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. However, as they progress with their soccer training, there are a few things that you must observe.
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.
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Such an arrangement also ensures that the kids have more space to move about in the field, get more touches on the ball and become more accountable for their choices since there are very few players in the group.
On the other hand, make sure you initiate changes as soon as the players get comfortable playing in small groups and are improving. In soccer practice games, it's the time to initiate progressions. What this means is you tend to make the rules of the game a little more stringent, play games in larger fields, and increase the size of the group. It's time when team's overall objectives should also be catered to together with player's individual development by bringing in a more elaborate strategy.
There is something here that needs special mention. 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. Understand that there are no shortcuts. Similar to soccer drills, there is no scope of mechanizing the process here. It must be a natural growth with time.
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 obstructs their process of learning and growth.
As the players make a move from small batches to large ones, they should understand the purpose behind devising the games. It is important to understand how to put the team's interests first than yours and using your skills to make the team win.
In this phase along with games, it is also crucial to hold important meetings and discussions. Keep in mind that the players now understand the game and its techniques. So it would be a capital mistake to undermine their assessment skills in soccer exercises. When you give them an opportunity to take decisions and respect them, they feel happy and more responsible. The games should now challenge their thoughts about how to win matches. When the players think themselves as a team and not as individual players, you have succeeded in your job as a coach.
Now make good use of this learning in your plan. Soccer practice games are the best tools to make the kids learn soccer and so you must choose them creatively. Become a part of our youth soccer coaching community to learn more about various games and strategies that go with it.
