Thursday, July 24, 2008

Fun basic soccer drill

Like most sports, football is actually based on being able to do the basics right. Kids see the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka busy dancing their way passed 4 or 5 guys at a time and they believe that, that is what it takes to be a success.

The truth is that it looks good but ask any South African football fan how frustrating it is watching their players trying to replicate it and being caught out by the solid tackling of the likes of Rio Ferdinand or Wes Brown...

Once the defenders have you worked out, your tricks are worth very little.

Instead coaches should be focusing on the basics of making sure that their players can make quick and accurate passes over a variety of distances while on the move.

One exercise to consider is to set up 3 cones, 2 metres apart and (initially) 5 metres away from the players who are waiting in a line. The players then take chances to fire off 3 passes, aiming to knock over or hit the cones.

The idea is to keep up quite a high tempo to try and simulate accuracy while on the run. Younger kids will enjoy the "scoring" aspect of hitting each cone.

As the accuracy improves, move the players further from the cones but keep demanding the accuracy and ability to hit the cone.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Two new PIFA centers for football training in Mumbai

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) will now have week long coaching in South Mumbai with the opening of their two new centers. Campion backgarden on Tuesday & Thursday and St Columba's Girls School at Gamdevi on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

The training will be form 5-6 pm for children 5 to 8 years and from 6-7 pm for children 9-14 years.

PIFA also has training centers at St Andrews-Bandra, Bombay Scout Ground-Juhu, Karnataka Sports- Azad Maidan, Islam Gymkhana-Marine Drive & Gokuldham-Goregaon. For children 5-16 years.

The academy features the latest training methods adapted from Europe. Improvement is gauranteed.

Details of the training can be got from www.pifacademy.com

Source: SanePR

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Football Strategist

Welcome to the Football Strategist website.

Football (or soccer - depending on where you live) is the worlds most popular sport - most probably because of the simplicity of the sport and its rules.... Not much complicated about kicking a ball into goal.

The aim of the Football Strategist blog is to create a meeting place for football coaches and enthusiasts to exchange ideas, tips and tricks on the game.

With the lack of coaching resources on the continent, Africa is craving a platform where amateur or young 'would-be' coaches can begin to pick up information on 1st world coaching techniques and ask questions of more experienced counterparts. We hope to see the Football Strategist blog go someway to addressing this issue.

While there are many blogs and websites dealing with football and the various leagues, the Football Strategist blog will be aiming to focus more specifically on coaches. By all means punt your teams and fly your colours high - a little bit of banter is excellent for a community like this. But try to remember that we are aiming to focus on football coaching and training techniques and input on these subjects will be most appreciated!