at a Beginner’s Pace
Learning all the basic techniques of the game, as well as becoming comfortable putting them to use, can be overwhelming for beginning players. As you introduce drills, keep in mind that the simpler, the better. No matter how creative your practices are, don’t lose sight that you want your players to develop those solid fundamentals that we tackle in Chapter 9, and that’s going to happen only if you provide them quality instruction.
As you go through the season, focus on one or two skills during each practice so your players aren’t bombarded with all sorts of instructions that can leave them frustrated and confused. For example, focus on shooting and passing in one practice, which we provide a sample practice for later in this chapter, and slowly introduce other skills at later practices.
Before you begin conducting your practice drills, spend a few minutes getting your players warmed up so they’re prepared for the drills to follow. It’s never too early to establish good warm-up and cool-down habits, especially in a sport like soccer, in which the players use so many different muscles. Check out Chapter 18 for all your warm-up and cool-down needs.
Offensive Drills
The long-range goal of your practices is to get the players comfortable and confident in their execution during small-scale games and drills so that they can transfer those skills to the playing field on game day.
The beauty of your practice sessions is that you can select any drill and fine-tune it to meet your team’s needs. For example, if your players are struggling on offense, you can conduct a 2-on-1 drill that not only helps them develop their skills, but also builds their confidence level as they enjoy success moving the ball downfield.
Shooting: Hit the Coach
Kids love getting hits in baseball and scoring touchdowns in football, so with soccer, their primary interest is going to be — you guessed it — shooting on goal. For a young soccer player, nothing matches the thrill of kicking a ball into the net — well, except for those youngsters who get more pleasure from chasing butterflies in the middle of games.
When introducing beginners to the sport, Hit the Coach serves as a great way to kick off practice, loosen the kids up, and get them comfortable with you.
How it works: Give each of the kids a soccer ball, and have them form a circle as you stand in the middle. The idea is for them to kick the ball at you while you do your best to avoid being touched by any of the balls headed your way. It gets the kids running around, laughing, and having fun right away, which starts your practice on a high note. Plus it doubles as a team ice-breaker and a skill-building drill, because the kids are kicking the ball at a target.
Coaching pointers: Refrain from instruction, and just let the kids have fun. During this drill, you want the kids at the youngest age levels to begin getting comfortable being around one another and getting a feel for kicking a ball at a target.
Passing
Impress upon your squad the importance of passing to the team’s overall success — be sure to continually acknowledge good passes during practices and games — and your players will begin to embrace this aspect of the game.
Passing Frenzy
Passing Frenzy can help youngsters learn to make accurate touch passes to a nearby teammate, using the inside of their foot.
What you need: 10- x 10-yard grid. 4 players. 2 balls.
How it works: Use the following steps for this exercise:
1. Position three players in a line, as shown in Figure 10-1, with about 5 yards between each of them.
2. Give the player in the middle a soccer ball.
3. Position another player opposite the threesome, about 10 yards away, with a soccer ball.
4. On your whistle, the players begin passing the balls back and forth among themselves.
The single player is forced to make quick and accurate passes, because the balls come at him rapidly.
5. Perform for a minute and then rotate so that each child in the group gets a few turns being the single player.
Figure 10-1: Practicing a frenzy of passing and receiving.
Coaching pointers: Keep a close eye on the accuracy of the single player’s passes. If balls are missing their mark, make the necessary corrections in the player’s technique to get her passes back on track. The child may be using her toes rather than the inside of her foot to kick the ball, which drastically decreases accuracy.
If the drill proves too difficult initially, use one ball until the kids get comfortable passing that one back and forth. Then work in the extra ball when you sense that they’re ready for the additional challenge.
Passing Fancy
Players learn to make accurate passes with a moving ball, because Passing Fancy doesn’t allow them time to gain control of a ball by stopping it before kicking it. With the emphasis on speed and accuracy, players have to be quick on their feet and constantly make plays on a moving ball.
What you need: 15- x 15-yard grid. 6 players. 6 balls. 7 cones.
How it works: Play quick, one- or two-minute games of this exercise:
1. Set up a 15- x 15-yard section of the field, as shown in Figure 10-2.
Mark off the area with cones around the perimeter. Place an additional three cones in the center to serve as obstacles.
2. Put a team of three on each side of the center row of cones, and give each player a soccer ball.
3. On your command, the players begin kicking the ball to the other side of the playing area.
The object is for each team to try to get all six balls onto the other half of the field at the same time.
With the cones placed at different points along the center line (use fewer cones for inexperienced or less-skilled players), players are forced t
o make not only quick passes, but also accurate ones.
With inexperienced players, reduce the number of balls involved and as they get more comfortable performing this exercise, add balls to keep it challenging and interesting.
Figure 10-2: A quick game of Passing Fancy.
Coaching pointers: Because this drill forces children to rush their passes, which they’re called upon to do many times during games, they may get a little sloppy on the techniques you’re working on. Keep a close eye on the positioning of their feet and how they deliver the passes. Encourage push passes in this drill (see Chapter 9 for the blow-by-blow on performing a push pass), and make sure the kids make contact in the middle of the ball with the inside of their foot at the arch as they follow through toward the target.
Ball handling
The ability to handle the ball in a variety of situations is an important skill for every young player to have. Here are some drills that you can use to help them build those skills.
Elimination
Elimination helps youngsters learn to dribble the ball with their head up, to protect the ball from oncoming players, and to steal the ball from another player.
What you need: 10- x 10-yard grid. 4 players. 4 balls. 8 cones.
How it works: Mark off the playing area with cones, and position a group of four players in the area, each with a ball (see Figure 10-3). The object is for the players to maintain control of their ball while attempting to knock other players’ balls out of the playing area. When a player’s ball is knocked out of the area, he’s eliminated from the game.
As we mention in Chapter 6, we don’t highly recommend knockout games because the lesser-skilled players are eliminated first and are left standing on the sideline, losing out on valuable practice time. But you can set up a side drill, so that as soon as a player is knocked out of this one, she moves over to the next drill. Try a passing drill with an assistant coach until other players can join in or whatever else you want the kids to work on. Don’t let them stand around watching the Elimination drill.
Figure 10-3: These four players try to knock each other’s balls out of the playing grid.
Coaching pointers: A lot goes on during this drill, but make sure players are using legal techniques when attempting to knock another player’s ball away.
Keepaway
Keepaway has a little bit of everything. It’s an ideal way for players to work on their touch passes, receiving, maneuvering the ball with both feet, shielding, tackling, and pressuring.
What you need: 15- x 15-yard grid. 6 players. 2 balls. 8 cones.
How it works: Have enough of these games going on simultaneously so no one is left standing around watching.
1. Select four offensive and two defensive players.
2. Mark off a playing area with cones.
3. Begin the exercise by giving soccer balls to two of the offensive players (see Figure 10-4).
The object is for the offensive players to keep possession of the balls.
4. Award the offensive players a point every time they successfully make three passes in a row, and give the defensive players a point every time they steal the ball.
Figure 10-4: The offensive players try to keep both balls away from the defensive players.
Coaching pointers: Stress proper form on the passing and receiving, and make sure that the defenders aren’t committing penalties during their efforts to steal the balls. Remind players that the closer a defender is to them, the closer they must keep the ball to them in order to maintain possession.
Heading
If you’re coaching a soccer team comprised of youngsters ages 10 and under, you can hold off conducting heading drills until you’ve worked with them on all the other basic skills of the game. As we discuss in Chapter 9, you want to introduce the heading concept to the kids so that they’re familiar with it, and as they get older, you can direct more focus toward helping them learn this skill.
Quick Reaction Headers
With younger children, one of the best ways to introduce them to the art of heading is to use a beach ball. Quick Reaction Headers gets them used to directing the ball where they aim.
What you need: 5- x 5-yard grid. 3 players. 1 ball.
How it works:
1. Break the team into groups of three.
Each threesome stands in a line. The two end players, each with a ball, face each other (see Figure 10-5). The youngster in the middle stands an equal distance between the two end players, facing the player on the right to begin with.
2. One of the players on the end tosses the ball to the player in the middle, who heads it back to her and then quickly turns to receive another lob from the player on her other side, which she heads back to that player.
Continue for several repetitions so the player in the middle gets used to spinning around and making a play on the ball.
3. Switch positions so that each player gets a number of repetitions in the middle.
Figure 10-5: The player in the middle must have quick reactions in this exercise.
Coaching pointers: Heading is often one of the most difficult skills to teach children, and they really have to be accurate with their technique when performing this one. Remind your players to keep their eyes open throughout the drill, because youngsters just learning this skill have a habit of closing their eyes right before contact, which dramatically reduces the chances of delivering a successful header. Spend several practice sessions working with a beach ball with your team (a cool idea we introduce in Chapter 9 to help take the fear out of learning this skill), and make sure your players have the proper form down before introducing regulation soccer balls into the mix.
Circle Headers
Circle Headers gives youngsters a feel for using headers to deliver passes and take shots on goal.
What you need: Area of field with goal. Entire team. 1 ball.
How it works: The goalie (GK) stands in front of the net. A teammate stands a few yards in front of one of the goal posts, holding a ball (see Figure 10-6). The designated header (l) for this particular exercise begins about 15 yards away from the goal. You (or an assistant coach) stand about 8 yards away from the header with a ball in your hand. Begin the exercise:
1. Lob a ball to the header, who heads it back to you.
2. The header sprints toward the net.
3. She receives another lob pass from the teammate stationed there.
4. She attempts to head the lobbed pass past the goaltender.
For inexperienced players, you may want to skip step 1 of this drill and simply keep the focus on heading the ball into the net. For more experienced players, the lobs can be chip passes delivered by players.
Coaching pointers: If players aren’t able to head the ball back accurately or get much force behind their shots on goal, give them a quick refresher on their form. More than likely, the youngster’s neck muscles aren’t tight at impact, and he probably isn’t following through with his header. Reinforce that his head should be pointing at his intended target.
Figure 10-6: The player gets two chances to head the ball in this drill.
Putting it all together: Give and Go
Give and Go is a simple drill that touches on passing, receiving, shooting, and goaltending. Rotate the players throughout the drill.
What you need: Area of field with goal. Entire team. 1 ball.
How it works: Check out where the players are located in Figure 10-7. The goaltender (GK) takes his position in front of the net. The designated shooter (l) for the drill stands in the middle of the field, about 20 yards out from the goalie. One offensive player stands about 10 yards to the right of the shooter, and another stands between the goalie and the shooter. On your whistle:
1. The offensive player to the side of the designated shooter delivers a pass to him.
2. The shooter gains control of the ball and delivers a pass to the other offensive player in front of him.
3. The shooter cuts at roughly a 45-degree angle.<
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4. The offensive player passes the ball back to the shooter.
5. The shooter takes a shot on goal.
The difficulty of the drill can be increased for older kids by adding a defensive player to the mix who tries to stop the pass from the shooter to Player B, for example. Or you can make the initial pass to the designated shooter purposely more difficult by bouncing it so he has to use his chest or thighs to receive the ball, or by sending the pass out of range so that he really has to work at chasing it down and gaining control of it.
Figure 10-7: Practicing the Give and Go.
Coaching pointers: The shooter is eager to deliver a shot on goal, so make sure he’s using the right techniques to corral the pass, send the return pass, and take a quality shot. If he doesn’t have much force behind his shot on net, he probably didn’t follow through when he kicked the ball. Or if the shot dribbled along the ground, he may have positioned his plant foot improperly, which usually results in making contact with only the top half of the ball. For more on proper positioning of the plant foot when shooting, see Chapter 9.
Defensive Drills
Children are naturally more attracted to learning offensive, rather than defensive, skills. Learning how to deliver a kick that results in a goal is more interesting to a developing player than how to successfully defend a 2-on-1. But one of your many responsibilities as coach is to teach youngsters all the basic elements of soccer, and that includes tackling, defending, and goaltending.
Playing defense may not seem as glamorous to youngsters just learning the game, but if they are to be well-rounded players, half your practices and drills should cover this aspect of the game. If your defensive drills are creative and challenging, you may have some kids begging to play defensive positions on game day to help their team protect the net.
