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, this point is easily skipped by many coaches. The result is injuries to players while performing drills.

In this article, you’ll find some useful tips on warming up the players. The team should be guided to use such body movements that have the effect of warming up all muscles. This is by far the best way to activate all the body parts. Doing things fast can lead to cramps or stiffness in the muscles.

Tip 1: This requires the players to do an easy 5-7 minutes jog. It’s advisable to begin with a light jog and then move on to sprinting. In this, the pulse rate should reach 120 beats per minute. Still, measured growth is preferred. Then make them swing their legs forward cross-body for about 10 times each. Lastly, have them actively stretch their body over 20 yards.

Tip 2: But make sure that this active stretching over 20 yards goes with a few warm up exercises of its own. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. Also teach your players to do cross stepping. High-knee carioca can also be taught to players. You can have these performed similar to sprinting.

Soccer Practice

Backward run is also a highly effective 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 doubt, it is a little difficult to practice it this way but there’s no other way of correctly doing it.

Tip 3: There are various other warm up drills in kids soccer drills that build up the energy for practice sessions. Have your players bounce with rings and swings. The skipping exercises get an additional length form these. You can also make them cross-over skip. 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.

Next, make the players do long shuffles with turns in the middle. Make them practice forward and backward leg swings. It has the effect of toning the body in an effective and easy way. Equally effective are high leg forwards and backwards.

Tip 4: Stretch adequately and complete it in the approved manner. For the legs, stretch hinging works the best. 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.

It is also essential to note that in soccer drills for youth, kids abstain from overdoing anything. They tend to get carried over by enthusiasm and injure themselves unnecessarily.

Now that you are armed with this information about kids soccer drills, ensure that kids do warm ups before performing the drills. 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: Soccer Coaching