Kids enjoy being a part of soccer practice games the most when they get to score as many goals as possible. This is why it’s imperative that you include scores of opportunities for your players to practice scoring goals. If you try, you’ll find countless ways that can be used to create such opportunities for them. A few examples are shooting drills, full-field scrimmages, and small sided games.

During small sided games and full field scrimmages, it’s your responsibility to keep altering the various ways to encourage extra goal scoring.  Slot in those games that can be played without a goalkeeper or you can confine their movement inside the defined boundary. There is another way of increasing the possibility of goal scoring by broadening the goalpost being used or else by adding up more goals.

During soccer training, players can improve goal creation by becoming a skilled shooter and developing their judgment skills. As in passing skill, it’s a good idea to start shooting skills as early as possible but emphasize them more during the later stages of their development.

Performing soccer drills is one way of developing shooting talent of the players. Players become skilled at shooting the ball accurately and score many more goals by way of these shooting drills. So it becomes your duty as a coach to help your players grow as experts in shooting techniques.

Soccer Training

Throughout the soccer exercises, train your players to perfectly strike the ball while shooting it. Players can take repeated shots at close range from the inside of the foot. When the inside of the feet is used, it has a greater precision. If more power is required to hit the ball, ask the players to strike the ball using the instep of the foot, with toes pointed downwards and ankle locked.

Positioning of the non kicking foot has an effect on the height of the shot. So players should be taught to position the non kicking foot a little ahead of the ball to keep the shot low. Make sure you eliminate all distractions for example moving balls, moving shooters, or defenders to focus your player’s mind on striking the ball.

Begin the drill progression in soccer practice games by using a stationary ball and a shooter. As the shooting techniques progress, add to the challenge by putting the shooter in action before he/she hits the ball. This change will deviate from the accuracy of the striking efforts at first, because the player’s visualization must serve a double purpose.

One, it should help the shooter negotiate space in the direction of the ball and second, it should help him/her put their foot at the exact spot on the ball.

As time passes by, increase the challenge by putting both the ball and player in the shooting position. Once their shooting ability improves, serve balls at different levels and speeds.

So there you have it! Create goal creation opportunities for your players in soccer practice games and make the most of your training sessions. You can join our youth soccer coaching community for more in-depth knowledge on youth soccer.

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: Fun Soccer Drills.

Soccer practice games are immensely important especially in comparison to drills and it’s not hard for someone like me to understand this. It’s important that the kids first pay attention to acquiring the skills and polishing them so as to improve the movement along with the ball. But there are certain points that you must check when they advance in their soccer training.

What works best is that kids are randomly grouped so that they get to develop their individual styles along with having fun just like we talked about before. First and foremost, the kids must get the freedom to decide on various issues concerning them and this is possible only when the size of the group is small.

Subsequently the kids will fell free to move about in the large and open field, get a feel of the ball more often, and feel liable for the decisions that they make since the players in their group are significantly less.

On the other hand, make sure you initiate changes as soon as the players get comfortable playing in small groups and are improving. Bring in progressions in soccer practice games at this point in time. This means that more players should be added, game rules should become stricter, and make the kids practice in larger fields. Now you must initiate comprehensive strategies that serve the dual purpose of honing individual skills of players along with team’s objectives.

Soccer Training

Pay special attention to what I mention here. Almost all coaches take the wrong path of teaching everything in a very short time span in the hope of having trained players ahead of time. Realize that there are no shortcuts to success. Similar to soccer drills, there is no scope of mechanizing the process here. It must progress in a natural way slowly.

The designs may not work well if you expose students to competition, teach them new things early in their training, and lay a lot of emphasis on rules. This hampers their natural learning and growth.

When kids progress from smaller groups to larger ones, they should inculcate team spirit and understand the objectives behind the games. It is an important transition from concentrating on your own skills to thinking about how your skills will help the team win.

In this period, along with games, you must also encourage free dialog with your team. Remember that the players now understand soccer and various techniques and positions. Hence, it is an error of judgment to doubt their abilities in soccer exercises.

Involving them in decision making and encouraging them to come out with their thoughts will go a long way in inculcating a sense of responsibility in them.

The games should now concentrate on making the kids think proactively about winning matches. When they start thinking like team players while playing games, you would have done your job well.

Your next step! To take what you’ve just learned and implement in your plan. Soccer practice games make for a valuable tool in soccer training and you must create them in a way so that they help the kids make natural progress. sSubscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has tremendous resources on youth soccer.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.