It’s sad to know that people fail to appreciate the importance of warming up in kids soccer drills. Being a coach, I’d let it be known that warming up is not only compulsory but is even critical to begin the day’s play at a brighter and healthier note. This issue is conveniently ignored as unimportant by the coaches in youth soccer drills. This has an end result in terms of injuries to players when in the practice sessions.
This article will provide you an insight into warming up techniques for the team. Train the team to use the body movements in a way that all the muscles get worked up. This is the most effective way to liven up all muscles in the body. Warming up in haste could cause cramping or stiffness of the body muscles.
Tip 1: Have the players jog for about 5-7 minutes initially. A few minutes of jogging and then moving on to sprinting is the best proposition.
This must increase the pulse rate to at least 120 beats per minute. But, slow improvement is better. Then make them swing their legs forward cross-body for about 10 times each. Lastly, have them actively stretch their body over 20 yards.
Tip 2: When we talk about this active stretching over 20 yards, a few warm up exercises of its own must go along with it. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. Teach the players cross stepping as well. They must also be taught high-knee carioca. These can be implemented just like sprinting.
In soccer drills for kids, an extremely helpful warm up drill is backward running. However the right way to do it is to kick up the heels to the butt. No doubt, it is a little difficult to practice it this way but there’s no other way of correctly doing it.
Tip 3: There are other essential warm up exercises in kids soccer drills that build up the momentum to the actual session. You can direct your players to play with circles and hoops. These give an extra dimension to the skipping exercises. Also have your players do the cross-over hopping. Quick Hip Swings, though it’s slightly complex, can also be used to warm up the body intensively as it’s a very valuable and tested means.
Then you can tell your players to do long shuffles with rotations in the middle. Make them practice forward and backward leg swings. It’s a very efficient activity and helps in toning the body. In the same way, high leg forwards and backwards is also very effective.
Tip 4: Stretch adequately and complete it in the approved manner. For the legs, stretch hinging works the best. Make sure all players have worked out their quadriceps, calves, hamstring, and groin without fail. Stretching has the benefit of preventing injury along with increasing the muscle range.
Also ensure that in soccer drills for youth, kids are discouraged from overdoing anything. The kids get carried over in excitement and end up injuring themselves for no reason due to this.
Now that you are armed with this information about kids soccer drills, ensure that kids do warm ups before performing the drills. There is a wealth of news and articles of similar nature on our youth soccer coaching community. Sign up now to benefit from it.
Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Drills.
