In the second part in a series of expert coaching articles to improve young players skills in youth football, Kids DXB owner Tom Green explains how to help your child improve their speed and scanning skills.
Football is a great sport for children to be involved in from a young age and having experience coaching children from the ages of 3-11and upwards in the UAE for the last 10 years I can say first hand how rewarding it is to see children developing their skills and applying this in matches. The goal of this article is to give you as parents some tips, hacks and secrets that will help your child to accelerate their progress above and beyond the activities that they will be doing in their typical coaching sessions.
SCANNING
Being aware on the pitch in terms of both the spaces around you and other players is a key attribute of the modern day footballer.
If your child can have a ‘picture’ of the whole field in their mind before they receive the ball this will allow them to make better and quicker decisions when they receive the ball which can improve stats such as pass conversion percentage and also assists.
The key here is helping your child to understand where and when they should be scanning the pitch and there is no better player to learn this skill from than Barcelona midfielder Xavier Hernández Creus.
The video below shows how Xavi uses scanning to get a picture of the whole field both before and after he receives the ball.
With this in mind you can encourage your child to look out for other players doing this when they are watching football and also see if they can scan the pitch in their games and training sessions.
SPEED
At all levels of football speed is at a premium and the ability to beat an opposing player in a foot race or be able to dribble past other players with speed is a key feature of top goal scorers like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe as well as top defenders like Kyle Walker.
Helping your child to become one of the fastest players on the pitch will help to make sure that your child makes the starting line up and excels whether they are a defender or attacker.
Try out these three drills with your child to help them become quicker on the pitch particularly over short distances.
- If you are interested in getting your children involved in a football academy then why not take a free trial of Kids DXB’s Kidster program where you can get access to a 30 day free trial of unlimited sports coaching, with high level sports coaching in football as well as seven other sports! We have football coaching sessions running throughout the day for children with children between the ages of 3-11 divided into three age groups.