Tags : Soccer training for kids, for youth, drills, shooting, Football, Tactic, Tips, Training, defense, attacing, dvd, Coaching dvd, skills, drills , Passing
The Tip
Do these practice games you talk about do a good job of teaching kids how to play soccer or are they more of a once in while thing to let the kids have fun?
In actuality, practice games do a better job of teaching soccer than any other method. Practice games usually have very advanced soccer skills hidden in them. For example, in Pac Men all the players are running around in an area. Two players dribble a ball into the area and try to pass the ball (below the knees) off of the players who are running around. When hit, a player then has to go get a ball and join the Pac Men. Kids actually love this game, but take a moment to think of the skill required. For the people who start without a ball, they are running, jumping, dodging, and doing all sorts of stuff to avoid being hit (sport specific fitness and body awareness). In the meantime they must also be constantly looking all around to see where the Pac Men are so they will see a ball coming when it is passed (field vision). The players with the ball have to dribble around in the area (many touches on the ball which will improve their dribbling ability) and then pass the ball off of people (they have to pass the ball while they are moving). Because they are hitting targets that are moving, they must dribble and keep their head up at the same time to see targets to shoot at (drills that require players to slalom in-between cones force players to look down so they can see the cones). In addition, the players with the balls must pass a ball so that it hits a moving target (learning how hard lead someone who is making a run). The Pac Men must also use deception so that the people running around don’t know that they are about to have a ball passed off of them (using ball fakes to make people jump and them passing the ball off of them right when they hit the ground). The list goes on and on. A simple practice game like this requires so much from the players in terms of soccer ability yet the activity is extremely enjoyable.
