Shomit’s Youth Soccer Training Tips

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I encourage all players who strive to play at high levels to practice yoga techniques when weather makes it difficult to train outdoors. Doing a few of the exercises shown on this link can help a soccer player in a variety of ways, both mentally and physically:

http://www.powerofyoga.com/yoga-postures.htm

The idea with these positions is to hold them while calmly counting to fifteen. It is important to take deep easy breaths while doing this. Players often feel energized after completing these 12 positions on a daily basis. I encourage parents to take a few minutes a day and do this with the players. It should make for some good laughs and some good exercise as well.

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One aspect of a youth soccer player’’s development that is often neglected is defensive competency in the individual player. Individual defensive techniques should certainly be incorporated with the overall tactical ideas of the team. When a player consistently has sound defensive technique and is able to incorporate that into the team’’s tactical ideas, the player will become more well rounded as time progresses.

Without expanding too much on team tactics for obvious reasons, the basic principles of solid individual defensive play are: Delay, Deny, Destroy, and Develop.

Delay: When presented in a one-on-one defensive situation, it is important for the player to stay on their toes (not on their heels) and have great balance (not falling over backwards, foward, left or right). Another key in this aspect of defending is a player’’s eye-control. The player must have eyes locked on the ball (not the waist, head, feet, or chest, of the opponent). Proper delaying technique allows time for teammates to make recovery runs and get in the correct positions.

Deny: After delaying the opponent in a one-on-one situation, players should become confident in denying penetration to opposing dribblers. . This requires the individual players to work on their overall foot speed while still maintaining good control of their eyes in seeing the ball. Flexibility in the hips is quite important when having to defend an opponent who is attempting to dribble. Players must learn to adjust quickly and avoid “diving in” or “stabbing” at the ball.

Destroy: After effectively delaying and denying, the next step to is to destroy the other team’’s possession as quickly as possible and regaining possession for your own team. It could be a direct result of denying dribble penetration or it could be because of “covering” defenders intercepting passes. These defenders were able to recover because of the delaying and denying of other teammates, which in turn allowed them to destroy the opponent’’s attack.

Develop: After destroying the opponents” attack, a team must now work on the fundamental principles of possession. With a large number of players who are very sound in one-on-one defensive situations, a youth soccer team’’s chances of group success are greatly increased. I view this as an overall positive quality for individual youth soccer players to acquire as they grow older. It takes some hard work and attention to detail, but teammates should expect each other to be VERY good in one-on-one defensive situations in order to achieve team success.’, ‘Four “D’’s” for good defensive principles in youth soccer: DELAY, DENY, DESTROY, DEVELOP

Youth soccer players who are denied vision training during their younger years will have a harder time playing in a competitive environment as they get older. Players of all ages are certainly more comfortable in controlling a soccer ball when they are able to look at it. One of the most difficult challenges in the game of soccer is to be able to control the ball, look up, AND identify/process WHAT you are seeing.

So how do you train this skill with very young soccer players? Simply saying “look up”, which all of us coaches do, is not quite good enough.

Players have to be able to look up and identify what they see while still being able to manipulate/control the ball at their feet. Simple obstacle course dribbling activities in which the players have to look up and identify different objects can do wonders for a youth soccer player. **(Two different colored cones can work for this. Keep one in each hand behind your back, then raise it up and have the player call out the color. If you want to get advanced, have FOUR different colors).

If cones are not available at home, simply have the young player dribble around objects in the yard at home and identify cars crossing in the distance, or colors of birds in the air.

Be creative with it, but emphasize vision…..and make it fun. You need to be able to see the game to play the game. Fun ways to improve field vision for U9 soccer players

Youth soccer players need to make a conscious effort to understand their surroundings on a soccer field as they continue playing. Coaches should reinforce the concept of time and space on the practice field on an almost daily basis at all ages of youth soccer. There are several characteristics to look for in individual players who have a difficult time identifying how much time and space is available to them. It is up to the soccer coach to identify the mistake to the player and the player has to take part of the job by trying to correct the mistake the next time he/she is presented with a similar situation. All young players reading this should try to avoid the following mistakes that are often made when incorrectly identifying how much time and space you actually have:

1. The “hot potato” play: A team has just combined one, two, and three passes and the fourth pass comes to an open player…..the player has a lot of time and space but is unaware of it and plays the ball “one touch” and it becomes a turnover.

What’s the better play? Since the player had time and space, there was likely no need to play the ball one-touch. He/she should have probably taken a touch, looked up, and evaluated what else there was to do with the time and space that was available (another pass, shot, etc). If for some reason the player feels that they SHOULD HAVE played the ball one-touch with all of the time and space that they had, you can emphasize that their technique in striking the ball was rushed and may have caused the turnover. Situations are rare when a player should play a ball with one touch if they have plenty of time and space.

2. Playing out of pressure in TIGHT spaces requires LESS touches: Coaches and players alike get frustrated by it sometimes but it is important to keep an even keel when it happens. A player has a few turnovers where it seems as though they are dribbling too much. The idea to take players on with the dribble is great and should be encouraged. However, it is important to know WHEN AND WHERE to do it. If a player is surrounded by multiple defenders, it is often wise to pass the ball out of the pressure quickly (i.e, with less touches) to find an area of the field that is not occupied by multiple defenders.

The moral of the story is: Be aware of your surroundings on the soccer field. What’s the fastest and easiest way to get better at that? Use your eyes to help identify ALL of the spaces around you ALL of the time. Do you have space in front of you? behind? to the left? to the right?

The spaces around you are changing every second. Can you see how it is changing?

For U9 players, space may still be a bit of an abstract concept but it is great to plant the ideas of “time and space“ when having conversations with the young soccer players. For older players, it is important to not only identify the time and space that surrounds you, but to also take advantage of it and use it the best way that you can on a regular basis. Players will watch their overall game improve tremendously as they continue to get better at seeing the time and space that is available to them.

The challenge of coaching young soccer players is unique. Their attention span is so small, that sometimes you have to capture their imagination. Playing maze games while incorporating technical ball skills can lead to a fun way to improve overall ball mastery. Simple things such as dribbling the soccer ball around randomly placed objects in the yard at home to get from the beginning of the maze to the end of the maze can be a fun way to improve ball control.

Here is the key: After you have set the parameters of the maze and how to solve it, now put restrictions on what surfaces of the foot that they can use to go through the maze. For example: You can only use the insides of both feet. 2. You can only use your right foot. 3. You can only use the outsides of both feet….etc…

Some parameters of a maze can include, “Dribble through a goal made of small cones, then a goal made of tall cones” and things of that nature……at home, it could be a pair of slippers alternating with a pair of shoes. You get the idea. As a coach and soccer parent, we have to use our imagination to capture these young players” attention and STILL put them in a position where they can improve their ball skills. If young players start doing and ENJOYING these types of activities, their love for the game will continue to grow along with their technical skills. For U9 soccer players, maze games are simply amazing.

Guided Discovery—-The concept introduced to me by United States Youth Soccer Director of Coaching Education Sam Snow that has opened my eyes to the importance of “teaching by asking” to the young players. For U9 soccer parents, a few simple questions a day can open your child’s eyes to different aspects of the game. It also helps them build tremendous confidence as a soccer player (plus kids LOVE teaching their parents things:)

The majority of this question asking should be related to the technical side of the soccer game. For example, “What are some different ways that you can make a pass?” Show me,” is much more appropriate than “Can you explain to me different ways to attack out of a 4-4-2 formation?”

However, some simple tactical ideas can be introduced as well in U9. Understanding the areas of the field and the ability to weigh the risk/reward factor should certainly be introduced. A soccer field is divided into three areas, the defensive third, the midfield third, and the attacking third. A simple concept at this age is to encourage players to take opposing players on while dribbling in the attacking third. If you lose the ball, the opposing team has to go the length of the field to score, therefore low risk. However, if you happen to take the opponent on and get a chance to shoot……..possible goal. Highest reward. On the contrary, taking chances with dribbling and playing blind balls in the defensive third may lead to giving away shots on your goal that could have been prevented, so a young player must begin to learn when and where to do what. Our guided discovery questioning can help them solve the problems that the game of soccer presents.

The key here is that we don’t want to give them all the answers, because in the heat of an actual soccer game, players have to be free thinking and able to make quick decisions on their own. We do, however, want to continue to ask them questions so that the answers come out of THEM. A few questions a day will make them better when they play.