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It seems like every time you turn your head, everyone is busy looking for effective and time-tested tips on how to coach soccer? After all, youth soccer coaching is a dynamic and a difficult job and it is not easy to keep the players motivated to deliver under extreme pressure.

Let me share with you 5 simple yet great tips to help you take your team’s performance to the next level.

1.   Always plan comprehensively: Your planning should be careful and detailed for you to succeed in coaching young players. Have a heart to heart discussion with the players when you sit down to discuss and decide the team’s objectives and the timelines to reach them. Results not achieved within the decided timelines can disrupt your progress.

After finalizing the plan, do not deviate from it except for making a few changes, if needed. Your plans may be foolproof but unforeseen situations calls for final changes in the plan.

Soccer Coaching

2. Kids should enjoy being a part of practice sessions: Design your practice schedule in a way that includes a variety of drills, activities, fun-filled games and exercise so that the kids don’t feel the monotony. This can be done a lot of ways. For example, after the practice session is over, divide them into small groups and introduce fun games that not only relax their mind but also promote team spirit among them.

3. Both freedom and discipline should complement one another: A coach should always give priority to discipline in the team. But, what is important to understand is that freedom is also as important for the kids to feel strongly towards discipline. In teaching soccer, freedom and relaxation are extremely valuable.

Give the players sufficient time between the drills so that they can do their own stuff, interact with each other and simply relax. In preaching how to coach soccer, it is also extremely important to venture out with the kids on a picnic or an outdoor get together.

4.Always be supportive and tolerant: Encourage your team to try new things and when you do so, also be tolerant of the mistakes that they make in the process. Keep their activities under observation. If your intervention is necessary because the situation is out of control, correct it but without scolding the kids.

Know that when you punish, the players get distraught while being compassionate and encouraging leads to good ideas and positive energy.

5. Balance things: It is in training sessions that kids get to know about their soccer skills and inherent talent. It is accepted that all the players in a team are different ranging from the best to the worst. It is a part of your job to make sure that the best players take it upon themselves to improve the performance of the poor ones.

Buddy your best players with the weak ones so that they play together and share tips even after the drills. It is crucial that you do not make any sort of comparison between the players ever.

It must now be your ambition to make the best use of these tips in progressing on how to coach soccer.

Join our youth soccer coaching community to get acquainted with the tips and tricks related to improving soccer skills.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Training.

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