Teaching Soccer

[Raider Nation Fisher]

I'm not calling it coaching anymore, at least in regards to 4 and 5 year olds. My team has improved tremendously since their first game this year. They are currently 5 and 1 on the season. Even though we "don't" keep score. My son almost scored his first goal Saturday. His team mate set a corner kick in front of the goal and he missed the goal by two inches. He was so excited it didn't matter that he missed. I've finally got them to where they will pass the ball and not steal it from one another. That's taken a tremendous amount of effort on my and my assistants part. They have learned to cross the ball now as well. I've been focusing heavily on the point, that making a beautiful assist or pass is better than actually scoring. I feel that its finally starting to sink in. They have the basics down pat for the most part now too. I even have a couple that drop back to play defense. I didn't reach them that. They came up with that idea on their own. I'm loving this. These kids are looking more like a soccer team and less like a scrum of kids now. None of the other teams we play are any where close to this. I love getting to do this and watch my son and his friends improve every week.

[slonezp]

[USNADrs]

That is awesome!I remember when I use to play soccer growing up and my coaches always put in a lot of effort to help us improve and it showed. We were undefeated for the 2 years I played. Kudos to you sir!

[Raider Nation Fisher]

That is awesome!I remember when I use to play soccer growing up and my coaches always put in a lot of effort to help us improve and it showed. We were undefeated for the 2 years I played. Kudos to you sir!

Well thank ya.

[quanjig]

You have the perfect mind set to TEACH these lil uns the game rather than try and coach them! Most parents that have kids interested in soccer have no clue about the game let alone the ability to try and educate them on how the game is played. Good work, the parents of the other players are lucky to have you out there!

When I played, I always thought being the guy that could make it look easy for someone else to score was my favorite thing to do!

[Raider Nation Fisher]

You have the perfect mind set to TEACH these lil uns the game rather than try and coach them! Most parents that have kids interested in soccer have no clue about the game let alone the ability to try and educate them on how the game is played. Good work, the parents of the other players are lucky to have you out there!

When I played, I always thought being the guy that could make it look easy for someone else to score was my favorite thing to do!

My teams i played on were always horrible. I think we 4 games in 4 years. I played midfielder 2 years. And defender 2 years. I loved checking a stealing the ball. That was my favorite part. Steal it and boot it to my team mate. Scoring was fun too, however I would rather cross it in front and have someone else drill it in. It took more skill in my opinion to set the shot up then to actually make the goal. Defense was my favorite though.

[quanjig]

I was always smaller than the other players, in H.S especially! I made the varsity as a sophomore and started every game. I was listed in the program at 5'8" 160lbs. I might have been 5'4" and 140 soaking wet! Don't get me wrong, I had been playing since I was 8 and knew how to play the game and was built like a tree trunk. You couldn't knock me off the ball but I could send you flying if I wanted to, correctly, not fouling. Most of the HS coaches were football coaches trying to make an extra buck, they were not knowledgable on how the game is played and I always got labled as a dirty player. The refs knew the game and I was never called for anything that they thought was a bad play. Nothing like knocking a guy off the ball sending him sprawling to the ground, getting the ball and sending your teammate down the field to score!!

[GeorgiaBassBros]

Not a huge soccer guy but I've been coaching a youth lacrosse team with my dad since they were in 5th grade, its amazing to see them improve so dramatically. they just played their last middle school game today. Got choked up at the end of game speech, time to start over with a new group next year.

[Busy]

Great to empasize passing!  The ball moves faster than anything out there!  Passing backwards is ok too, make the other team chase the ball, not you.  Good that some of them are playing defense.  When they can stay spread out around the field and pass well the game will get much more easy.  We always put empasis on triangles.  Three guys around the ball want to make a triangle and not a line.  That makes passing much eaiser and gets kids moving without the ball.  I got to work with some young kids a while back and we just practiced shooting.  Just having someone to help show them the form made them improve a lot in a short time.