Soccer practice games

Let it be known that during soccer practice games kids tend to have a lot of fun when they keep on scoring goals. It is therefore necessary for you to find out and add as many opportunities as you can for their practice. There are numerous options that can be exercised to create opportunities from them. For instance: shooting drills, small sided games, and full-field scrimmages.

During small sided games and full field scrimmages, it’s your responsibility to keep altering the various ways to encourage extra goal scoring.  Add in such games that don’t need a goalie to play or limit the goalie’s movement within the predefined lines. Expand the existing goalpost or you may include more goals for the purpose of increasing goal scoring opportunities.

Once players develop good judgment and great shooting skills during the soccer training, it gets easy to score goals. Similar to passing skills, it works well to initiate shooting methods pretty early in the development of kids but lay more emphasis at the later stages.

Carrying out soccer drills is one of the means to equip the players with requisite shooting skills. Players become skilled at shooting the ball accurately and score many more goals by way of these shooting drills. It is therefore important that you encourage your kids to become skilled at shooting the ball precisely.

Soccer Training

Teach the kids various methods of striking the ball right when performing the soccer exercises. Players are allowed to take shots from a close range repeatedly with the inside of the foot. In using the inside of the feet, you bring more precision into the shots. If more power is required to hit the ball, ask the players to strike the ball using the instep of the foot, with toes pointed downwards and ankle locked.

Positioning of the non kicking foot has an effect on the height of the shot. So instruct the players to position the non kicking foot ahead of the ball to keep the shot low. Make sure you eliminate all distractions for example moving balls, moving shooters, or defenders to focus your player’s mind on striking the ball.

Start the drill progression in soccer practice games using a stationary ball and a shooter. As the shooting techniques progress, add to the challenge by putting the shooter in action before he/she hits the ball. Such a shift will distract from the accuracy of the striking efforts at first, because the player’s visualization must serve a double purpose.

One, it allows the shooting players to find some space in the direction of the ball and then it also helps them put the foot at the very spot where the ball is.

As the players gain confidence, create a game like situation where both the player and the ball are in motion. When they improve their shooting, throw the balls towards them at irregular speeds.

So now you know! Create more opportunities for scoring goals in soccer practice games and the players will derive the most of the sessions. You can join our youth soccer coaching community for more in-depth knowledge on youth soccer.

 

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Fun Soccer Drills.