Heading Exercises
Kids are scared of heading the ball. Once I had a very good player in my training session who absolutely refused to head the ball, even when I pitched it from very close. He just had a head-o-phobia. So how did I get him to head the ball? the simple answer is: I didn't. No reason to force the issue. He will come around it. Afterwards I mentioned it to his father and he said: yeah I know... he doesn't like to head the ball and I don't try to force it either.
1. To get everyone used to the idea of heading and learning correct techniques, take a bunch of helium filled small balloons (preferrably size of a soccer ball) to the field with you. Have each player hold on to the string, jump up and head the ball. They should be heading with the front of the forehead, they should keep their eyes open all the time and close their mouths. Let them know that if the balloon touches their nose or any other part of their heads aside from the forehead, they are not hitting it correctly. The nice thing about the balloons is that once they head the balloons, it will come right back to them so they can keep repeating the exercise.
Let go of the balloons altogether to celebrate our first step into heading the soccer ball.
2. The classical exercise is to pair players in two lines facing each other (2 or 3 feet apart) . One group should throw the ball to the other one while the partner heads it back to him. Next, they can switch. Make them go a little further apart and repeat. At all times they should keep their eyes open and keep their mouths shut.
One important note is that kids tend to jump up and head the ball with the top of their heads. Show them how much more power they get behind the ball if they bend their backs and thrust onto the ball instead. If you have to, ask them do this exercise without the ball. Just bend back and thrust forward. The power should come from their whole body. Some people are more comfortable with putting one foot forward when heading. That's fine too. Whatever is more comfortable for them.
3. Once they get good at this (and especially with older kids), you can try the same exercise, except this time both players head the ball back and forth to each other. This one is a bit harder and takes some time. But you can start by asking them to keep the ball in the air for two consecutive headers and then increase to 3 and so on.
4. One guy crosses the ball from the side of the field while everyone else runs into it to head it into the goal. This is a fun exercise but make sure everyone tries to do it and nobody is standing around watching.
By the way, one point is that if you are concentrating on one aspect of the players technique, do not try to correct other aspects of their game at the same time. For example in the above exercise, the object is heading. If a player does not cross well, don't worry about it. There will be plenty of time to work on that. For now just concentrate on one thing and that's heading the ball.
1. To get everyone used to the idea of heading and learning correct techniques, take a bunch of helium filled small balloons (preferrably size of a soccer ball) to the field with you. Have each player hold on to the string, jump up and head the ball. They should be heading with the front of the forehead, they should keep their eyes open all the time and close their mouths. Let them know that if the balloon touches their nose or any other part of their heads aside from the forehead, they are not hitting it correctly. The nice thing about the balloons is that once they head the balloons, it will come right back to them so they can keep repeating the exercise.
Let go of the balloons altogether to celebrate our first step into heading the soccer ball.
2. The classical exercise is to pair players in two lines facing each other (2 or 3 feet apart) . One group should throw the ball to the other one while the partner heads it back to him. Next, they can switch. Make them go a little further apart and repeat. At all times they should keep their eyes open and keep their mouths shut.
One important note is that kids tend to jump up and head the ball with the top of their heads. Show them how much more power they get behind the ball if they bend their backs and thrust onto the ball instead. If you have to, ask them do this exercise without the ball. Just bend back and thrust forward. The power should come from their whole body. Some people are more comfortable with putting one foot forward when heading. That's fine too. Whatever is more comfortable for them.
3. Once they get good at this (and especially with older kids), you can try the same exercise, except this time both players head the ball back and forth to each other. This one is a bit harder and takes some time. But you can start by asking them to keep the ball in the air for two consecutive headers and then increase to 3 and so on.
4. One guy crosses the ball from the side of the field while everyone else runs into it to head it into the goal. This is a fun exercise but make sure everyone tries to do it and nobody is standing around watching.
By the way, one point is that if you are concentrating on one aspect of the players technique, do not try to correct other aspects of their game at the same time. For example in the above exercise, the object is heading. If a player does not cross well, don't worry about it. There will be plenty of time to work on that. For now just concentrate on one thing and that's heading the ball.
posted by Softour at
2:07 PM
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