Regimented drills “that force players into lines to perform choreographed movements” slow the pace of the young soccer athlete’s development, writes Tom Goodman, director of training and evaluation for Massachusetts Youth Soccer, in the foreword of “Soccer Practice Games.” Keeping the game fun provides a better way to teach the game and provide the potential for soccer to become a lifelong passion.
Pass and Follow
Coach and soccer author Joseph A. Luxbacher recommends Pass and Follow as part of your team’s warm up, as it gets the large muscle groups loose and ready to play. Outline a square 20 yards on a side using plastic cones. Place one player on the midpoint of each sideline. The fifth player starts in the center of the square with the ball. He kicks the ball to a sideline player and runs to take his place. The sideline player controls the ball with a first touch and passes to another teammate with a second touch and runs to his position. The fun in this drill consists of the need for players to continue receiving, passing and sprinting, moving at maximum speed.
Magnets
The Magnets drill, which incorporates changes of direction into a dribbling drill, also appears in Luxbacher’s book “Soccer Practice Games.” Set up a playing area 25 yards square. All players start within this area, each equipped with a ball. On your command, the players dribble randomly, imagining they are magnets that repel each other with an opposite charge. Whenever a dribbler comes near another, she changes to a different direction immediately.
Jack in the Box
Heading is a specialized skill unique to soccer. The drill Jack in the Box improves heading techniques and provides an entertaining level of spinning and jumping for youth players. Group your players in threes. Two servers stand 10 yards apart, each with a ball. The third player stands between them. The central player has to jump upward and head the ball directly back to the first server, followed by repeating the jump and heading to the second server. The drill requires constant turns of 180 degrees and maximum speed until the central player takes 30 headers. Then have the players switch places until each has two turns as the header. The winning player gains the most points, with one awarded for each ball headed back to the server’s chest.
Horseshoes
More advanced youth players can try a soccer variation of Horseshoes, described in coach Jim Lennox’s “Soccer Skills and Drills.” Set up players in groups of four, with two teams of two. Provide the groups with two flat disks and three balls, with the cones separated by a distance appropriate to age and skill level and topped with a ball. A player serves the remaining ball to a player near the other cone, who volleys it out of the air to try to knock the ball off the cone; less advanced players can trap the ball with the chest or foot and then shoot at the ball on the cone. Her partner serves it back to the other player, who similarly tries to knock the ball off the cone. Players can work on reading the flight of the ball, positioning their bodies and feet and gaining the kind of touch on the ball needed to create goals in a real game.
References
- "Soccer Practice Games"; Joseph A. Luxbacher; 2010
- "Soccer Skills and Drills"; Jim Lennox; 2006
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