How To Play Soccer- The Basics

Whether you are a novice soccer coach or parent, or a seasoned soccer player just starting to learn how to play soccer, it is always in your best interest to keep up with teaching soccer techniques, soccer drills and soccer moves so that your game will be top notch.

There are some basic steps you should focus on:

Step 1 - How To Bounce, Bend, and Curve a Soccer Ball
To bend and curve a soccer ball are incredible soccer techniques because they allow you to get the ball around defenders in order to maintain possession and take shots on goal that are concealed from the goalkeeper.

It is also useful for corner kicks and crosses into the box.

When bending the ball, you will either use the inside or outside of the foot, depending on which foot you are kicking with and which direction in which you want the ball to go.

If you are using your right foot, then to bend the ball to the left you want to use the inside of your foot to make contact with the right side of the ball. You can swivel slightly on your support foot to get a better kick.

If you want to curve the ball to the right, then you need to bring the outside of your foot in contact with the left side of the ball.

Step 2 - How To Pass a Soccer Ball
On learning how to play soccer, passing is crucial to keeping possession of the ball during a game. While any kick that ends with the ball in the possession of a team-mate is passing, there are proper techniques to use to pass effectively and accurately.

Short passes are most effectively executed by using the inside of the foot because of the large surface available for accurately aiming the ball.

If you are passing long, then the instep is the most effective kick to use. If you need to pass behind, your heel is the used.

Don't ever forget that passing involves communication between the passer and the receiver.

Yours in soccer,

Andre Botelho
http://www.soccerdrillstips.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of footwork soccer and coaching. His web site, www.soccerdrillstips.com provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on how to improve soccer skills and make training more fun and interesting.#BREAK#

How To Teach Soccer Ball Skills

Teaching soccer ball skills is not an easy cake, but by using the following tips and techniques, you can take much pain out of the proceedings. But, while you use these techniques in your training session, you must show patience because players may take time to improve their overall game skills.

Getting Control of the Ball

It is important for a coach to teach the players about how to get and keep control of the ball. For example, when they shoot or kick a ball, they should keep their head down if they want the ball to stay down. Likewise, in order to kick the ball high in the air, they should do so by leaning back and getting under the ball.

Here, it is important to note that the ball may go straight up the players do not keep their knee over the ball. To let the ball fly high in the air, the players must keep their knee over the ball while leaning back and getting under the ball.

Teaching Accurate Shooting

In a soccer game, the team that knows how to shoot on target accurately wins. Therefore, teaching your players to shoot the ball with accuracy is very important. One simple way to improve the accuracy in shooting the ball is to give your players a margin of error between two cones.

You can start with as much as four-meter distance between the cones. Then, as you find improvement in the player?s shooting, you should slowly reduce this distance until it is zero and there is no cone. This is a very effective way to enhance your players? focus to the shooting of the ball.

Teaching the Free-Kicks

Your players must know how to make long free kicks. In this training session, you have to have the players of your team practicing the free kicks. But, while the players are attempting the long free kicks, make sure that you instruct the players to keep their non-kicking foot alongside the ball and pointing in the direction you want the ball to go. Instruct the players to slightly lean back and swing their kicking foot back and forth.

Practice makes the players perfect. Therefore, make sure that you use the above techniques extensively in your various training sessions. After a few sessions, you will certainly find improvement in your team?s game. The above techniques are some of the finest way to enhance numerous soccer ball skills to the young players.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of soccer ball skills. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.

Soccer Goalkeeper Drills-Make Quick Moves

Coaching soccer goalkeeper drills is an important element of soccer coaching. There are several things that a coach needs to consider in order to teach the goalie impressive skills and filed vision. Some of the points that seek a careful consideration by all the coaches are following.

Six Seconds To Kick Or Throw

This is probably the first thing that the coach needs to teach the goalie about. The goalkeeper must keep in mind that he is only allowed six seconds to kick or throw the ball to a teammate.

Therefore, the outlet pass should be quick. However, it should not be that quick as well. In fact, let me put it other way around. The outlet must be quick and accurate. Putting accuracy takes the time. So, the goalkeeper needs to be quick but he must not overlook the accuracy aspect as well.

This is important because this way the receiving player will be in a better position to handle the ball with control. Another important thing that the goalkeeper must learn is that before distributing the ball, they should walk to the front edge of the penalty area.

However, if you are coaching the team of young players, you must keep in mind that you are not supposed to enforce the method in general for younger players.

The Size Of The Field

An expert coach knows that the size of the field matters. One common rule in Soccer goalkeeper drills is that the larger the field, and the further the ball is from the goal, the farther the goalkeeper has to play from the goal to minimize the angle the opponent has on the goal.

Moving In A Semi-Circle From The Center Of The Goal

Another important thing that the coaches must teach the goalkeeper of their team is that he should move in a semi-circle from the center of the goal.

The goalkeeper should be instructed to do so as if he had a string attached to their back from the center of the goal. This will keep them prepared and ready for centering passes.

You never know how fast the ball is coming back. Therefore, when it comes to coaching Soccer goalkeeper drills, you must train the goalkeeper to keep eyes on the ball.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of soccer goalkeeper drills. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.