Soccer Drills - Children
Creating a fun learning environment for efficient talent development
Some practitioners say that the best coaches should work with the youngest players. After all, the fundamentals are key to every advanced skills that our footballers will learn at later stages of their career. If you want your talents to develop efficiently from the first moment that they step onto a football field, you have to make sure that your soccer drills are suited to their skill levels. Especially children and young soccer players are easy to motivate if you combine some of the most fundamental skills with fun and competitive challenges. This guarantees success for all players involved and keeps them motivated for the next session.
We, at planet.training, got you covered if you want to improve those skills. We have thousands of soccer drills for any skill! You can directly start coaching with these four exercises or try hundreds of Premium Exercises and public drills in our soccer database.
Medicine Ball – Pass Competition
Set Up:
This exercises requires a 20m x 15m field, which you mark down with cones. In the middle of this field you should place 5-7 medicine balls into a neutral zone. The neutral zone covers an area of 3m to both sides. Mark down the neutral area with cones as well. Divide the group into two teams – Each player should get a ball. Place additional balls close to the teams.
Execution:
As soon as the coach has given the start signal, the players will target the medicine balls in the middle of the field. The goal is to move the balls out of the neutral zone inside the opposing team’s zone (behind the cone line). Strong and precise shooting is required. Each ball that crosses the opponents line, will count as a point for the team. Decision making as well as orientation skills are demanded – Players will get to the point where they have to decide whether they should go for a score or rather focus on preventing the opponents from scoring?
Playing time: 2 minutes – Which team reaches the highscore?
Cross Pass Drill – Above the rope
Set Up:
Set up 3 x 3 fields – use cones or big hoops. Set up two starting stations approx. 10m in front of field. Build two teams of 1-4 players per set up – Each team lines up at one of the stations. Provide 3 matching colored markers – (bib, cones, balls, etc.)
Execution:
This exercise follows almost the same rules as the classic Tic Tac Toe: To win the game a team must place their 3 markers in a row – Diagonal, horizontal or vertical.
On the Coach’s signal the first player of each team starts running towards the field and places his first marker in one of the 9 areas. After marking the first area the player runs back to tab the next waiting player, which then starts running towards the field – Same execution for third player. After all 3 markers have been placed in the field, one marker at a time can now be replaced by each following player, until one team wins – 3 markers in a row. Play several rounds as a competition – Best of 5 or 7.
ELEVATE YOUR GAME
Ropeball - Shooting drill for youth players
Set Up:
A field of 20m x 10m will be set up with poles. In the middle of the field you will stetch a rope at the height of 1m. The backpoles one each side will mark the goal lines.
Make sure you have enough replacement balls on the sidelines. Divide the group in teams of 4.
Execution:
Objective of this exercise is to shoot the ball below the rope across the opponents goalline. Each team is allowed to have a maximum of 6 ball contacts for one attack.
Only one defender is allowed to be directly on the goalline in an effort to keep the ball from crossing it. Players are not allowed to use their hand. Which team is the first to score 7 goals?
2 +2 versus 2 - Majority in a small sided game
Set Up:
Set up a field of approx. 30m x 20m - One big goal on each end of the field. Three teams of 2 - One goalkeeper per goal. Place balls near goalkeeper for a quick pass, in case ball goes out of bounce.
Execution:
In this drill your players will learn to play a fast, yet controlled majority game, to take advantage of the situation. Team A (Blue) plays a free 2vs2 against Team B (Yellow). Neutral Team C (white) will always support the ball possessing team in their attack - After a goal Team C joins the attack around midfield.
Played with offside rule. After change of ball possession the neutral team C has to transition quickly as well. Because of the small sided game setting, this drill will get quite exhausting. Use little breaks where players can catch their breath to coach them up.
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Register nowWithout passing and dribbling there is no scoring
Scoring and winning is the ultimate goal of any football game. Whether a volley shot, bicycle kick, header or instep drive. Any technique can be improved by practicing it during your soccer training sessions. However, without an effective passing game or a perfect dribbling, there would not even be a chance to score. Therefore, coaches should always combine several skills in their session plans. Shots on the goal are perfect for engaging in small-field games or passing drills. To make sure that your next session plan is created even faster, there are a lot of other drill examples and variations on our other exercise pages.
