⚽ 𝟳 𝗧𝗜𝗣𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗖𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚!

Soccer players will be soccer players - they’re hyper and 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁. So instead of getting frustrated, be prepared! Here are a few tips on how to keep players (or younger kids) focussed at soccer training...

Amazon - Coaching Book: https://amzn.to/3aqhtjn To buy a colour PDF of the 5 book bundle directly, visit www.chriskingsoccercoach.com or Email: chriskingsoccercoach@gmail.com

𝟭. 𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗧!

Soccer players come to training to play soccer, not listen to the coach yabber on. 𝗦𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴, 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹. Give them a short description of the main points and get into the drill!

Once you’ve been going for a couple of minutes then you can stop and adjust it quickly and give them any more instructions. Or even just give instructions to a player as the drill is going so that you’re not constantly stopping it.

If you give them 10 different things to remember at the start it’s a waste of everyone's time.

𝟮. 𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚!

Hands up who likes to stand in a line and wait? I thought so. So why make players wait in line when they could be getting in more repetitions of the skill?

So instead of having long lines or players waiting to come on, do this:

𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 (𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹). It may feel a bit crazy but so what? It stops the long wait in lines and therefore stops getting bored and creating trouble . If you set the drills up side by side you can be in the middle and keep an eye on everything.

𝟯. 𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗞𝗘𝗬 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦

Getting players attention can be hard. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻!

One of my fellow coaches says “Eyes!” to his group of young players. It’s amazing to watch, it’s like he’s a magician or hypnotiser.

As soon as he says “Eyes!” his players know to stop what they are doing, if they have a ball sit on it and make eye contact with him. It’s simple but very effective. If they are sitting on the ball they aren’t kicking or bouncing it. And if they are looking at him he knows they are paying attention.

Another fun one is to say “Soccer Pose!”. This is where your players stop what they’re doing, put one foot on top of the soccer ball, fold their arms across their chest, turn their heads slightly to the side and look at you as if they’re the best soccer player in the world. Kids love it! And it achieves the same as the “Eyes” - all players stop and look at you.

More for young players, but a third one is to say “Knee, Shoulders, Heads!”. Players know to stop what they’re doing and place their hands firstly on their knees, then shoulders and then head. This one works well because no one wants to be the last to put their hands on their head.

𝟰. 𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗪 & 𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟

This simply means when explaining a drill or skill, 𝗽𝗵𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 so the players are more involved.

An example would be if you’re explaining how to do “Happy Feet” (quickly moving the ball back and forth between your feet), ask the group “What does a good Happy Feet look like?” and then whoever puts their hands up, get them to show the group.

Even getting the players to choose which drill they want to do to practice a particular skill will keep them engaged. Plus you get to see what type of drills they like.

An example of this would be if you were focussing on crossing ask the group “What drill can we play that will help us with our crossing?”

𝟱. 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗜𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘

This doesn’t mean that there is a winner or loser each time. It may just be competing against themselves - if it's a shooting drill see if they can score more goals each round of the drill. Or can they use their non-preferred foot? 𝗢𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮 "𝗽𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁" 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 (or punish the coach!).

𝟲. 𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨’𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝟯 𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥 & 𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡 𝗜𝗡

Sometimes 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱! Wave your arms around, bring lots of energy, be animated! Be that crazy uncle or aunty that your nieces love.

Jump into a drill and be the target for a few minutes (players get a point for beating/scoring past/hitting the coach. Make it so it has to hit you below the knees though otherwise balls will be going everywhere!)! Or jump into a game, join one of the teams and say “I am the best player in the world! No one can beat me!” and watch the energy level go up from all the players.

𝟳. 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 (& 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠) 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦

It’s easy to go through a whole season without learning too much about your players or team mates outside of football.𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱!Ask them about family, school, favourite soccer players, favourite foods, music, etc.

I coach a men's team (mostly 18 to 30 year olds) and in the Facebook group chat I get them to put a thumbs up or down for who can attend training that week. And along with asking who can attend training I ask them a question for the week as well. For example it might be something as simple as “What did you do on the weekend?”.

Or I have asked “What do your parents do for a living?”, “What can you cook?”, “Tell us your best joke”, or “Hardest thing you’ve had to deal with?”.

If it’s a fairly personal thing make sure to say “If you feel comfortable sharing something about…” so they don’t feel pressured.

And if it’s a brand new group I might start it off with answering the question myself to break the ice.

I have found this to be a great experience in bringing the players closer together and they enjoy their time around each other no matter win, lose or draw.

If you find this drill useful, there are 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 & 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 available through Amazon, my website or email directly at chriskingsoccercoach@gmail.com to purchase the PDF of all 5 books:

Amazon Book: https://amzn.to/3aqhtjn Or a PDF directly from my website www.chriskingsoccercoach.com 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹: 𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵@𝗴𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Happy coaching! Chris King.

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