Teaching Soccer Moves to Your Players

One of the real trends taking place in US soccer now is a renewed focus on developing technical skills. The ability to run at a defender and beat him off the dribble will cause all kinds of chaos for the defense.

Unfortunately, most youth soccer teams put misplaced focus on team tactics and harnessing the strengths of their players. 8 year olds don't need to learn tactics, they need to master the fundamentals of dribbling, passing and shooting.

When teaching the moves, you will want to demonstrate the move, break it down step by step and have your players practice it in free space. Next have them practice the moves in a crowded area. Mark off a grid and put all your players inside of it. Have them dribble and then perform a specific move when you call it out.

Next, have one player dribble while another player applies light pressure. The final step is to have them incorporate it in a game situation. During your scrimmage you can set rules where players must beat someone off the dribble before they can score. Or give extra points (goals) to teams that show exceptional skill and creativity with the ball.

There are several excellent products on the market that you can use to help teach soccer moves to your players. We've detailed a couple of them below...

Footability

The Footability System will provide the tools necessary to increase your technical speed, improve your comfort level on the ball, instill the confidence to be creative and inspire you to reach your full potential.

The creators of The Footability System, Chris Martinez and Rivers Guthrie, have a combined 16 years of professional soccer experience. This system introduces the base system and set-up and get-away touch techniques.

These tools help develop two-footed soccer players and teach how to get in and out of moves efficiently and effectively.

Each DVD in the system (Footability & Footability II) break down 6 new moves in detail along with a system that can be used to develop extremely fast feet and technical skills. One of the nice features of this product is that it shows the soccer moves in game situations against defenders so you can see how they work.

For more info about the Footability System click here

Make Your Move

This 3-part DVD series is a further development of the Coerver Coaching method, widely regarded as the World's Number One Soccer Skills Teaching Method.

There are skills, drills and games showing how, when and where to use such skills. Included in this series are change of direction moves, stops and starts, feints, plus incorporating speed to skills by way of further drills and games.

This DVD series should be used as an integral aid for all youth football coaches and teacher sessions/lesson planning, while also suitable for enthusiastic players to practice on their own.

The best part of the DVD series is that it gives you locations on the field that the moves are most effective to perform. The DVD also shows the moves in action against defenders so you can see how they break down opponents.

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