Kids Soccer Drills: Tips On Warming Up
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010It’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. In youth soccer drills, coaches fail to take this aspect into consideration. This has a direct affect on the health of players in form of injuries while practicing.
You will find some great tips on warming up your team before practice sessions. Teach the players to warm up by following those body movements that help all muscles to work up. This is the correct method of stirring up all the body parts. Rigorous sessions can result in stiffness and cramping of the muscles.
Tip 1: Have the players jog for about 5-7 minutes initially. It is advocated that players begin printing only after a light jogging.
This must increase the pulse rate to at least 120 beats per minute. Still, measured growth is preferred. After this, the players should move their legs back and forth for around 10 minutes each. Players should then finish by energetically stretching their body greater 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. For example, make the players skip forward and backward. You can also teach them cross stepping. Also teach them high-knee carioca. These must be carried out just like 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. It is a little hard to practice this but it is the only correct way of 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 direct your players to play with circles and hoops. These result in giving an extra edge to the skipping exercises. You can also make your players do the intersecting skipping. 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. The players should be made to practice moving their legs backward and forward. It has the effect of toning the body in an effective and easy way. Similarly high leg forward and backward is very useful too.
Tip 4: Stretching must be appropriately and effectively performed. Stretch hinging is most beneficial for the legs. Ensure that every kid works out hamstring, quadriceps, groin and calf without exceptions. 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.
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. You can get a variety of information on same topic on our youth soccer coaching community. Sign up now to benefit from it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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 training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Kids Soccer Drills