8 Mistakes New Youth Soccer Coaches Make When Coaching Youth Soccer Drills
If you’re new to Youth Soccer Coaching, a few common mistakes are likely to get you into trouble. Learn about them up front so you can avoid major problems as you become increasingly Coaching-savvy.
For many youth coaches, improving the soccer skills of their players fast, motivating them the right way and making training more fun and interesting can be a really nightmare. But that nightmare doesn’t have to happen, especially when you know, first hand, the most common mistakes new youth soccer coaches make. This article will help you avoid those mistakes by laying out the most typical youth soccer coaching missteps.
Note: This information is also available as a PDF download at:
http://www.soccerdrillstips.com/8mistakes.pdf
#1: Not Knowing How To Keep Player’s Interest, Focus And Attention In Practice…
Children who are enthusiastic during a game can become moody and restless when they have to do drills, especially if they aren’t much fun. This can lead to loss of interest and indiscipline during training sessions. The best way to keep your practice sessions interesting is to have a plan. That means you need to make your drills as fun and creative as possible.
Make things a little competitive as well – pitting small teams against each other in passing or dribbling drills makes the kids encourage each other and work as a team. A reward system can also do wonders in kindling interest in soccer practice. A good incentive for most children is to promise them some game time at the end of each practice session.
#2: Lack Of Motivation
Motivation can have a major impact on the performance of your players. You need to strike the balance so that your team players work towards a common team goal by making their individual contributions. You have to find ways to motivate them and build their self-confidence so that they actually believe they can succeed.
You should try to make your training sessions interesting and fun, set goals in advance (both short term and long term), show a positive attitude, and always be supportive. Also don’t forget to show confidence in your players, encourage them often and talk to each one individually and regularly.
#3: Teaching Players At Different Skill Levels On The Same Team
You have a mixed bag of skill sets. The first thing you need to do as a coach is watch the practice sessions carefully. It’s important to recognize the potential in each and every player and to ensure that no one feels they are better or stronger than the rest. Don’t single out the stronger players for simple coaching tasks or make an example of them.
Don’t assign the same drill to all of them with varying degrees of difficulty, as this can also cultivate a feeling of inferiority among players. Having them all work on different drills will make it clear that different players are good at different things. Make it clear to your players that they need to work together, as a team. No player is better or worse than the other – each player has his own strengths.
#4: Not Making Training FUN!
If your players have fun playing and feel a sense of achievement while practicing, they will look forward to coming back. The fun aspect needs to be built in. A way to keep training fun and avoid boredom is to ensure that players get adequate possession of the ball.
You can do that by simply keeping fewer players to a side and keep your fields small. This ensures that the ball is shared between fewer players and everyone stays involved. Also find ways of making your players warm up without making it sound like a military drill. Maybe you could have short dribbling sessions around the cones or make them play a light game of catch instead.
#5: Not Building Teamwork And Playing As A Team
Have a team meeting before practice and get everyone to comment on previous activities. Before the first ever practice of the season, spend some time setting goals that can be achieved by your team. These goals must be constantly monitored and discussed by the group. For every mini goal that is accomplished, don’t forget to reward your players. It will tell them that you care about how well they are doing.
A short trip at the end of your season can be something to really look forward to. The togetherness promotes team spirit. When you go on these camping trips, it can be great if you can organize a friendly soccer match with a local team. This keeps your players busy and builds their self-confidence and friendship.
#6: Not Developing Passing Skills
Passing is a fundamental skill in soccer and you must come up with a variety of drills in your training sessions to make sure every player in your team becomes expert at passing. Passing also involves the creation of space to receive the ball.
The player must put himself in a position to make the pass while keeping an eye on the target. The right passing technique must be used, by approaching the ball from the right angle and the ball must then be kicked with the appropriate part of the foot.
#7: Difficulty In Understanding And Teaching The Drills
Another big problem that coaches face is making drills simple so that the players understand it easily. For example, in order to make things much easier, you have to explain every drill with simple step-by-step instructions, diagrams and key points.
A good exercise is to imagine that all the kids are playing soccer for the first time, so you need to teach the drills in a way that they can understand the different procedures easily.
#8: Poor Finishing Skills
Do you remember any games where everything goes right all the way up to the final shot from 15 yards into a goal with just the goalkeeper in sight? Chances are if the players haven’t been taught right, this is the point where it all comes apart. Your ace takes a shot, the goalie intercepts, by the time the attacker is able to do anything to the ball a second time, the entire team is in the box and there is a melee.
Sounds familiar? The important thing to be taught to your players is that the first or the second shot is not important, it is the shot that is converted into a goal that is important and till the whistle blows, your players have got to keep attacking.
Sidestep The Problems
These 8 mistakes are pretty common among new youth soccer coaches. Avoiding the pitfalls will take you through the youth soccer coaching success path faster, and you will come out on the other side a much better coach.
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Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in the subject of youth soccer coaching. If you want to learn how to explode your players skills and make training more fun in record time… download his famous “Youth Soccer Coaching Manifesto” at: http://www.soccerdrillstips.com/manifesto |
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thank you brother
no : 4,6 and 8 i had some hardnes to do it in evrey training but i need more than i know from yours .
thank you brother
Hey the eight mistakes blog bought one of my team’s greatest difficulties . . . which is finishing. Do you have any ideas.?
Thanks for these soccer tips.
Then tips are a must read for all youth soccer coaches. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the coaching tips. I wish other great coaches would also share their skills with us like you do!
like everytime !very interesting and usefull. thank*s
thanks for your tips.for no 4 & 6 i still needs more your guide to resolves this having problems with my team during my coaching session.
[...] you teach youth soccer coaching drills to young soccer players, there are important critical mistakes that most youth soccer coaches make [...]
Enlightening and reaffirming the fact of blind spots in training methods
should remember but varies from different ongoing respective culture and environment
Surprise, I am very glad and fully proud this 8 statement. And the most important we have to know that How making Training FUN! Tq
I am kamal from malaysia and i am doing the grass roots development.Thank you very much because i can learn and improve my self in coaching and also i learn not to do the mistake that most of the coaches doing in the training to be honest to you some of the thing that you have given is true and i have done the mistake but from today i will make sure that i take all the input that you have given to me,thank you
hi I’m caoching
hi
Thanks for these tips. I find them very helpful especially when preparing my training programme. One important issue that I am finding hard to get through to my kids (12 year olds) is team work. They are individually very skilled players but when it comes to teamwork they drastically fail. any suggestions of how I can change this individualism attitude?
S7 Tips on “How to plan a Football Coaching Session”
Stage 1 – Warmup
Before any Football Coaching Session ensure your players do a warmup, this can involve running movement, or can be more creative using footballs to keep the players interested, or in an ideal world try to involve the Skill / Topic your Football Coaching Session is going to involve.
Stage 2 – Skill Drill
Remember you wouldnt try driving a car along a busy motorway before taking driving lessons and patiently learning how to drive to prepare you for what lies ahead. Let your players practise the Skill / Topic of your Football Coaching Session in an easy to understand routine, this should be setup non-competitive and managed so that your chosen Skill / Topic is repeated every few seconds (this will quickly help your players remember the techniques involved). Try to avoid queing for a turn, give every player a ball where possible, and crucially this should remain a pressure free environment where the players can use trial and error.
Stage 3 – Functional Practise
Now try to progress the Football Coaching Session slightly, give your players a little more freedom and possibly introduce some passive defending or pressure to make the situation a little more real. Remind your players that if the Football Coaching Session is an attacking topic when it is their turn to defend or apply pressure always allow the player practising the Skill / Topic to have success, there is nothing worse than a player who is struggling to pick something up never actually getting a chance to try it as his opponent keeps tackling him before he can. Keep reinforcing the aim of the Football Coaching Session and encourage players to concentrate on that rather than similar moves they may know. They will get a chance to express themselves and make decisions in the next stage!
Stage 4 – Progression into a Match Situation
Now is the time to put the Skill / Topic into practise. Setup a match that can be 2v2, 4v4, 6v6, 7v7, 8v8 or a full 11 aside game, this may or may not involve goal posts. Remember the more players per team will almost certainly mean less touches per player and a smaller number of opportunities to try out what they have learned. Keep reinforcing the aim of the session and challenge the players to make it work when faced with genuine opposition.
Before you start planning…
Ask yourself a very important question…Did you learn to drive a car in one lesson? All Skills / Topics CAN NOT be learnt in one Football Coaching Session. Try to spend between 2 – 4 Football Coaching Session in a row working on the same overall topic but keep refreshing the drills slightly so your players dont get bored!
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