Practicing Corner Kicks

When coaching especially in the rec leagues, we tend to practice skills. At some point, it becomes necessary to move beyond skills and into situations the boys or girls will see during the game. This week at soccer practice, we took some time to talk about corner kicks.

The first thing we started with is where should everyone be during a corner kick. This is different depending on how many kids are on the field at a time. We play 8v8 in 3rd grade, with three forwards and two mid fielders. With this alignment, we have the mid fielder on the corner kick side taking the kick, the three forwards in front of the goal, and the second mid fielder on the side of the field of the corner kick.

As the kick occurs, the mid fielders rotate to their positions on the field as the forwards try to score the goal. Since this is a rec league, we are trying to teach everyone the proper position for corner kicks and giving everyone a chance to do a corner kick. In the competitive leagues, we would want our player with the best kick taking the corner kick. Sometimes we'll have a defensive player take the kick so that the forwards and the mid fielders can be near the goal.

For some more strategies involving corner kicks for older age groups, visit the following link http://soccer-fans-info.com/corner-kicks.html

Fall's 1st Soccer Practice

This year I'm coaching 3rd grade boys for the Wheatland Athletic Association in Aurora, Illinois. Although, the rules don't change too much from 2nd grade, we are adding an eight player onto the field, which will make things a little different for me.

We had our first practice today and it went very well. Most of the kids know each other and played in the spring together, which presents a challenge to one of the other kids. I went to 90 minute practices this season as I wanted the extra time to do a lot of scrimmaging during practice. The enjoyed the extra time more than I thought I would, I was able to do drills longer and had more time for warm ups to start the practice.

I hope the extra time pays off at game time.

Are You Drilling or Having Fun

I've been coaching kids a long time and have learned that the best way to teach kids is to make practice fun. The trick to making practice fun is to be sure they don't know that they are practicing, which means the kids think they are just playing games when really they are learning valuable skills. This is most true for elementary school age kids, where the attention span is very short. Some examples of fun drills include:

Soccer Skills - Sharks and Minnows
Softball Skills - Outfield to Home relay
Basketball Skills - Any game to deal with shooting
Baseball Skills - Around the horn drill

Most sports drills can be setup as some sort of competition or team relay. Another way is to challenge the kids by giving them an incentive to make the coaches do push ups. For example, for my 10U fast pitch softball team, we do the around the horn drill. As an incentive, I ask them how many throws they can make without dropping the ball. The first time I do the drill I will get a number between 10 and 15 throws. If they are able to not drop the ball in the allotted number of throws I will do 20 push ups. If they can't, they have to do 20 push ups. The number at the next practice gets adjusted up or down depending on the outcome. The goal is that the coaches and players end up doing the same amount of push ups by the end of the season.

When you make practice fun, everyone wants to come and the kids will tend to listen to you more.

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