Soccer Training Tips

Ever wondered how to coach soccer or more specifically youth soccer? The phrase looks quite simple and familiar but if you give it a serious thought, a lot of things will start coming to your head.

One of the soccer skills that’s required for a player and a coach to learn is communication. A coach has to give instructions, share feedback, evaluate players, council them, maintain discipline, and all this requires communication skills.

Players, on the other hand, talk about issues with coaches, peers, parents, share feelings (good or bad) with colleagues, and give tips and tricks to new players in the team. The game of soccer acts as a common language for both players and coaches convey their feeling and thoughts.

Soccer coaching has some basic philosophies that the coaches must learn and consequently teach their players.

Soccer Coaching

1.  Use your player’s name to call them. It feels good to listen to one’s name and is also courteous.

2.While giving instructions, be prepared by knowing what you want your players to do and achieve.

3. Be considerate: Use communication for connecting with players and not to control them. So try to understand their point of view as well.

4.Watch your body language. It should be relaxed and open to convey positive feelings and get better results.

5.    It is important to maintain an eye contact with every player whenever you talk to them. Look the person in the eye while talking to him or her.

6. Your technique of speaking should make an impression on the person you are talking to. So adopt a style that not only defines you but also suits the other person.

7. Pick a topic that needs attention. Communication as an answer to the simple question, how to coach soccer is effective when it is concise and to the point. Decide on a list of items and remain firm on it.

8.Be objective: Always remain cautious of the fact that you are a soccer coach who is speaking to a team or an individual player. So control your emotions and converse with them only on points related to the game.

9.Speak Clearly: It is critical that what you say is understood in the same spirit as you intended.

10.When teaching soccer, repeat the important points. Keep talking about the important points so that the players are always reminded of them.

11.Try to keep the conversation funny by using words that are light and comical.

12.Give your players time and attention to understand and seek clarifications from you. Permit them to ask questions.

A soccer coach or a player without the ability to give and receive the information necessary for the highest levels of performance is bound to suffer in the long run.

In conclusion, how to coach soccer is something that must make get the coach into a mode of trying to understand and make allowances for different cultures. Register for our youth soccer coaching community that has a wealth of articles and videos on coaching young players and how to help them develop excellent skills.

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 practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Drills.

It seems like every time you turn your head, everyone is busy looking for effective and time-tested tips on how to coach soccer? After all, youth soccer coaching is a dynamic and a difficult job and it is not easy to keep the players motivated to deliver under extreme pressure.

Let me tell you 5 simple tips that’ll help you improve your team’s performance significantly, when followed religiously.

1.Make comprehensive plans: Careful and meticulous planning is essential to achieving success in coaching. When deciding the team goals and the timelines to achieve them, involve the players and take their opinions into consideration too. The team’s progress is affected when the timelines are not met and desired results are not realized.

Once the plan is finalized, remain loyal to it but do keep some space for minor changes as and when required. No matter how well made the plans may be they need changes due to sudden events.

Soccer Coaching

2. Practice sessions should be thrilling and fun-filled: When designing a practice schedule for kids, give due importance to the fact that variety in drills and exercises does the trick. You can introduce these in a variety of ways. For example: keep a few extra minutes for players after practice and have them perform a fun activity of a game that is fun and helps develop a bonding between them.

3. Freedom and Discipline should be exercised together: For a coach, discipline in the team should always be a priority. However, you must also understand that freedom and some respite from control is as important as the respect for rules. In teaching soccer, freedom and relaxation are extremely valuable.

Give the players sufficient time between the drills so that they can do their own stuff, interact with each other and simply relax. In preaching how to coach soccer, it is also extremely important to venture out with the kids on a picnic or an outdoor get together.

4. Be Supportive and tolerant: Always inspire the team to experiment on new things and when they make mistakes, be tolerant. Keep their activities under check. If you must intervene to correct a potential blunder or a silly mistake, do it without reprimanding them.

Keep in mind that angry behaviour leads to fearful players while compassion and encouragement leads to fearless players.

5. Balance things: It is in training sessions that kids get to know about their soccer skills and inherent talent. It is expected that in a team, there are some great players, some regular, while others are poor in performance. It becomes your obligation as a coach to use your best players to improve the poor ones.

Group the bad players with the good ones so that the bad players learn from their good counterparts during and after the sessions. It is also vital that they players do not feel that a comparison is being drawn between them.

It must now be your aim to use these techniques in your training sessions to improve the strategies about how to coach soccer.

You can also join our youth soccer coaching community to learn more and dramatically improve your coaching skills.

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: Youth Soccer Training.