Youth Soccer Drills

The first thing we need to understand is what youth soccer drills are, and why you need to be using soccer drills in the first place.

A drill is a teaching tool that allows the players to have many opportunities to focus on and practice one or two specific skills that they will need in games. Dribbling, passing, shooting, and defending all require specific skills that your players need to learn. Good soccer drills will give the players an opportunity to slow down and concentrate on the specific skills in a more controlled way than if they were to try to practice the same techniques in a scrimmage or game.

Unfortunately, many coaches idea of running a drill is to have their players stand in a line while they wait their turn to run the drill. It results in a lot of time wasted standing in line, and very limited opportunities for each player to run the drill. It also results in a lot of bored, unmotivated players. Even if the players are paying attention to when their team mates run the drills, they will not learn nearly as much as when they are actually doing it themselves. The practice usually ends with a frustrated coach making the team run laps because they were not paying attention.

A much better scenario would be to use drills that use multiple players, and that keep your players as involved as possible. This means having a collection of drills available that not only involve multiple players, but also achieve multiple goals. The ideal drills combine skill development, teamwork, and conditioning. They keep the players involved so they are not standing around being bored, and they give players more touches with the ball.

Have you ever watched soccer players at the professional or collegiate level and wondered how they are able to do the things they do with the ball? Well, it all started with spending time learning the basic skills. Players don't start with learning to bicycle kick the ball into the back of the net. They started out just as unskilled as everyone else. They spent many hours as youth players learning to dribble, pass and receive, and shoot the ball. Over time they moved on to juggling, then to kicking the ball out of the air, and finally on to the more advanced skills.

As a coach of a youth soccer team, you have the responsibility of teaching your players the basic skills. Regardless of what level they think they are at, you are doing them a great disservice if you don't concentrate on making sure they are proficient in basic skills.

One way to ensure that your players are developing the way they need to is to find drills that allow the players to use the skills in an action environment. While the players can learn to shoot by kicking a ball placed on the ground, that isn't the way the shots will happen in a game. They will gain much more from getting the chance to try kicking the ball while it is moving, or shooting off the dribble. They will then be ready to handle practicing shooting with a defender closing in on them.

The more you can simulate game situations in your drills, the better prepared your players will be to handle similar situations in real games.

Over the years I have seen teams with very talented players that just never seemed to reach their potential. On the other hand, I have seen teams that didn't have nearly as much raw talent be very successful. What was the difference? Teamwork!

A very good player that does not know how to use the rest of the team will be very limited when facing other good teams. Once the defender knows that ball handler isn't likely to pass the ball to a team mate, he or she will start to see more double teaming, and will find themselves pinned on the sideline with nowhere to go.

By working together as a unit, your team will be able to pass to create space and open up more attack lanes, and in creating better looks at the goal. On defense, they will be better able to close off passing lanes, and prevent the attacking team from getting open shots at the goal.

The only way players can become good at teamwork is to practice it.

By playing together as a team, players get to know each other better, and can play to each others strengths. If your midfielder is passing to a player on the wings, they will know how fat the receiving player is, and be able to judge how far to lead the player. By thinking and acting as a single unit, they are more aware of where their teammates are on the field, and will be able to see if they need to rotate back to cover an empty space.

When your team works together, it makes it much more difficult for the opposing team to key on one or two of your players. They have to be aware of the entire team, which makes it much more difficult to plan offensive and defensive strategies.

One of the biggest keys to success is conditioning. Too often talented teams let a lead slip away late in the game because the players just run out of gas. The better conditioned team steals victory away by out-running, and out performing the other team in the closing minutes.

Teams start out the season with a strong focus on conditioning, but as the season progresses the focus turns to skill development, and less attention is given to conditioning. Fortunately, youth soccer drills are a great solution to this problem.

I wrote earlier that the ideal drills combine several different aspects of practice into one drill. By using drills that require constant movement with and without the ball, your players build their conditioning at the same time they are developing their skills.

The added bonus is, they enjoy the conditioning process. Ask any player whether they would rather run drills that simulate game play, or run laps. I think you can guess what the answer would be. For most soccer players, running for the sake of running is not the most enjoyable part of practice. It's much more fun to play. Good soccer drills will give them an element of fun, but will still build stamina, quickness, and leg strength.

If you want your team to have the best possible chance of success, never stop working on conditioning. For players that are in great shape, the rest of the game becomes much easier.