I just got hired as a phys. ed. teacher. Along with the phys. ed. position, I was made the soccer coach. I really don’t have a lot of experience wtih soccer. I was wondering for those of you that play on a soccer team or coach a soccer team-
What drills do you do?
How do you structure your practices?
How long are your practices?
Any other advice would be good.
It’s in a high school setting.
I would suggest you search around online and order a DVD with drills and what not.
you might also want to talk to the previous coach. assuming they are still on campus.
Didn’t the high school soccer season already start?
good luck
[quote]bonzi50 wrote:
I would suggest you search around online and order a DVD with drills and what not.
you might also want to talk to the previous coach. assuming they are still on campus.
Didn’t the high school soccer season already start?
good luck[/quote]
There’s quite a few things online; I haven’t found anything that structures actual practices and whatnot.
The previous coach was murdered by his son and that’s why there’s an opening. Pre-season practice is supposed to have started for most schools, but I don’t think any official games have happened yet.
I’ll do what I can to type something up here to help you out. . .
A good basic setup for a practice is:
1)A warm up jog, perhaps around the field once or twice.
2)Team stretching
a)This should include static stretches for 15 seconds for each muscle or muscle group. Be sure to have them stretch their arms as well, maybe a rotator cuff warm up even. Shoulder injuries do occur in soccer players too 
Search for “Hardcore Stretching, Part I,” and “Hardcore Stretching, Part II” here on T-Nation. They are great articles for stretching info.
3)Choose 3-4 drills, depending on the amount of time they would take, and have the drills maintain a focus on a certain skill for that practice.
a)A good example is to have drills that focus on right foot touching, including passing, shooting goals against a goaly or perhaps without one, all done with their right foot.
-There is a very wide variety of drills for soccer players, and you can research those. Soccer is a huge sport and resources on it are innumerable! 
4)Emulate a game setting that emphasizes what skills you have focused on in that day’s drills.
a)As with my previous example, a scrimmage could be made in which the object of the game is to move the ball up the field on the right side, to emphasize passing with their right foot and right footed ball skills.
5)Cool down lap
6)Repeat the static stretches performed previously.
The practice should be roughly an hour and a half long, and include 2-3 water breaks.
I sincerely hope this helps. You have my sympathy, as that is clearly a difficult situation.
Good luck!
[quote]celibrate2047 wrote:
I just got hired as a phys. ed. teacher. Along with the phys. ed. position, I was made the soccer coach. I really don’t have a lot of experience wtih soccer. I was wondering for those of you that play on a soccer team or coach a soccer team-
What drills do you do?
How do you structure your practices?
How long are your practices?
Any other advice would be good.
It’s in a high school setting.
[/quote]
well i live in the united kingdom and soccer’s a massive sport over here, PM me for some tips
Here’s a Q and A on soccer that joe defranco answered. I know it is more off-season, but could give you some tips.
Q: Hey coach,
I’ve been reading your training messages for a long time and have tried to incorporate them into my work out. I’m a junior in high school at CB East in PA. I play soccer and my coach is looking for speed. I’m 135 pounds at 5’10’’ so you see I haven’t got much muscle on me. What would you suggest to increase my speed and quickness? Thanks for everything you’re doing,
Devon
A: Devon,
First off, you are definitely a skinny bastard so getting STRONGER will help with your speed in and of itself! My ?Westside for Skinny Bastards? template is tailor-made for athletes like you! I suggest you perform a Max-Effort upper body workout, a lower body workout and a Repetition upper body workout. Depending on what time of the year it is will determine how many strength training workouts per week that you should perform. (I would suggest that you perform 2 full body workouts during the in-season.)
As far as specific speed workouts are concerned, you should first understand these interesting facts regarding the game of soccer?
* MOST of the game is spent jogging, walking or standing around
* About 20% of the game is spent sprinting
* You spend the LEAST amount of time during the game with the ball
* NIKE research revealed that the portion of the game that was most important in determining the outcome was the 20% of the game that the player spent SPRINTING!
If you watch THE PLAYER (NOT the game) next time you go to a soccer game, you will see the above 4 statements to be true.
Knowing all this, I would suggest that you perform 3 different running workouts during the off-season. Each workout should have a different focus. They are:
[quote]DK wrote:
Here’s a Q and A on soccer that joe defranco answered. I know it is more off-season, but could give you some tips.
Q: Hey coach,
I’ve been reading your training messages for a long time and have tried to incorporate them into my work out. I’m a junior in high school at CB East in PA. I play soccer and my coach is looking for speed. I’m 135 pounds at 5’10’’ so you see I haven’t got much muscle on me. What would you suggest to increase my speed and quickness? Thanks for everything you’re doing,
Devon
A: Devon,
First off, you are definitely a skinny bastard so getting STRONGER will help with your speed in and of itself! My ?Westside for Skinny Bastards? template is tailor-made for athletes like you! I suggest you perform a Max-Effort upper body workout, a lower body workout and a Repetition upper body workout. Depending on what time of the year it is will determine how many strength training workouts per week that you should perform. (I would suggest that you perform 2 full body workouts during the in-season.)
As far as specific speed workouts are concerned, you should first understand these interesting facts regarding the game of soccer?
* MOST of the game is spent jogging, walking or standing around
* About 20% of the game is spent sprinting
* You spend the LEAST amount of time during the game with the ball
* NIKE research revealed that the portion of the game that was most important in determining the outcome was the 20% of the game that the player spent SPRINTING!
If you watch THE PLAYER (NOT the game) next time you go to a soccer game, you will see the above 4 statements to be true.
Knowing all this, I would suggest that you perform 3 different running workouts during the off-season. Each workout should have a different focus. They are:
one more point make your sprint traing from one point to another fast then slow fast then slow
repeat this with the ball between each point as you have to work on your skills with the ball
should last about 15.-2 hours…a majority of your practice should be game play, using 1 or 2 touch football.
or a good way is to have one technical training day and one practice game day.
Some good information here, I would also recommend that you contact a local soccer association and see if there are any coaches licensing programs being run, you will have to pay for it, and it will probably be an all weekend event, but you will be exposed to instructors that know what they are talking about (college level coaches).
If the soccer association is no help, look up something like US soccer online and see if they have any info, the license you are looking for used to be called an F license, (about ten years ago) and there was no test it was an as long as you show up both days you got it.