In kids soccer drills, it’s surprising that warm up before playing is considered unimportant. It is obligatory for me as a coach to highlight the fact that warm up sessions before practice is compulsory and helps players begin their day at a brilliant note. In youth soccer drills, this point is easily skipped by many coaches. The result is injuries to players while performing drills.
This article gives you some nice tips on how to get the team warmed up. Teach the players to warm up by following those body movements that help all muscles to work up. This is by far the best way to activate all the body parts. Doing things fast can lead to cramps or stiffness in the muscles.
Tip 1: In this make the players go for a light 5 to 7 minute jog. A few minutes of jogging and then moving on to sprinting is the best proposition. The pulse rate must get to 120 beats per minute in this. However, slow progress is the key. Then make them swing their legs forward cross-body for about 10 times each. Finally, over 20 yards, make them stretch actively.
Tip 2: But make sure that this active stretching over 20 yards goes with a few warm up exercises of its own. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. You can also teach them cross stepping. They must also be taught high-knee carioca. You can have these performed similar to sprinting.
Backward run is also a highly effective warm up drill in soccer drills for kids. But the best way to carry it out is to raise the heels up 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. The players can be taught to hop with swings and loops. These result in giving an extra edge to the skipping exercises. Also have your players do the cross-over hopping. Quick Hip Swings is somewhat difficult to practice but it highly useful and a tried and tested technique to warm up the body.
Subsequently the players can be made to do long shuffle with spins midway. Have the players move back and forth using their legs. It’s a very efficient activity and helps in toning the body. Similarly high leg forward and backward is very useful too.
Tip 4: Stretching should be carried out properly and sufficiently. Stretch hinging is most beneficial for the legs. Guarantee that all kids work out their hamstring, groin, calf muscles, and quadriceps without missing any of these. Stretching has the benefit of preventing injury along with increasing the muscle range.
In soccer drills for youth, another important thing to ensure is that kids don’t do too much of anything. They tend to get carried over by enthusiasm and injure themselves unnecessarily.
In kids soccer drills, you have to guarantee that kids attend the warm up sessions before the drills as you are now equipped with all the necessary information. You can get a variety of information on same topic on our youth soccer coaching community. Sign up now to benefit from it.
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