The secret to soccer drills for kids is that they not only improve a child's skill level but also keep their interest in training at a premium. We show you how in this informative guide.
Coming up with fun soccer drills for kids is easier said than done. One mistake many coaches make is taking a group of young children and throwing then straight into shooting for goal and header drills before they've even begun to master some of the basic fundamentals such as working in a tight space, passing, dribbling and receiving.
The key to keeping a group of kids in a happy frame of mind is to take the boredom out of the training. Shooting and heading the ball constantly will soon become laborious and for maintaining enthusiasm, developing soccer drills for kids revolves around instilling some competitive nature into their training.
Fun Soccer Drills For Kids
Let's take a look at a couple of soccer drills for children which incorporate some competitiveness but also combines teaching some basic skills such as dribbling, passing and balance.
- Drills where you pit one player against two or more are a great way to develop both the balance of a young player and their competitive nature. Ideally, for inexperienced players, putting two players are against four is preferred.
- Simply place the larger number of players around a made up perimeter of about 30 feet and then put the two other players in the middle.
- The larger group will then pass the ball to each other while the other two will be attempting to "rob" them of the ball. When one of the outside players surrenders the ball to one of the inside players they then swap positions.
The biggest benefits with this soccer drill is it teaches the kids to work in a tight space and not overwork the ball as well work as a team.
One On One Drill
This is another fun soccer drill for kids as it really gets the competitive juices going. No kid likes to look second best and when they are up against just one other opponent they generally want to win to not only impress the coach but also mom or dad who might be looking on not to mention gaining bragging rights.
- One player is the attacker and the other the defender
- Designate a space for them to work in but not too large
- The attacking player must try and pass a point(a line in the sand) using dribbling techniques
- If he succeeds he is award a number of points but if he doesn't then the defender gets the points
- Set up best out of five drills and to take it a step further, you could introduce a round robin where the last two standing get to square off in a final
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