Indoor Soccer Training

At this time last year my Travel team  (U9 Boys) came off a pretty good Fall soccer season. After starting slow and suffering some pretty heavy defeats early on, they rallied and played some great soccer. The Fall season in Tennessee starts in August and ends at the beginning of November. I had them pre-season training around the middle of July because a lot of them were fresh out of Rec soccer and I thought they needed the extra practice sessions.

I gave them November and December as a time to recuperate, they are just kids after all and I believe that they need time to be kids. In January and February I held two outdoor sessions for about two hours and then we started regular training at the end of February. When they came back they were really rusty, you could tell some of them hadn’t kicked a ball during the winter.

This year (U10), after winning a Championship at a local tournament, I’m determined for them still to get rest, but also to keep ticking over. Here’s what I’m planning on doing:

November:

Entire month off – no training. Those kids who play outside of practice on their own are free to do so.

December:

We will practice indoors every Thursday night for an hour focusing heavily on technique. The boys will be encouraged to go home and practice.

January – February:

Participate in an indoor Futsal league with two games every Saturday. The league lasts for seven weeks and will take us straight into pre-season training for the outdoor Spring Season.

I think this kind of schedule is enough for them to get some rest, but is also enough for them to not get too rusty. Even though the main emphasis of the Futsal league will be to have fun, it’s also a great way for them to stay in shape, and get used to playing the game at a higher pace with more value placed on the technical side of the game.

With my youth soccer players, I emphasize that the proficiency to be able to perform technically with the ball is something that cannot be understated. The more comfortable a soccer player is with the ball, the better they will play. This holds true from U9 to U18, through college. Technical competency cannot be understated.

Tagged as: indoor soccer, soccer technique, Soccer Training