Soccer drills at home for 8 year olds

At a glance

At 8

50 soccer drills the app opens for an 8 year old work at home, across 6 skills.

How long

One home session of about 25 minutes; SSTracker never plans more than 30 minutes for an 8 year old.

How often

At most 3 training days a week, with rest days between. Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 8 hours for an 8 year old, with two rest days a week.

What you need

Most used: soccer ball (34 of the 50 drills), cones (17), wall (5), small goal or 2 cones (3), soft ball (2), agility ladder or tape lines (1), cones or plastic bottles (1), goal or 2 cones (1). 3 drills need nothing but space. 19 are for two, and a parent can be the partner.

Safe at home

One child and one parent in a room, garage or yard. Never tackling, contact, diving or head-first falls, no stunts or loaded lifting, and nothing that needs a coach, rink, pool or court. Stop when anything hurts.

50 at-home drills

Soccer drills for 8 year olds to do at home

Every drill below is one the app opens for an 8 year old and one that works at home: a room, garage or yard, one parent as the partner, no venue. Each drill's page has the steps, a diagram where the setup can be drawn, three ways to make it a game and a log to print.

defending

Defending

• Keeper Confidence RoundAges 7 and up · 6 min
• Defensive Stance and ShuffleAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Jockey and DelayAges 7 and up · 10 min

dribbling

Dribbling

• Race and StopAges 7 to 10 · 8 min
• Weak Foot WeekAges 7 and up · 10 min
• First TouchAges 7 and up · 10 min

fitness

Fitness

• Bear Crawl Ball PushAges 7 and up · 6 min
• Core Strength CircuitAges 7 and up · 10 min
• Frog and Bunny HopsAges 7 and up · 6 min

pace & agility

Pace & Agility

• Falling StartsAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Quick Feet in PlaceAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Red Light, Green Light RunAges 7 and up · 8 min

passing & receiving

Passing & Receiving

• Peek and ShoutAges 7 to 10 · 6 min
• Peek, Then PassAges 7 to 10 · 8 min
• Receive, Turn and Pass ThroughAges 7 to 10 · 8 min

A 23-minute session

A home soccer session for an 8 year old

A warm-up, 1 drill and a cool-down, 23 minutes in all. Do it up to 3 days a week, with rest days between.

1. 1Soccer Warm-Up, Ages 7 to 10An 8-minute moving warm-up for soccer players aged 7 to 10: easy running, moving stretches, balance and soft landings, then soccer moves. Before practice, never still stretches first.8 min
2. 2Agility LadderLight feet, quick taps.10 min
3. 3Soccer Cool-Down Stretches, Ages 7 to 10A 5-minute cool-down for soccer players aged 7 to 10 after training: an easy walk, then gentle stretches for the legs, hips and inner thighs, each held for a slow count of 10.5 min

At 8

What changes in soccer training at 8

The app opens the same 50 at-home drills at 8 as at 7; the ones below are a different selection from that list.

Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 8 hours for an 8 year old, with two rest days a week.

The week

Fitting soccer into a week at 8

At 8 the limit is 8 hours of organized sport a week. If you count home sessions against it to be safe, 3 sessions of 25 minutes is 1.25 hours, which leaves 6.75 for team practice and games. Even 3 days at the app's longest, 30 minutes, is 1.5 hours.

The research behind it

• Ages 6 to 12 are the "sampling years": high play, low deliberate practice.

  Côté and Vierimaa 2014

• Organized sport should total no more hours a week than the child's age in years, with two rest days a week.

  NATA youth sport specialization recommendations

Questions and answers