Recreation and Sports
Kids Soccer Drills: Discover The Warm Up Drills
February 27, 2010 by drewloupsen · Leave a Comment
In Kids Soccer Drills, it’s surprising that warm up before playing is considered unimportant. It is something that being a coach, I would want to stress that warming up is obligatory and an important practice to lead the team towards a better start of the day. This issue is conveniently ignored as unimportant by the coaches in youth soccer drills. This has a direct affect on the health of players in form of injuries while practicing.
You will find some great tips on warming up your team before practice sessions. The team should be guided to use such body movements that have the effect of warming up all muscles. This is the right way to wake up the entire nervous system. If the movements are intense, body could become stiff or develop cramps.
Tip 1: This requires the players to do an easy 5-7 minutes jog. It’s advisable to begin with a light jog and then move on to sprinting. Check that the pulse rate in this reaches 120 beats per minute. Yet, the rate should increase gradually. After this, the players should move their legs back and forth for around 10 minutes each. Finally, over 20 yards, make them stretch actively.
Tip 2: Having said that, do remember that even this active stretching over 20 yards comes with some warm up drills of its own. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. The players can also be taught cross stepping. High-knee carioca can also be taught to players. You can have these performed similar to sprinting.
Backward run is also a highly effective warm up drill in soccer drills for kids. However the right way to do it is to kick up the heels to the butt. No doubt, it is a little difficult to practice it this way but there’s no other way of correctly doing it.
Tip 3: In kids soccer drills, there are many other warming up exercises that increase the stamina to perform in the practice sessions. You can make the players skip with loops or swings. These result in giving an extra edge to the skipping exercises. You can also make them cross-over skip. Quick Hip Swings, though it’s slightly complex, can also be used to warm up the body intensively as it’s a very valuable and tested means.
After that, have the players do the long shuffles along with twists halfway. Have the players move back and forth using their legs. It’s a very efficient activity and helps in toning the body. High leg forwards and backward is just as efficient in toning the body.
Tip 4: Stretch adequately and complete it in the approved manner. What works best for the legs is stretch hinging. It is for you to see that all kids work out their groin, hamstring, quadriceps, and calf muscles without fail. Stretching not only prevents injury but also increases the range of the muscles.
In soccer drills for youth, another important thing to ensure is that kids don’t do too much of anything. They tend to get carried over by enthusiasm and injure themselves unnecessarily.
Because all the relevant information on kids soccer drills is shared with you, please see that training sessions are always followed by warm up sessions. Our youth soccer coaching community is the place where you’ll many related news and articles. Register now to enjoy the benefits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Kids Soccer Drills