It’s amazing to see that the value of warming up in kids soccer drills is underestimated. As a coach, I just cannot emphasize enough that warming up before sessions is not just mandatory but also a great way to kick start your training sessions. In youth soccer drills, this point is easily skipped by many coaches. This has a direct affect on the health of players in form of injuries while practicing.
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 the most effective way to liven up all muscles in the body. If the movements are intense, body could become stiff or develop cramps.
Tip 1: In this make the players go for a light 5 to 7 minute jog. It’s advisable to begin with a light jog and then move on to sprinting. Check that the pulse rate in this reaches 120 beats per minute. Still, measured growth is preferred. Then make them swing their legs forward cross-body for about 10 times each. To conclude, the players should vigorously stretch their body more than 20 yards.
Tip 2: Having said that, do remember that even this active stretching over 20 yards comes with some warm up drills of its own. Like the players can bounce backward and forward. Also teach your players to do cross stepping. Players must also be trained on high-knee carioca. These must be executed as if sprinting.
Running towards the back also accounts a very efficient warm up drill in soccer drills for kids. Still, in order to perform it, the proper way to do it is to jerk up the heels to the butt. It’s actually tough to practice it like this but there’s no choice as it’s the single most and right way of doing it.
Tip 3: In kids soccer drills, there are many other warming up exercises that increase the stamina to perform in the practice sessions. You can direct your players to play with circles and hoops. These give an extra dimension to the skipping exercises. The players can also be told to do cross-over bounce. 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. The players should be made to practice moving their legs backward and forward. It has the effect of toning the body in an effective and easy way. Equally effective are high leg forwards and backwards.
Tip 4: Stretching should be adequate and correctly executed. The legs benefit the most out of stretch hinge. It is for you to see that all kids work out their groin, hamstring, quadriceps, and calf muscles without fail. It is stretching that helps in increasing the range of muscles together with preventing any injury to the player.
It is also essential to note that in soccer drills for youth, kids abstain from overdoing anything. The kids get carried over in excitement and end up injuring themselves for no reason due to this.
In kids soccer drills, it’s for you now to make sure that kids do the warm up exercises before practice sessions as you’ve got all the knowledge on this. You can get a variety of information on same topic on our youth soccer coaching community. Become a member today and 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.