Recreation and Sports

Soccer Practice Games: 5 Action Ideas To Game Progression

Soccer practice games are immensely important especially in comparison to drills and it’s not hard for someone like me to understand this. To begin with the kids must concentrate only on learning the skills and then improving upon their consistent movement with the ball. However, as they progress with their soccer training, there are a few things that you must observe.

As has already been talked about earlier, kids get an opportunity to develop their own special playing style with having fun when divided into groups. To begin with, the size of these groups must be small enough so that the kids have more freedom and liberty to take their own decisions.

Such an arrangement also ensures that the kids have more space to move about in the field, get more touches on the ball and become more accountable for their choices since there are very few players in the group.

However, as players get accustomed to smaller groups and their skills improve, it is time to make some variations. Now is the time to launch progressions in soccer practice games. This means that more players should be added, game rules should become stricter, and make the kids practice in larger fields. Now you must initiate comprehensive strategies that serve the dual purpose of honing individual skills of players along with team’s objectives.

Youth Soccer Coaching

Pay special attention to what I mention here. Many coaches go wrong when they teach too many things too soon to their kids in the anticipation of preparing them well in advance. Understand that there are no shortcuts. You just cannot mechanize the process like in soccer drills. It must be a natural growth with time.

The objectives may not be met if you rush with things, make a lot of rules, and expose kids to a lot of knowledge soon enough. This causes problems in their natural learning and growth.

When the players move from one level of training to another, they should develop team spirit and realize the goals behind the games. It is crucial to understand the difference between focusing on your own skills at one time and then using those skills to win the games for your team.

At this stage, along with games, it also becomes important to hold regular discussions and team meetings. Know that the players now understand the various techniques of soccer. Hence, it is an error of judgment to doubt their abilities in soccer exercises.

When you involve them in the decision making, it makes them responsible and they share their thoughts more openly.

The games should now challenge their thoughts about how to win matches. When the players think themselves as a team and not as individual players, you have succeeded in your job as a coach.

Your next step! To take what you’ve just learned and implement in your plan. Soccer practice games are an integral part of training routines and you just device them intelligently to help the kids make natural progress in their learning. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has tremendous resources on youth soccer.

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: http://soccerdrillstips.com