Tags : Soccer training for kids, for youth, drills, shooting, Football, Tactic, Tips, Training, defense, attacing, dvd, Coaching dvd, skills, drills , Passing
The Tip
How long should my practices be and how long should each activity be?
How long your practices are will depend on what age group you are coaching. Under 6’s should practice about 45 minutes, U8’s about an hour, U10’s about an hour and fifteen minutes, U12’s and up about and hour and a half. No team should really practice for any longer than an hour and a half. It is important to stick pretty close to these numbers too. Kids can only exercise so long before they “check out” and just can’t concentrate anymore. America has a nasty habit of buying into the “more is better” policy. If I practice with my team for an hour then with two hours of practice they’ll be twice as good. Due to the limitations of kids though that idea just doesn’t work.
With children U12 and down you should have between five and six activities, with each activity lasting around 10 minutes. Each activity should have several rounds, lasting between 20 and 60 seconds. For example, let’s say we are playing Pac Man. Each round I may put different restrictions on the players. In the first round I may just let them play. In the second round I may have the Pac Men strike the ball with their left foot only. In the third round I would have them strike the ball with the outsides of their feet only. Placing restrictions on games can bring out a certain effect. As coaches though we must be careful when doing this. As mentioned a couple of times earlier we want what we do in practice to replicate what happens in the game. If we become too specific in our restrictions we can make practice fake. If the players our doing a dribbling exercise and I say they can only dribble with the outside of their right foot, what happens if they need to go to the left? It would be unnatural for them to do a 270 degree turn with the outside of their right foot when they could just cut the ball with the inside of their right foot or the outside of the left foot. To keep this from happening, make sure when a restriction is placed on players they can still play soccer effectively. In dribbling exercises I would restrict them to right foot only, left foot only, soles of the feet, insides of the feet, or the outsides of the feet. I would have the same restrictions for passing exercises as well.
With children U12 and down you should have between five and six activities, with each activity lasting around 10 minutes. Each activity should have several rounds, lasting between 20 and 60 seconds. For example, let’s say we are playing Pac Man. Each round I may put different restrictions on the players. In the first round I may just let them play. In the second round I may have the Pac Men strike the ball with their left foot only. In the third round I would have them strike the ball with the outsides of their feet only. Placing restrictions on games can bring out a certain effect. As coaches though we must be careful when doing this. As mentioned a couple of times earlier we want what we do in practice to replicate what happens in the game. If we become too specific in our restrictions we can make practice fake. If the players our doing a dribbling exercise and I say they can only dribble with the outside of their right foot, what happens if they need to go to the left? It would be unnatural for them to do a 270 degree turn with the outside of their right foot when they could just cut the ball with the inside of their right foot or the outside of the left foot. To keep this from happening, make sure when a restriction is placed on players they can still play soccer effectively. In dribbling exercises I would restrict them to right foot only, left foot only, soles of the feet, insides of the feet, or the outsides of the feet. I would have the same restrictions for passing exercises as well.
