Silicon Valley Eagles Blog

Parents, surely you realize that you are your child’s first and most influential teacher/coach. The stimulation and support you provide can instill a desire for your child to want to improve. So, it is important that you make learning experiences as fun as possible in the hope that your child will eventually become self-motivated to want to improve.

Foremost, you must find out if your child is actually interested in improving during the off-season. Make a conscientious effort to listen to your child by engaging in two-way conversation, meaning you’re talking and listening. Be sure to talk about in which areas of the game your child would like to improve.

Then, find out from your child’s coach what areas your child needs to improve so you can work on those strengths and weaknesses using the following techniques:

Typical Instruction:

“Toss-right foot laces-catch; Toss-left foot laces-catch; Repeat sequence!”

Unusual young players are able to toss the ball to either instep and are able to tap it back into their hands. These rare individuals are fortunate in having developed their eye-to-hand-to-foot coordination and will love to repeat the sequence because they are successful. These players often develop and fine tune their control of the ball, very quickly resulting in truly loving to play the game. They need to be challenged toward eliminating the “catch” in the sequence, resulting in “Right foot laces; Left foot laces; Repeat sequence!”

As the soccer season begins, all youth soccer players are excited to start playing again. One thing to remember is that many injuries happen at the beginning of the season. Many of these injuries can be preventable! Below are some tips to help stay injury free for this soccer season and beyond:
Pre-season training:

Many kids enter their season with no off-season training, and their bodies aren’t prepared to play again. A preseason conditioning program should include proper full body warm-up, strength training, agility drills, and stretching.

Strength training is one aspect that can be easily overlooked. Strength training is important because it helps improve coordination, confidence, and help protects the body from injury. Here are some examples of good strength training exercises for young soccer players (recommended for ages 10+). Below are a few pictures of the body row, plank, and partner squat.

Practices are a good way to test what snacks work best for your child in regards to energy and performance. Just as the old adage goes for adult athletes, “Do not try anything new on race day;” this also can be applied to youth soccer players. Testing what food works well for pre/post practice can then be applied to pre/post games.
A snack before a soccer practice or game should be something that isn’t heavy, but is enough to keep kids fueled. Try to fuel muscles 1-2 hours before an athletic event. Some kids will need two hours to digest before they play. This depends on the individual kid and timing of eating needs to be experimented with at practices. Also, a snack that travels well is best, since travel to and from games is commonplace. Make sure to avoid fatty foods, extra sweet foods, and caffeine. These cause spikes in blood sugar, and then sugar levels can drop quickly during performance. This will make kids feel sluggish.

Here are some examples of good pre-practice and pre-game snacks:

Whole grain bread w/peanut butter
Cereal that is low in sugar
Low-fat cheese
Yogurt
Turkey or chicken
Fruit, such as: apples, bananas, pears, oranges
Post-soccer practice or post-soccer game snacks are something one needs immediately following the event. First thing is fluids. Some examples are water, chocolate milk or natural fruit juices. Sports drinks can be included as recommended fluids, as they aid in replacing electrolytes, but read the labels to make sure there is no caffeine. After fluids are replenished, youth athletes need a mixture of food that includes both carbohydrates and protein. Again, something fast and that travels easy is likely to be a good choice. This way, kids can eat something on the car ride home and they won’t be starving by the time they eat their next meal; which is not good for their blood sugar levels to dip too low.
Some good post game and practice snacks are:

Kids love to move. They love to jump and climb and tumble and, as their coordination improves, to throw and catch.
But when does it stop being fun? For some kids, it’s when pressure from school or parents starts to make sports feel like work. For others, it’s when fixation on a single sport takes the joy and spontaneity out of it. Encouraging your child to try new sports can be a great way to remind them that sports are all about one thing…fun!

New sports provide new opportunities

Playing only one sport can make a young athlete’s world extremely narrow. It can limit opportunities for making new friends, and when the focus is on competition, the stress of winning and losing can put established friendships to the test.