The age group between U6 to U9 is sometimes referred to as the ‘Fun stage’. In a lot of cases the kids have been encouraged to play the game by their parents or their friends at school are playing soccer so they want to play with them. It is an age where they are to young both mentally and physically to cope with the more tactical and technical elements of the game. It is however an age where they can still be exposed to the basic soccer training skills and have fun while doing it.

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Some sports only offer players the opportunity to compete against other teams from their own country, with international play only possible during the Olympic Games. However, [tag-tec]soccer[/tag-tec] is one sport that offers its players the chance to compete against teams from all over the world every four years outside of the Olympics. The competition is known as the [tag-tec]Soccer World Cup[/tag-tec].

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Should your child be lifting weights to improve their strength for soccer? As a soccer coach, have you incorporated a soccer weight training program into your overall training program for the team? If you have, is it being properly supervised? There has been a lot of comment and discussion regarding resistance training for younger players. Some have said that it will lead to injury, others have said that it will damage the childs bone development. If done incorrectly, yes, these things may occur. Read on to find out what type of program you should put in place for the youth soccer player.

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Practicing [tag-tec]soccer drills[/tag-tec] is a key focus for all of us [tag-tec]coaching youth soccer[/tag-tec].  However, do any of the [tag-tec]soccer drills[/tag-tec] that you apply to soccer training sessions, address aggression?  As we all know, [tag-tec]Soccer[/tag-tec] can be a very aggressive sport. I have heard it said that soccer is only for kids who have burly and muscular structures, that is not true. A child may be small, slim and maybe a bit shy but that is not a reason why they should not be playing [tag-tec]soccer[/tag-tec] if they want to.

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[tag-tec]Coaching youth soccer[/tag-tec] is not difficult, except when you are having trouble winning a soccer game!  Do you find yourself standing on the sideline watching the opposition score one, two, maybe three goals against you in a short period of time and your thinking to yourself – How am I going to fix this? Well, firstly, you should be focusing on these 7 things while you’re coaching. 

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Good question!  After all, there are plenty of other sports you can choose for your child to play.  You can either register them in a team sport like baseball or basketball or an individual sport like golf, the choices are plentiful. What makes [tag-tec]Soccer[/tag-tec] so special and is it better than any other sport?

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[tag-tec]Coaching youth soccer[/tag-tec] you will need some soccer coaching equipment to get you started and assist in your soccer training session.  When I started out coaching U5 and U6 players, all that was required were a few [tag-tec]soccer balls[/tag-tec] and a few markers to form a small grid.  As the kids became older and started to play on larger fields and[tag-tec] soccer drills[/tag-tec] became more technical, my requirements as a coach changed.

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This will be a totally unbiased account of the recent [tag-tec]Australian soccer[/tag-tec] ‘A’ League  fixture between [tag-tec]Sydney FC[/tag-tec] and the [tag-tec]Central Coast Mariners[/tag-tec]. Well maybe a little biased, you have to forgive me at the outset, I am a very one-sided Mariners fan.  The game was played at our home ground, sorry, I mean at the Mariners home ground on the Central Coast of NSW.  To say this game had everything would be an understatement, 2 send-offs, 9 goals with 9 different scorers, 2 penalties and the match decided in the 93rd minute.  Some saying, the greatest A-League game ever and a great advertisement for [tag-tec]Australian soccer[/tag-tec].

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