By Jason Stockman - In the previous Pre-Game Drill (“Pre-Game I – Quick Shot Parade”) we made the most of pre-game warm-up time by using the entire team to work on shooting while getting the keeper ready for the game. In this next installment of pre-game drills however, we’re going to dial in the focus
Continue readingBy Josh Jones-Keen - Warm up’s for all players is vitally important for match day preparation. As well as having the body prepped it is important to have the mind warmed up. Keepers are often sacrificed in the warm up for the sake of the outfield players having an opportunity to score resulting in an unwarm
Continue readingOne of the perks of being apart of WORLD CLASS COACHING is that I have access to a large library of training sessions from some of the top professional, collegiate, and youth coaches. We have published books and videos on every aspect and topic of coaching.
I often refer to our videos especially for new ways to approach topics to keep my coaching fresh and interesting to the players I work with. I think we’re all probably guilty of using the same few drills or exercises for a specific technique over and over. This can be a good thing because it allows us to focus on teaching the game rather than having to spend a lot of time teaching the drill. But changing things up on occasion can breath new life into a stale session and
Continue readingThis was a topic of a podcast on CoachingSoccerWeekly.com but I'm sure their are some coaches that read this blog that haven't heard the podcast or visited the web site.
I've also included the printable show notes that I created for this episode at the bottom of the page.
The warm-up activity you choose is important to get your players mentally and physically ready for the session. Your players are usually coming from school or other activities and you need to get their attention and focus before they’re ready to learn what you have to teach.
Fun warm-up games are a great way to engage players of any age. I think we sometimes forget that unless we’re working with professional teams ( and I doubt that anyone listen to this podcast is )we’re coaching kids. These kids are playing soccer mostly because they enjoy it. The more they enjoy what they’re doing the more eager they will be to listen and learn what you have to teach them.
Some of these games have names that might indicate to you that they are only for young players. I’ve used them with teams of every age from U8 to U18. I suggest that
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Continue readingA dynamic warm up is vital to a successful training session. There are many different versions and mixed feelings regarding whether there needs to be a ball involved or not. Many feel any time in training that doesn’t utilize a ball is wasted time. I, and others, feel it’s more important to get a good warm up and to have the players truly ready (both physically and mentally) for when the ball is then added to the warm up.
In this activity, start with 4 cones in a line, 10 yards apart. Another 2 cones are in a different line 10 yards apart and 10 yards to the side of this first line. 2 more cones are in a similar line 10 yards to the
Continue readingBy Tony Englund -
Goalkeeping warm-ups typically feature isolated handling and footwork exercises, and one of our points of emphasis in our club setting is to roll these two elements together in the warm-up to create more efficient and realistic training. This article features a trio of simple, favorite means of mixing these critical elements in the warm-up.
#1: Zig-Zag and Save
The goalkeeper does footwork through the
Continue readingBy Patrick Kasperitis -
The modern goalkeeper is required to use their feet almost more often than their hands. Players like Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich FC and German National Team) and Hope Solo (Seattle Reign and US Women’s National Team), whose stories involve relatively late changes in position to playing as a goalkeeper made their ability to play with their feet seem almost natural. On the opposite side we see fantastic shot stoppers like Simon Mignolet, who plays for Liverpool FC in England, come under immense criticism for his relative short comings playing with his feet.
The skills they use to help their team to play out of the back are things that we can train. We want to try to replicate situations they might see in the game. One of these examples is when the goalkeeper is asked to swing the ball from side to side. Our defenders in front of us are under pressure, we want our team mates to be able to be comfortable playing the ball back to us so that we can get to the
Continue readingBy Patrick Kasperitis -
A warm-up is intended to be a wake-up exercise for the mind as well. We need to prepare our goalkeepers to be able to focus on a specific task with many different stimulants around them. This warm-up exercise will incorporate functional agility movements with handling and playing with the feet.
The exercise is set up as below. I generally look to do all footwork at least off to the side of the goal for two reasons: 1) preserve the integrity of the ground inside of the goal area, and 2) when doing work with our feet, I ask our goalkeepers to try and avoid taking touches inside of the frame of the
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Continue readingLately I've begun many of my training sessions with a game. Not necessarily as a Whole - Part - Whole practice progression but just as a way to engage the players from the start and get them energized and excited to at training.
This is a game that I've used as a warm-up and in the main part of the session. I like it because of how many different things you can coach depending on your focus. As with most small-sided games, the kids really enjoy playing it so they get a lot out of it.
Here is how the field is set up:
The size of the field and goals can vary based on the
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Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a warm up for combination play with a little bit of pressure.
There are two groups of four in a 20 x 20 grid with two balls. To start I’ll show this with only one group. Two players are on end lines and the other two are in the middle. The ball starts with one of the outside players.
The player on the outside starts by
Continue readingThis week I want to share a warm-up that I've used with every age group I coach. It's a fun and dynamic game that can be used to prepare for many different types of sessions. It's based on a simple game of Tag. The first thing I do is have all of the players give
Continue readingA good pregame warm-up should get a team physically and mentally prepared to play from the first whistle. You can look for some patterns that may point to a need to change how your team warms up before matches.
Does your team often have a slow start or go down a goal early?
Does your team always play better in the second half?
If you answer yes to these question then the issue may
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a simple warm up for 2 (or more) keepers.
Start with 6 balls (for 2 keepers, if 3 keepers use 8 balls) making two 4 x 4 squares. A keeper starts in each square and there are servers 10 yards from each square with balls.
One of the servers is designated as the caller and he can
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a simple warm up that works on collapse dives, high balls and footwork.
Start with a keeper and a server. The server is 10 yards in front of the keeper with a ball.
The server throws a ball to the keepers side and the keeper
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a warm up that works on short passing, turning while receiving the ball, dribbling, turning off the dribble and longer passes.
Start with server with a ball and a player 30 yards away (in this example, there is only one server and one player but you would have many going at the same time in a team training session). There should also be a line 15 halfway between the server and player.
The player checks to the ball and the server passes it so
Continue readingBy Daniel Severn
This week’s exercise can be used as a technical warm-up or as the main technical focus of the session. Ideally you will use 4-6 players for this exercise but could add more to a group if necessary. The exercise will be performed at a high tempo and help to develop dribbling, first touch, and sharp changes of direction.
Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below, showing one player with a ball, one waiting behind him and two players at the opposite end.
The player with the ball begins the play by dribbling the ball across towards
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a dribbling and passing warm up game.
Start with 15-18 players in a big circle (40 yard diameter) with a small square (5 x 5) in the middle
Start with one player having a ball. This player dribbles into
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays featured activity is a great warm up for working on hands and footwork.
Start with 4 cones in a 3 x 3 square. A keeper is at one of the back cones and a server is 10 yards in front of the cone with a ball.
The keeper starts by sliding side to side to the other back cone and then
Continue readingBy Daniel Severn
This week’s exercise can be used as a multi-purpose exercise. It is a very fun game that will get your players pushing themselves to the limit. It is also a very effective way to start a session as a warm up as it has very positive effects on team communication as well as getting them thinking and using their ‘soccer brains’ from the start of the session.
Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below.
Above, we have 3 teams of 2 players ready to compete against one another. Each team has 4 objects in front of them (in this case, a small cone, a ball, a tall cone and a flag) spaced approximately 5 yards from each other. This is a speed and agility exercise which involves quick thinking from the active player as well as
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a team warm up that helps the keeper with catching, footwork, and coming forward.
Start with two lines of players 30 yards apart. Each player has a ball. There is a 3 x 3 square in the middle with a keeper.
The keeper is defending the square. He picks one side to
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