| Practicing in the Backyard |
This article originally appeared in Soccer for Parents.
The love of a sport — any sport — doesn’t begin at a practice or a game. It isn’t developed by watching college or pro players on TV or live at a stadium. The love of a sport starts in the backyard with Mom or Dad. Eventually friends join in and play an important role, but in the beginning it’s a parent who starts the ball rolling.
So how do you get the ball rolling? Here are some ideas Soccer Jr. has collected from soccer parents around the country.
Larry Sashin, coach of five-time Connecticut state club champs and the Youth Maccabi soccer team, has devised lots of fun games for his children and the rest of the kids in his neighborhood. As his dad did with him, Sashin began by tossing tennis balls to his kids.
“I’d stand about 10 feet away and lay a plastic garbage can at my side. The object was to control the ball and try to kick it into the garbage can.”
Sashin chose Nerf balls to introduce heading. Indoors, he fashioned soccer balls from crumpled paper.
“We’d play paper ball miniature soccer-golf using doorways as holes. The club, of course, was your foot.” For a greater challenge, Sashin shrunk the doorways by stuffing them with shoes. Outdoors, Sashin and his kids played soccer-golf using things like trees and stones as holes.
“We also organized a neighborhood soccer Olympics, which we called the Soc-Olympics,” says Sashin. It included events such as relay races in which teams dribble a ball through an obstacle course, three-man head juggling, soccer volleyball with a picnic table as the net and soccer-bowling with six cones as the pins.
“The kids loved the bowling,” he says. “I marked three different spots to shoot from. That way the kids got used to shooting from different angles.”
Jay Martin, men’s soccer coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and an NSCAA past president, remembers trying everything to keep his kids from using the garage door as a kick wall. Taking a cue from the kids in the neighborhood, he bought a pitch-back net similar to a soccer rebounder, but slightly angled to help return thrown balls in the air.
“We would use the pitch-back to have soccer contests; whoever could keep the ball in the air the longest won. Then we’d make the losers do some silly thing, like flying zambonis. The games went on for hours.”
The late Dan Herbst, co-author of “High Performance Soccer” (Human Kinetics) with U.S. National Team star Paul Caligiuri, preferred a traditional approach.
“My kids and I do a lot of variations on taking one touch on a served ball and shooting at a goal,” he said. The Herbsts, who put up a spotlight in their backyard to extend their playing time, typically had one player serve to a shooter and a third player in goal.
“Sometimes the serve is to the head and the shooter has to touch the ball down and volley it at the goal,” he said. “Sometimes it’s to the feet, and the shooter has to touch the ball down and volley it at the goal. Sometimes it’s to the feet and the shooter must change the ball’s direction or flick it up and shoot it.”
Alfred Galustian, international director of Coerver Coaching, recalls a favorite game he played with his son when his son was 8 or 9 years old.
“We’d set up a row of chairs in the backyard and stand at opposite sides. At first it was one chair and then two and so on. The object was to practice curving the ball around the chairs. My son learned to serve the ball to the left by striking it with the inside of his right foot. Hitting the ball with the outside of his right foot swerved it to the right.”
Galustian says the key thing he told his son was to raise his knee upon striking the ball, thereby giving the ball extra spin and a better curve. “You got one point for a successful pass and lost one if you hit a chair.”
Joe Provey, editor of Soccer Jr. and a 14-year youth coach veteran, prefers a game called Kick the Can. It’s appropriate for two or three players. Simply place a large bucket or cone in the middle of the yard. One player begins as the defender and the other as the attacker. The attacker scores by hitting the can or cone with a shot. When the defender gains possession, he or she becomes the attacker.
“This game is great for kids of all ages,” says Provey. “As the kids get older, however, you have to modify the rules to prevent the defender from standing right in front of the cone. For instance, with younger kids, play where the defender must stay two giant steps from the target. We eventually began to play using a large wash tub that was too big to defend only by standing in front of it. It was made of galvanized steel and made a great sound when struck. An inverted plastic recycling bin would work, too.”
The 2 v. 1 version of the game is a lot of fun for two siblings and a parent or two parents and a child. It teaches kids to pass and take quick one-touch shots. When the team with two players scores, the player who scored becomes the keeper.
Dean Conway, coaching director of the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association and the 2001 NSCAA National Youth Coach of the Year, says he and his daughter preferred juggling as their backyard soccer activity.
“We have a small backyard, so juggling was perfect for us,” said Conway. “While I realize soccer is not a circus and that great jugglers don’t necessarily make great players, juggling does help develop quick feet, concentration, stamina and balance.”
Conway recalls his daughter’s surprise and delight when she beat her personal best.
“I even remember the inflection in her voice as she said, ‘Oh my gosh, Pop, I just did 42!”
In addition to helping your child get friendly with the ball, Conway recommends that parents help kids get friendly with each other:
“Choose a local schoolyard or park where you can get kids together on a regular basis. Take your child there the same time and day every week. When friends and neighborhood kids learn about your “soccer hour,” they will begin to show up, too. Once enough kids for 2 v. 2 arrive, you can step aside and let them take over.”
Ed Tremble, director of coaching for the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association, plays a game with his sons called Quick Shoot. The game is played with a light plastic ball on the asphalt between his garage door and fence.
“We quickly learned to play with the garage door open after breaking all the windows,” says Tremble. The game can be adapted for play on lawns. Here’s how: Set two goals about 25 yards apart. They can be marked with cones or T-shirts. Draw a line in the middle with chalk or use a cord if you’re playing on grass. Assign one player to each side. Each player tries to score without crossing the middle line.
“When you have kids with a big difference in ages, you can even the odds by moving the middle line closer to the goal the younger player is shooting at,” says Tremble. Quick Shoot can be played as a 2 v. 1 game or 2 v. 2. Try organizing a neighborhood round-robin tournament.
Editor’s note: This article, compiled by editor Joe Provey, appeared in 1996 in Soccer for Parents.
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