Its unbelievable how underrated the importance of warming up in kids soccer drills is. 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, coaches fail to take this aspect into consideration. This has an end result in terms of injuries to players when in the practice sessions.
You will find some great tips on warming up your team before practice sessions. Teach the kids to include all the body movements that allow all muscles in the body to get worked up. This is by far the best way to activate all the body parts. If the movements are intense, body could become stiff or develop cramps.
Tip 1: Have the players jog for about 5-7 minutes initially. A few minutes of jogging and then moving on to sprinting is the best proposition. In this, the pulse rate should reach 120 beats per minute. Yet, the rate should increase gradually. Next, make the players sway their legs, front and back, which should take roughly 10 minutes each. To conclude, the players should vigorously stretch their body more than 20 yards.
Tip 2: When we talk about this active stretching over 20 yards, a few warm up exercises of its own must go along with it. Like the players can bounce backward and forward. Teach the players cross stepping as well. High-knee carioca can also be taught to players. These must be carried out just like sprinting.
Running towards the back also accounts a very efficient warm up drill in soccer drills for kids. However the right way to do it is to kick up the heels to the butt. No matter how difficult it may be to practice this but it’s the sole method or performing it accurately.
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 result in giving an extra edge to the skipping exercises. The players can also be told to do cross-over bounce. Although a little advanced, Quick Hip Swings is also a very effective and tested method that warms up the body a great deal.
Then you can tell your players to do long shuffles with rotations in the middle. Make them practice forward and backward leg swings. It’s a very efficient activity and helps in toning the body. In the same way, high leg forwards and backwards is also very effective.
Tip 4: Stretching must be appropriately and effectively performed. The legs benefit the most out of stretch hinge. 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.
In soccer drills for youth, it is also important to understand that kids should not overdo anything. They tend to get carried over by enthusiasm and injure themselves unnecessarily.
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’ll find lots and lots of articles and news like this 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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