Making the Season Memorable

A child’s experience in organized football can be a defining moment in her young life. Years from now, she won’t remember her team’s record or the number of goals she scored during the season, but she will easily remember whether the time the team spent with you was a positive or negative experience. This article presents some methods you can use to ensure your players have an unforgettable season that will bring a smile to their faces for years to come and make them beg to play again next season.

Coach’s Day Challenge
What do kids love the most about playing soccer? Well, besides scoring goals and wearing great shin guards, they love the opportunities to play – and beat – you, the coach, in any kind of skill challenge. Think for a moment about your athletic experiences growing up and the first time you beat your mom, dad, or coach at a game. The feeling is etched in your memory forever. Kids really love this kind of challenge, so set aside a practice day at some point during the season where every player on the team gets a chance to challenge you in some aspect of football.

With younger children, give them plenty of options to choose from, because they may not have had this opportunity before with other coaches. Here are some fun options:
Let them race against you along the field, dribbling a soccer ball.
Drip through a series of cones to see who can do it faster.
See who can control the ball the longest in a given area, with the other person taking on the role of the defender.
Play a 1 on 1 game in a mini area with a cone as the target that you have to hit with the ball.
If you have players who struggle to learn skills, letting them win may be the confidence boost they need. With some other kids, hitting them with a goal or for a few seconds can give them that extra motivation to work harder at practice so they can win next time.
New exercises
Nothing ruins fun and learning faster than exposing little ones to the same boring practices week after week. Taking the time to introduce a new exercise during each training adds excitement to your sessions and ensures that kids don’t get into an amazing rut. To give them something to look forward to in each exercise, introduce the new exercise at the same point in your sessions. You may find that revealing new exercises at the beginning of a workout, when the young ones are often the most focused and attentive, works best. Or you may find that building anticipation and memorizing the new exercise in the last few minutes of training is a great way to wrap up a session. After establishing a routine, you will find that children eagerly anticipate the opportunity to take part in a fun new workout every time they step onto the field.

Contest day
One of the most effective ways to enhance the camaraderie between the two teams is to dedicate a training session to a series of special competitions. But instead of having the players compete against each other, which only gives your better-skilled juniors a chance to showcase their talents further while keeping the less-skilled kids out, pair up the players early on. By pairing a gifted child with a young man who isn’t quite as skilled, you force the kids to work together, which not only improves their skills, but also gives them the chance to get to know each other better.
As you know, the more familiar children are with each other, the more they will be interested in each other, and this translates to more inspiring play on the playground. Familiarity also increases the support of his teammates who encourage each other to succeed and move forward to provide words of encouragement when things don’t go as planned. You can sow the seeds of long-lasting friendships, which are among the special benefits that come from participating in organized football. If you played soccer or any other sport while you were growing up, you can probably easily remember some of the friendships you made with your teammates.
Includes some sample mini competitions you can run
Pairs timing while passing the ball back and forth a set number of times and running the length of the playing field
Attempt headers where players throw the ball to their partners, who must return it to them (forcing players to work together because the better the lot, the easier it is to head the ball)
Encourage the kids to support their partners, and you can even tell them before the competitions start that you give extra points to those people who show the most support for each other.

Bring new faces
You do a great job training, but every now and then the kids may enjoy the comfort of you, especially if they’ve been with you for several months. Bringing a new face to talk to kids about some aspect of football provides a fresh perspective that can be refreshing and revitalizing. You have a lot of possibilities within your community. A local high school soccer coach, a well-known high school soccer player, coaches, players from a nearby college soccer team, or sports nutritionists (for older kids) are excellent resources.

Just giving the players on your team a chance to hear someone give different advice on performing a particular skill, or some words of encouragement about what it takes to get to the next level, can be very beneficial in the growth and development of your young children.

Festive themes
With young children, holiday-centric practice can be a fun way to mix up routines. If your soccer season extends through the fall, Halloween is a natural to encourage kids to get dressed up. Adjust the exercises accordingly so you don’t have guys running around the field risking getting injured or damaging their uniforms in a brawl.