The best time to improve soccer skills

The best time to improve soccer skills

The season is over and summer is almost upon us.  It’s break time for players, coaches and also for parents. No hectic schedule for midweek practices and weekend games. No worrying about winning the championship or even winning the next game.  Everything is on hold until next season.

Breaks are important in that they give us much needed time to relax and rest our bodies and minds.  It’s also time for reflection on the right and wrong of what transpired during the season and how we can improve.  We have time to take assessment of our own personal role in the team’s performance.  How can we make ourselves more valuable to our team next season?  From a coaching standpoint we can learn new training methods, observe how successful teams achieved their success, and encourage our players to continue to improve their individual skill levels during the off season.  You might also work on our own ball skills so you can be a better demonstrator of skills to your players.  Players respect the coaches’ skills very much and will try to imitate to earn praise.

Actually the off season is the best time to develop individual ball skills.  During the season the most important thing on the team’s mind is usually winning the championship, whatever it takes to win. Team tactics usually take priority in training sessions with some time given to technique and conditioning at each practice.  During the stress of making the starting lineup and performing under pressure is not the best time to improve your individual skills.  The best time to improve your individual technique is when your mind is relaxed and fresh and you can focus on improving your skills.  Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is the starting point.  Always try to improve your strengths but pay special attention to your weaknesses such as improving your weak foot and areas that always need improving such as running with the ball keeping your head up, playing on your toes, improving touch on the ball and keeping it close to your body as you dribble and of course your quickness, strength and speed.  These are things you can do at home or in your own back yard.

Practicing in the offseason can be fun especially when you see improvement.  Improving individual skills is a great way to build self-esteem and self-confidence not only in soccer but in life in general. As you build your individual skills you raise the bar for other players on your team to reach and in doing so help make your team better. You will be surprised in how quickly you will improve once you make a personal commitment and spend some time every day to work on your skills.  Remember once you master the skills they are yours for life.  Of course you can always refine them but they will be with you forever and dramatically raise the satisfaction you get from playing this beautiful game

By Richard Moore – Inventor of

The Kick Coach

www.thekickcoach.com