We’re back with another three tips on how to improve your team’s excitement for the game! If you didn’t read part 1, you’ll certainly want to check that out as well as this one!
1. Mix it up
You see Top Gun yet? For real, go see it. The reason I bring it up is because good ol’ Tom Cruise takes crucial time that could be spent teaching his students about the mission and instead has them play football. This allows them to overcome some of their harsh feelings towards another, gives them a break, and allows them to destress with the intense mission ahead.
Do this with your team. Instead of playing soccer, bring a frisbee or flag football gear. Have them play capture the flag. Give them a different thing to do and watch them work together in a different way than they have been. Shaking things up will guarantee that your team will come closer and help them enjoy coming to practice.
2. Make it fun
Soccer (and all youth sports) should be fun. I believe that most coaches are tempted to make practice intense with high focus on drills and results. Coaches should instead focus on providing their team with fun and memorable moments to encourage kids to keep playing. I had a difficult time myself getting into soccer because I had a terrible coach that honestly treated everyone like we were professional athletes. At the tender age of 5, this made my first experiences with the sport pretty awful. I never did get over it. Don’t let that happen to your kids!
Don’t be afraid to get in there yourself! It’s always exciting to see the coaches get involved with the practice and play against the kids. It makes practice fun and engaging and gives you the opportunity to be fun and a special part of the team. I had way too many youth coaches that took themselves, the team, practicing and winning way too seriously. If they had made things fun for us, I would have had a much better time on that particular team.
3. Add in new elements to the game
This is where you have there chance to be creative. Why play a simple soccer game when you can totally change up the game and make it more exciting? I’m not sure if you’ve every read Calvin and Hobbes–Calving and his tiger buddy Hobbes play a game called Calvin Ball, in which the game changes as it’s being played. This is something you can easily do during a game to make it fun and challenging. Here are some ideas on how you can change up the game for 1-2 minutes at a time
- Throw in another soccer ball, requiring teams to play both offense and defense at the same time
- Have them run backwards only, or crab walk, or bear crawl
- Have teams switch goals
- Have them only kick with their left foot
- No goalies
There are some awesome games to do with soccer as well. You can do lightning/knock out, HORSE, or you can have them play traditional games while playing soccer, like freeze tag or capture the flag. Doing this will give the kids a different way to bond and enjoy the game, and going back to basics will help make soccer “easier” than it was with the added challenge!
