| Young players love races. Especially Olympic soccer races. There’s are a series of drills or moves or just a sequence of things players have to do in a competition. Kids love competition and having winners. It creates a certain amount of pressure too. But races are also fun. Barcelona loves go do these types of sequence drills.
Some soccer coaches might call them relay races, either way, getting your players to do a series of skills helps them master these skills while under pressure and at speed. While Barcelona players may not be necessarily competing against one another, there’s always an element of who can do it best or get down first. With your youth soccer team try Olympic races, with a gold, silver and bronze awards giving out! Plus, soccer is all about patterns of play, which are sequences of things done on the soccer field with perfection. Field size: half or full field area Number of players: full team Age range: 10-12 Description: Setup different drills in different sections of the field from plyometrics to juggling to dribbling moves, to sit ups and push ups, and make this into an Olympic like event where the top three players receive a gold, silver and bronze medal for for finishing in the top three. Have two players go two at a time through the course and then the next two once the first two have complete the first section of the course. This way you can keep the drill moving along at a fast pace. For the Olympic course, maybe the players have a section where they juggle ten times, next they jump over the ball twenty times, then they pass the ball so it hits a cone, dribble through a series of cones, head the ball up in the air five times, and so on. All of these tasks located in a different part of the field so they have to run to it. Each player enters the race as an individual. Time the players and see who finishes with the best time. It’s best to have two stop watches, and two coaches keeping times of the players. Otherwise, it’s tough to keep track of all the times. If it’s too difficult to keep track of the players times, then split the team into two groups and make it a team event. The team that finishes with the best time wins. Extra: One day during the week you can have an individual challenges day and keep track, say of juggling totals or times dribbling through a course of cones, and then at the end of the season you can look back at the numbers and award a prize. It’s best to do most drills with the ball, but you can also have some fitness drills or sprint work – say a forty-yard dash. Get ideas from your players too, which drills or events they want to compete in and this way they’ll be more passionate about the drill since they helped created it. Equipment needed: Cones and practice vests. Some more fun relay type races you can do with your soccer team. |
Soccer Olympic Races
