As someone who watches a lot of soccer live, I find that watching kids play soccer is one of the nicest things ever.
If an adult is watching them, they become even more competitive in a way that makes what the adults do look regular.
As a part-time coach, however, I always want to correct many things they do. However, these things will require practice drills which must be done in a controlled and supervised environment, with a coach and some soccer practice equipment.
In this article, I have highlighted ten of these drills to get your 10-year-olds playing soccer the right way.
Soccer Drills for 10-Year-Olds
Here are the best soccer drills for ten-year-olds.
Warm-up Drills
First up are the top warm-up drills.
2v2 Plus 2
This drill helps the players build their teamwork as they prepare for a soccer training session.
Setup: Four mini goals arranged in a 16×20 yard grid; six kids, with two being neutral and set up to man one goal each, while the other four kids will be split into two two-man teams.
How to Play: Pass the ball to any team, and one kid from one team will partner with any of the neutral kids. The idea is for these neutrals – who must remain on the sidelines – to help the team players score five goals to complete the drill.
Team Knockout
This is a free-for-all soccer warm-up drill that gets the blood and adrenaline pumping in the kids in preparation for their practice session.
Setup: Many balls and four mini-goals, arranged in a 20-meter square field.
How to Play: Split the players up into four equal groups with each standing outside the grid behind one of the mini-goals.
Play the ball into the grid to start the free-for-all, where each player from each team tries to score and eliminate one player. The eliminated player goes to the back of the line in his team until there is a last team standing.
Dribbling Drills
Lets take a look at the top dribbling drills.
Goals from Chaos 100 words
Set-Up
- A 25×25 yard square field with two mini-goals on each side.
- Eight cones; one placed in between each net.
How to Play: Divide the team into four groups. Give the players in lines 1 and 3 a ball each. To start the game, player one in line 1 passes to player one in line 2, and they begin a 1v1 battle to score against the other in the nets they are facing.
Player one in line three also passes to player one in line four for a 1v1 battle. Essentially, two games will be ongoing simultaneously.
After every goal, the losing player is replaced with someone from their line. The player with the most goals is the winner.
Passing Drills
Here are the passing drills.
Team Lightning
Have two teams, one player each standing on cones A and B. Have the rest of the players – who must each have a ball – stand around cone A on their side of the field. The second team starts the game with an A-B-C ball passing sequence.
When C receives the ball, they use their first touch to take the ball out of their triangle and their second to shoot.
A goal means a repeat of the sequence with the goal scorer going to the back of the line and player C on the opposite team becoming the goalkeeper for his team.
The Bermuda Triangle
This drill helps players understand positional awareness and possession, and how to keep it.
Setup: Three nets and 7×7×7 yard triangle with cones placed in the middle of a 35×35 yard field.
How to Play: Two players will serve as goalkeepers to defend the triangle which will serve as the goal. Two teams, starting on either side, will compete for possession to score on either side of the triangle.
Kids cannot run through the triangle. The first team to 5 goals wins and practice can go on as planned.
You can repeat the drill as many times as you like.
Shooting Drills
Now you will discover the best shooting drills.
The Lightning Game
In soccer, quick shooting is a skill that must be mastered. Many occasions will arise when players have no chance to think and set up a shot.
The volley-shooting technique arose because of situations like these, where players have to take shots one time.
How to Play: Pass the ball to the first player in line, who shoots immediately. If he scores, he goes to the back of the line while the goalkeeper is eliminated.
The next player becomes the goalkeeper, and the player after him becomes the next shooter.
If the initial player doesn’t score, the goalkeeper goes to the back of the line to become a shooter, while the initial shooter becomes the goalkeeper.
The eliminated players have to compete to catch the balls that go off-target for a chance to rejoin the game. Once anyone does, they must shout, “LIGHTNING!” The coach can then allow them to rejoin the game.
Ball Control
Ball control isn’t really a shooting drill, but everyone who has played soccer knows that being able to bring the ball under your control before shooting is vital. The best way to master ball control is by doing trapping drills.
Multi-ball Shooting
The rules are the same with regular soccer but with a caveat to take shots.
How to Play: Have two teams ready to go once you pass a ball into the 35×25 yard square grid. Arrange 11 other balls at different locations outside the grid.
If the ball goes out, the other team can choose any ball to restart. The drill continues until all balls have been used. The winning team is the one with the most goals; in essence, the best out of 12.
Final Thoughts
These drills will get your kid started as they work their way up in soccer. Some of these can be practiced in your yard, too.
However, there are a lot of other drills that will aid your 10-year-old’s development and that they will enjoy doing, but only when they are signed up to play with an actual team.
Of all the team sports that exist, soccer has the most teammates playing at the same time.
Coming under the tutelage of a coach will make these drills more professional while introducing your child to other drills that will fast-track their development!
