Its unbelievable how underrated the importance of warming up in kids soccer drills is. It is obligatory for me as a coach to highlight the fact that warm up sessions before practice is compulsory and helps players begin their day at a brilliant note. In youth soccer drills, coaches fail to take this aspect into consideration. The result is injuries to players while performing drills.
In this article, you’ll find some useful tips on warming up the players. Teach the players to warm up by following those body movements that help all muscles to work up. This is by far the best way to activate all the body parts. Rigorous sessions can result in stiffness and cramping of the muscles.
Tip 1: In this make the players go for a light 5 to 7 minute jog. A few minutes of jogging and then moving on to sprinting is the best proposition. The pulse rate must get to 120 beats per minute in this. Still, measured growth is preferred. Then make them swing their legs forward cross-body for about 10 times each. To conclude, the players should vigorously stretch their body more than 20 yards.
Tip 2: Talking of active stretching over 20 yards, it should be noted that it should be accompanied with some warm up exercises of its own. For instance, the players should practice hopping forward and backward. The players can also be taught cross stepping. High-knee carioca can also be taught to players. You can have these performed similar to sprinting.
In soccer drills for kids, running towards the back is also a very useful warm up exercise. Still, in order to perform it, the proper way to do it is to jerk up the heels to the butt. No matter how difficult it may be to practice this but it’s the sole method or performing it accurately.
Tip 3: There are various other warm up drills in kids soccer drills that build up the energy for practice sessions. The players can be taught to hop with swings and loops. These give an added element to the skipping exercises. The players can also be told to do cross-over bounce. Quick Hip Swings is somewhat difficult to practice but it highly useful and a tried and tested technique to warm up the body.
After that, have the players do the long shuffles along with twists halfway. Make them practice forward and backward leg swings. This is a highly effective and useful body toning activity. In the same way, high leg forwards and backwards is also very effective.
Tip 4: Stretching should be adequate and correctly executed. What works best for the legs is stretch hinging. Guarantee that all kids work out their hamstring, groin, calf muscles, and quadriceps without missing any of these. Stretching has the benefit of preventing injury along with increasing the muscle range.
In soccer drills for youth, it is also important to understand that kids should not overdo anything. They have the tendency to get carried away in excitement and injure themselves as a result.
Because all the relevant information on kids soccer drills is shared with you, please see that training sessions are always followed by warm up sessions. You’ll find lots and lots of articles and news like this on our youth soccer coaching community. Register now to enjoy the benefits.
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