Three tips to improve your soccer coaching

Make your soccer coaching drills real and relevant to your players with these simple tips.

Bring your soccer drills to life

The word "drill" paints a picture of an army parade ground, not a game of soccer. You need to bring your soccer coaching drills alive by helping the players imagine the scenarios they are working on.

Either put the drill into context yourself or challenge the players to see where the soccer drill fits into the game.

Pick out the detail

Drills, unlike games, are designed to highlight and emphasise the exact detail of a technique. It's a useful soccer coaching tip to keep this in mind when you are observing drills, and make sure you comment on the detail and not the whole.

If a pass is too wayward, check the position of the player's feet or follow-through skills. Pick out the detail and coach the player.

Balancing accuracy, speed and technique

A balance must be struck between accuracy, which is where the ball or player is in the right place at the right time, and the way that accuracy was achieved.

Good technique will lead to accuracy, but sometimes unusual technique can have the same effect. Don’t force a player to change if the way they kick or pass works for them, just make them aware of the different techniques. However, don’t compromise accuracy for speed in drills.

If accuracy skills fall significantly as things get faster, slow the soccer drill down again.

Soccer coaching tips


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