Soccer Practices

Nothing is more rewarding than watching a confident player showing off newly developed skills. The truth of the matter is that the single thing that makes every great athlete a great athlete is practice. Soccer is not different; the greats Pele, Ronaldo, and Beckham all have this in common. They practiced constantly to the point of exhaustion and beyond. It is practice that gives you both the skill and the confidence to be able to make the passes and the shots that make all the difference in a game. If you want to be a great soccer player then you must commit yourself to daily practice from now on.

Soccer is an explosive sport where your body needs to be running at 100% in order to get the most out of your performance. Before you even think about running speed workouts you must first devise a warm up plan that will help you prepare to compete at high speeds and intensities.When planning a soccer practice, you should design a session to improve a skill or tactic in which your team needs to improve. Whether it's on the team level or individual level, you should have a clear, defined goal of what you want to achieve. To do this, you must first have a good idea of your team's deficiencies. This can be discovered by analysing the team during scrimmages or games.

When creating your soccer practice plan, make sure to include organizational items such as field size, placements of goals, and the number of goals to facilitate a particular skill or tactic. Keep in mind that larger grid size allows the players to have greater success, where the smaller grid makes the area tighter, decisions must be made quicker and is more challenging. Also, make sure your coaching points are clear and you understand how or who can demonstrate the skill or tactic. With a team of 11 players, practice is an essential part of match preparation. In an individual sport, you can gauge how good you are relative to your skills. However, in a team sport such as soccer, you have to gauge your skills relative to the other 10 players around you.

Soccer players of all ages should warm up before every soccer event and cool down after every soccer event. The number one reason revolves around reducing the likelihood of a soccer related injury. Although warming up is often overlooked by coaches of younger players, a good warm up and cool down should become part of a teams routine. An effective warm up must consist of a series of dynamic and active movements that start with low impact, low intensity exercises and progress naturally to high intensity, full speed exercises that simulate the intensity of the upcoming practice or competition.Soccer practice provides you with the vehicle to do this. You need to practice certain moves and drills so every member of the team will know their role come game time. It may be set plays such as free kicks or corners or it may be trying to adapt your skills to random moves during open play. Whatever the case, soccer practice helps you hone your abilities.

Soccer practice is also useful in helping your team iron out deficiencies. The team may have made some mistakes in their previous match. Practice offers a good time for the coach to go over those errors and help the players correct any flaws. A research says, “During practice, players had three injuries per 1,000 hours of playing time. Meanwhile, they had 35 injuries per 1,000 hours of game time. That means players were 12 times more likely to get hurt during games as compared to practice!"

Some Tips for Soccer Practice:

Practice Time: Brazilian Soccer Players use every minute of their free time to the practice. But there is no exact answer on this one but I always recommend you to practice as soon as you have time.

Weather: Other problem you may face is bad weather. If you really feel that you don't want to go out and kick the ball then don't do it. However, you could practice inside to increase your strength by doing sit-up's and push-ups. Brazil soccer players always practice whether it is raining or the sun is shining. This is why they are so good.

Ball Size: Use a small ball for soccer practice instead of regular one. The reason for why to use a small ball is that a small ball is harder to control but when you gain enough skill to control a small ball, your skills will directly increase when using your regular practice ball. If you want proof on this one, start to juggle for 10 min or so using a pretty small ball. Change then to your regular ball, what happens? :-)

Playing on Sand:
Playing on sand will give you great balance and ball control; however it is not the easiest thing to find, especially not in countries that have colder weather circumstances comparing to Brazil. One idea is to practice on sand only during the summer month. Keep in mind that you should not wear any shoes or socks while playing on sand. The reason for this is that your touch on the ball will get more natural.

Never give up: Do not loose hope. Try try again and don't think that we can not do. You should not therefore feel like it is the end of the world if you have not managed to pass a tryout.

Dos and Do nots;

Do:

1. Be organized, have a practice plan and get there 10 minutes early to check the field and set up for your first Practice Game.

2. Be sure each child has a ball.

3. The key to improvement is "touches" on the ball. Ideally, each player should be dribbling, passing, kicking or playing in a Practice Game for the entire practice. Try to plan your practice so each child will get at least 100 touches on the ball.

4. Encourage parents to bring players to practice on time.

Do Nots:

1. Don't have players standing around watching or standing in lines while only a few practice with the ball (you won't be able to totally avoid this, but you can minimize it).

2. Don't scrimmage too much. Only scrimmage for 10-15 minutes at the end of practice.