British Expatriate Network

A friend of mine whose son is playing football (soccer) asked for some help.

Does anyone know of any fun and basic practice games? Also, how do you stop the ball without falling over it? When are you supposed to stop the ball before kicking it, as opposed to kicking it whilst its still moving?

I shall let her know my views I'm just wondering if they may be different from anyone else's.

Info please smile

Zed

try this site ok

http//www.ucs.mun.ca/~dgraham/manual/Pages/basics.html


hope it helps you

How old is he?

Your local library will undoubtedly have several coaching books and many aimed at children, so they don't make it overly complicated.

All the skills you described would be shown step by step with photographs so it is easy to do a dry-run of something like trapping the ball, and then you just need someone to kick it to you so you can try it for real.

Generally, I would say stop the ball if you feel you can't control it on the move or if you wanted to slow down the play. Most children do not develop the thinking skills to do this until they have played a few seasons so it is probably better to get control of it by stopping it dead first.

Some basic games I have played in the past are "Spot", against a wall , either alone or with others - bit like squash I suppose and also "Keep-Away", which is like Piggie in the Middle and works on a number of skills, like stamina, positioning and mainly control. With kids, I would only let the person in the middle stay for a maximum of a minute or less, or it can get very tiring.