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Mar, 2013

Practice Makes Perfect

Since the rainy season is upon us and practices may be canceled, I wanted to provide a good outlet for ideas for practicing with your child at home, as well as explain a little about sills and how the game is played. I hope you find this informational and helpful when practicing with your child at home.

Basic Soccer Skills
An overview of basic soccer skills in regards to the technique and different types of skills we can develop. When beginning to learn basic soccer skills, it is important to remember soccer is a simple game, not an easy one. Individual players need to learn how to receive a soccer ball and control it, then to either pass the ball to someone else on their team, run with the ball, all the time remembering that the aim is to score a goal. Soccer is not about who can run the fastest, who can kick the ball the hardest and who can be the most aggressive. It is much more subtle than that, in fact the players that stand out have mastered the most basic soccer skills, these are the ones with the lightest touch on the ball, players who caress the ball and seem like they have the ball attached to their foot. Just take a look at Lionel Messi in action to see what I mean! So in order to improve as a soccer player it is important to spend as much time as possible with a soccer ball working on basic soccer skills, and that doesn’t mean just showing up for practice a couple of times a week. Anyone Can Practice Basic Soccer Skills Anyone anywhere in the world with the motivation and time to practice basic soccer skills can do so, this accessibility of the sport to the masses is a large factor in soccer’s popularly around the world. All you need is a little bit of space and a soccer ball (or a make shift soccer ball) and you can start taking steps to becoming the player you dream of becoming.

Anyone Can Practice the basic soccer skills to begin, and a very simple way of doing this is with kicking against a wall. Begin by playing the soccer ball against the wall and then receive it back focusing on your control. There are many methods of control you can practice (side foot control, top of foot control, bottom of the foot control, controlling with the thigh, chest and head). You can also work on your passing (side foot pass, driven pass, chip, lob, outside of foot, toe pass). I literally spent countless hours as a kid either playing the ball against a wall at my school before and after school and at the weekends. Practice makes perfect in all walks of life and soccer is no different. Running with the ball is easy to practice, just set yourself little challenges, obstacles to overcome. Practice keeping the ball close to you to simulate dribbling past opponents as well as playing the ball out in front of you and sprinting towards the ball to simulate breaking away from the opposition into space. You can watch soccer on the TV or better yet live and then go out and copy the various moves and feints seen and try to emulate your soccer heroes. Many dribbles/feints have been named after famous players such as the “Stanley Matthews,” the “Peter Beardsley” etc. You need an opponent to practice shielding the ball, that’s where you basically prevent the other player from getting to the ball with obstructing them, more of that later. So, don’t convince yourself in order to improve your soccer skills you need an organized practice, coach and assistant coach, cones, flags and a team to practice with. Get out there on an open space in a safe environment with your ball and just have fun with it. Be creative, imagine yourself playing in a big game on the television, pretend you are Ronaldo or Messi or Rooney and just have a blast! One thing to remember, it doesn’t matter if you are an amateur player or a professional player with a household name, it is still important to work on the basics every single day. I attended a coaching course with the Scottish Football Association and I was amazed to discover that even super star players had to practice the basic soccer skills of passing and controlling the ball at the beginning of each practice. As the team becomes more serious and of a higher standard, basic soccer skills will be practiced in a more focused technical way, really getting down to the finer details. Amateur teams and player will practice their soccer skills in a more general way.
Get out there and start practicing!
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