It’s amazing to see that the value of warming up in kids soccer drills is underestimated. 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. This issue is conveniently ignored as unimportant by the coaches in youth soccer drills. The result is injuries to players while performing drills.
In this article, you’ll find some useful tips on warming up the players. Teach the kids to include all the body movements that allow all muscles in the body to get worked up. This is the most effective way to liven up all muscles in the body. Doing things fast can lead to cramps or stiffness in the muscles.
Tip 1: Have the players jog for about 5-7 minutes initially. It is highly recommended to start with a light jog and then eventually sprint. In this, the pulse rate should reach 120 beats per minute. But, slow improvement is better. This should be followed by players moving their legs backward and forward for approximately 10 minutes each. To conclude, the players should vigorously stretch their body more than 20 yards.
Tip 2: Talking of active stretching over 20 yards, it should be noted that it should be accompanied with some warm up exercises of its own. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. Also teach your players to do cross stepping. High-knee carioca can also be taught to players. These must be executed as if sprinting.
In soccer drills for kids, running towards the back is also a very useful warm up exercise. 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 make the players skip with loops or swings. These result in giving an extra edge to the skipping exercises. The players can also be told to do cross-over bounce. 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.
After that, have the players do the long shuffles along with twists halfway. Tell the players to practice backward and forward leg swings. This is a highly effective and useful body toning activity. In the same way, high leg forwards and backwards is also very effective.
Tip 4: Stretch adequately and complete it in the approved manner. What works best for the legs is stretch hinging. Guarantee that all kids work out their hamstring, groin, calf muscles, and quadriceps without missing any of these. 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. They tend to get carried over by enthusiasm and injure themselves unnecessarily.
Because all the relevant information on kids soccer drills is shared with you, please see that training sessions are always followed by warm up sessions. There is a wealth of news and articles of similar nature 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.
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