Coaching kids' soccer

Skills and drills

What skills to teach

• Kicking (of course). First thing to teach, and the second most common fault at that age: teach side of foot, not toe. The biggest kicking fault of kids -- let me repeat, biggest kicking fault -- is trying to catch up with the ball and reaching for it, instead of being over the ball. Here are a couple of keys to teach them to make more solid kicks:
  • The non-kicking foot should be on the ground next to the ball, not behind it.
  • The kicking leg's knee should be right over the ball, not behind it.
  If you teach tthem nothing else but do that well, it's a victory. Some kids may get the "shoelaces power kick", so give it a little work; but don't take much time from other stuff for it.
• Dribbling/Control. The classic traffic-cone slalom works here. Don't expect too much at this age. Don't push them for time. But encourage them to work on it in their yards at home, using boxes or chair or you-name-it if they don't have traffic cones.
• Trapping. Try the sole trap. It is really only useful with a ball that is rolling on the ground, but it's a start. At least introduce trapping so the more athletic might get it.
• Throw-ins. Doesn't sound important, but having all your midfielders comfortable with throw-ins makes much of the game go a lot smoother. And at ages 6 and 7, all the players are potential midfielders.
• Heading. I don't make much of it at this age; most of the kids are afraid of the ball. If some want to learn headers (it's OK for them to ask or for you to ask them "who is?"), then take them to the side and try it. Over the years I had maybe 3 kids in the age group -- total, not per year -- who wanted this. And only two of them ever tried it in a game.
• Goalkeeping skills. Unlike the other positions, I will never ask a kid to play goalie who hasn't expressed an interest in it. Everybody learns field-player skills for the first two or three practices. If we need a goalie for the scrimmage that early in the season, the parents who are helping with the drills can act as goalkeepers.

• Kicking. Reinforce the skills from last year.  Drill them on kicking a ball rolling across the path they want their kick to follow. That's a very frequent game situation; it's also a good way to reinforce the side-of-foot kick. Also teach power kick with shoelaces.
• Dribbling/Control. At this age, you can expect a little more. Set up two lines of cones, and do races; make it a contest, a game.
• Trapping. This year, it's for real. A prerequisite to teach trapping is to understand it. In order to make the ball stop dead, the body part in contact with the ball must be moving away from the ball during contact. Understanding this fact requires a little physics. If you don't feel up to the physics explanation below, then skip it and just accept my assertion.

  The physics of trapping

  This is all about conservation of momentum. But we can keep it more intuitive with a couple of animations to help us visualize what is going on.
  
  

  This is a generic physics example. We have a blue ball colliding with a heavier red ball. It makes the red ball move, but not very quickly. For momentum to be preserved, the blue ball must bounce back from the red ball -- not as fast as it was going before, but it doesn't stop.

  In order for the blue ball to stop, it must be the same mass as the red ball. Think of playing pool or billiards; all the balls weigh the same. If the cue ball hits another ball head on, it will stop dead, transferring all its momentum to the other ball.

  
  All soccer balls weight under a pound. Even with a rather small child of 6 or 7, the weight of a foot plus a lower leg is more than a pound. For an older kid, it is considerably more. And that only refers to a foot trap. A thigh or chest trap involves a much heavier body part. So just saying "soft contact" doesn't get the job done. The ball will bounce back when it hits a chest or thigh. If you want it to stop dead, the body part must be moving away from the ball at the time of impact. Bouncing off the body might be OK if it is the player's intention to move the ball in that direction, but not to drop the ball at his feet.
  Teach foot trap (side of foot; sole was last year) with soft foot first, then with retreating foot for more of a dead stop. That will be a good intro to the thigh and chest traps. (You won't be able to teach thigh and chest traps to younger kids. You will succeed with some but not all of the 8- and 9-year-olds)
• Throw-ins. They still need practice at this age. It isn't natural until they've done it a lot.
• Heading. This year everybody learns. You'll discover quickly who is afraid and who's not. Don't push them all equally; move each ahead at his own level of comfort. You want them to be confident enough to do it in a game, so don't make it unpleasant.
• Goalkeeping skills. Having a parent who can work with the keepers while you supervise the other drills is a big plus. 'Nuff said.

Handouts

1. First-period drills: Except for the forwards playing keep-away, these are largely individual drills.
2. Second-period drills: This is a team skill-drill for all but the midfielders. It verges on being a "game flow" drill.

1. You can make it even more of a game situation drill by letting it include set plays, especially corner kicks.
2. A lower-skill variant of this drill (say, for 7-year-olds) would be for a parent or coach to roll the ball across between the attackers and defenders and trying for a one-touch or two-touch result. It teaches the direction-changing kick in the presence of opposition.
3. Right through the 11-year-olds, I used this as the warmup drill before games. I get all players involved, even midfielders. It would be 3 on 3+plus goalie, with three lines for the field players to wait their turn, and both goalies alternating every play.