Coaches Corner

Technique Without Drills

In the overall development of a young soccer player, it is imperative that we place a lot of emphasis on the acquisition of skill or technique.  We will be talking about ways to develop these specific tiools in a fun, gamelike manner. But first let's discuss the individuals who will be attempting to learn  what we teach.
Children between the ages of 6 - 10 cannot be viewed as mini-professionals, nor can we expect them to learn new skills the way we would.  They need to be excited and entertained while they learn.  Their attention spans, which is very short, and their physiological make-up must receive a lot of attention.  Acivities must be short, varied, and have many rest periods built in.
In early stages of development, we must concern ourselves with improvement of general movement patterns (e.g. running, skipping, spinning, rolling, etc.).  These activities lend themselves to the inclusion of a soccer ball.  All we have to do is use our imagination to come up with a series of fun and exciting activities that are soccer related.
Coaches that do the most for these young developing players are the ones who haven't forgotten what it is like to feel like a child.  To have success with this age group, we must get in touch with child in all of us.  We must let that part of us take over during practice and games. 
Hopefully, we can accept that when children come to play soccer, they come to PLAY AT soccer. They do not come to:
1.  Listen
2.  Watch
3.  Stand in Line
4.  Be involved in anything that has to do with boredom, inactivity or arganization.

The following activities are just ideas that involve fun, movement, coordination, strength, decision making and, oh yes, soccer skills.

Dribbling: 
Players should be shown that driblling involves using all parts of the feet (i.e., inside, outside, instep, sole, heel, toe) and then put into situations in which they are allowed to experiment.  Don't worry about particular fakes at the young ages.  Playes should be introduced to dribbling activities that expose them to changes of speed, direction and in general stresses their ability to stay balanced.
***Each player must have a ball of his/her own.  In a define a playing area with cones and start with all players inside.  Players move randomly in and out of traffic with a ball at their feet.  To add some fun, call out a particular body part (e.g. foot, knee, nose, elbow, etc.) and have the players stop the ball with it.  Have them sit on it, roll on it, or run around it.  The goofier, the better!
***Tap Dance -- Ask players to alternate touching the ball with the botton of both feet.  As they get the rhythm, ask them to spen around the ball while still tapping it.
***Snake Run -- Simple follow the leader at the front of the line.  Try to stay in the path created by this first person.  Alternate the leader.
***Speed Dribble -- Jog ten yards, sprint, dribble ten yards, pick the ball up and kick it as high as you can. Repeat five time.
***Crab Catch -- Have half of the team to sit in a defined area. They can move about on their hands, rear and feet (crablike).  Their object is to kick the balls of the dribblers out of the defined area.  Dribllers chase their ball and come back into the area. Change roles
***Red light/Green light -- Players dribble randomly in free space.  As the coach, you give the commands Green light and Red light.  The players should try to stop with their ball, as soon as you say Red light.  Vary the timing of your commands.
***Ball Exchange -- Ask players to driblle in a confined space until you say "Switch".  At this point they leave their ball and dart off to find the nearest ball.  To make this activity a bit more exciting, take away one ball.  This way, the children will have to decide, and move quickly to a nearby ball.