Sound advice please!

[stylo]

I'm new to this coaching malarkey so sound advice would be most welcome. I coach a girls u-12 team and they're enthustiastic and ability levels are ,in my opinion, good. Almost all of them are one footed- what can I do about this? The obvious answer is improve this - but how.

[darren_brady@msn.com]

hi stylo
i coach under 12's girls and they always need improvment i try and make sure i vary the training sessions and make them fun for them to make sure you keep there attention

darren

[Jerzy]

Do you have a wall you can play against. I've been playing a game an English guy taught me called wallball. Line the kids up, and let them smack the ball against the wall. Next player in line has to get to the ball before it stops and hit it against the wall. And so on. You could play wallball only have the kids have to play the ball with the left foot.

I've got a pretty good left foot for a righty, but I don't juggle well with my left, so last year, my team challenged me to work on my juggling with my left, so we all got better. Typically, the kids get two or three chances to juggle and they tell me their high count. I have 10 kids, most average about 10 juggles. I add up all their juggles and then have to do better than their sum, and half my juggles have to be left foot. That team really got into that challenge and got progressively better.

[Guy Williams]

Evey drill they do they should use both feet from shooting to passing, they will learn the basics better because when they use their other foot they have to think about it, this is form of subliminal teaching.

[ian.curry]

Every 5 or 6 weeks I have a dedicated left foot night. It is called that and as such the players know that the whole session will be work on the more commonly weak foot.

Another idea is that in certain restricted games instead of making it 2 touch etc --- you could make it different foot for every touch

ie recieve and control with right, touch with left, pass with right - or whatever

Hope it helps

[mcolwell]

I think that you need to take the basic advice offered by some contributors and introduce 'left foot only' in to sessions. It does not matter what you are doing, control, passing etc, just introduce a few minutes of left foot only, or right foot only if they are left footed. I would not have a 'left foot night' as that sounds too much in one go. I am left footed and the hardest part about taking coaching qualifications was learning to use both feet at my age. It is a slow process but if you introduce left foot only in to your sessions you will see improvement.

[pelesbrother]

I came across this site
Looks like an interesting concept. Training the weaker foot makes a lot of sense.

[stylo]

Thanks to all those who posted with sound advice. It's appreciated!

[Grassroots]

Ah, one of my favourite subjects which I have a few methods for. The most simple and basic method I use for developing the weaker foot is this:

Gather your group and identify the right and left footers from the group. Put one right footer and one left footer into groups (2 persons to a group) and then get out some cones or markers. Place a cone/marker at either end of a 10-20ft distance and place your left footer at one end, and the right footer at the other end.

The object is for the right footer to pass to the left footer using their left foot and for the left footer to pass to the right footer using their right.

So left footer (1) and right footer (2) do this:

(1)------------- right foot ------- >
<--------------- left foot--------(2)

As development progresses you can increase the distance between the two and indeed the angles so that the individuals can increase their passing range.

This can then lead onto shooting practice once the individual is comfortable enough with the ball on their weaker foot or able to control it sufficiently enough to be able to direct the ball with power, pace and some accuracy.

This method is ideal for youngsters and for those just starting out. It is very simple, easy and quite good fun and a good step to more advanced methods.

For a crash course in improving that weaker foot I will relate to an episode in my own childhood that I found most helpful - a brick wall.

I would basically strike the ball off the wall with my good foot (my right) and when it rebounded back to me I would hit it with my left, I would do this for a few hours a day and within weeks I was able to strike the ball with my weaker left foot quite hard and with a degree of accuracy.

After a year or so of doing that my left foot improved to such a degree it become equal to my right foot.

However, a wall isn't exactly practical so spending some money on a rebounder net is the next best thing, although I find a wall much better.

Other methods (not conventional and to be used in conjunction with other methods) is to hop on your weaker foot for a few minutes at a time, on the spot and in a line, over distance and in circles and to also regularly exercise the foot. Basically to start depending on it. This helps to improve brain to foot coordination, balance basically - all important aspects of control and grip.

Lastly, the best advice I've ever heard on this topic is improve that weak foot of yours by all means, but spend more time and effort on improving your strong foot - and that came from a professional footballer who scored over 400 goals for his various clubs and country at the very highest level, a certain Mr Alan Shearer to be precise.

Anyway try those out and let us know how you get on and of course, if anyone has any other methods, especially unconventional ones, I'd be more than interested to hear them. Good luck.

PS New to the community, great site.

[stylo]

This looks kinda cool The Other Foot Soccer School - Football Coaching Iverness - Other Foot Training