This is the kind of stuff the really good kids practice on their own. For hours. And it can definitely be improved to a certain point.

What is your kids level of athleticism compared to others? What club are you at? I wouldn't assume that your kid will ever move up to the "top team". Who cares. Focus on having fun and building relationships with team mates. Most kids (especially boys) will not play soccer in college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Technical skills (dribbling, first touch, passing & kicking) are all based upon hours of practice. Learning a skill is much easier than perfecting it, hence a lot more practice. Some kids can learn and perfect skills faster than others, but they all need to practice it.

The best age to learn skills is between 9-11 years old.

Please note: practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Hence, if a kid has bad technique and/or form, it will be permanent as a bad habit.

for kids with parents who do not know much about the correct form/techniques right now, any suggestions on how to help the kids identify and correct bad forms/techniques?

There are lots of YouTube vids to lookup for kicking, passing, first touchn etc. And lots of of group clinics in this area that focus on that. I send my ds to some occasionally just to see the correct way and what other kids his age are doing.

+1. This is exactly what I did. There a lots of really good YouTube videos showing how to properly kick, pass, dribble and do skill moves. The only bad thing is that it is time consuming learning from those videos and teaching your DC. But on the flip side, it’s great bonding time with your DC as long as you don’t scream at them if they get it wrong. This is one reason why parents spend money on a private coach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Technical skills (dribbling, first touch, passing & kicking) are all based upon hours of practice. Learning a skill is much easier than perfecting it, hence a lot more practice. Some kids can learn and perfect skills faster than others, but they all need to practice it.

The best age to learn skills is between 9-11 years old.

Please note: practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Hence, if a kid has bad technique and/or form, it will be permanent as a bad habit.

for kids with parents who do not know much about the correct form/techniques right now, any suggestions on how to help the kids identify and correct bad forms/techniques?

There are lots of YouTube vids to lookup for kicking, passing, first touchn etc. And lots of of group clinics in this area that focus on that. I send my ds to some occasionally just to see the correct way and what other kids his age are doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Technical skills (dribbling, first touch, passing & kicking) are all based upon hours of practice. Learning a skill is much easier than perfecting it, hence a lot more practice. Some kids can learn and perfect skills faster than others, but they all need to practice it.

The best age to learn skills is between 9-11 years old.

Please note: practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Hence, if a kid has bad technique and/or form, it will be permanent as a bad habit.

for kids with parents who do not know much about the correct form/techniques right now, any suggestions on how to help the kids identify and correct bad forms/techniques?

Probably best to tell your kid not to start with bad form in the first place, then there will be no need to correct it later.

Anonymous wrote:Technical skills (dribbling, first touch, passing & kicking) are all based upon hours of practice. Learning a skill is much easier than perfecting it, hence a lot more practice. Some kids can learn and perfect skills faster than others, but they all need to practice it.

The best age to learn skills is between 9-11 years old.

Please note: practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Hence, if a kid has bad technique and/or form, it will be permanent as a bad habit.

for kids with parents who do not know much about the correct form/techniques right now, any suggestions on how to help the kids identify and correct bad forms/techniques?

Technical skills (dribbling, first touch, passing & kicking) are all based upon hours of practice. Learning a skill is much easier than perfecting it, hence a lot more practice. Some kids can learn and perfect skills faster than others, but they all need to practice it.

The best age to learn skills is between 9-11 years old.

Please note: practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Hence, if a kid has bad technique and/or form, it will be permanent as a bad habit.

Talkin bout foots skills not footsie

Anonymous wrote:To those with more much better foot skills? I mean the middle team to top team kids, not necessarily a lower team.

Here in the US it's around 87 where they tend to even out. Slightly younger for men, slightly older for women.

Look there will be naturals. They have a great touch and develop technical skills with less practice vs other kids. Some kids will never be more than serviceable technically no matter how much they practice. Everyone else is some where between on the curve.

You can improve by practicing and drills but there is an upper limit to each player. It is a skill that can be refined. It’s like shooting a 3 pointer, hitting a fast ball, etc.

This gets reinforced above u13/u14. They really do not devote much practiced to technical skills after u12. Also players start to have define rolls. Kids who are not good technically are moved out of positions that require technical skills.

So maybe the player can catch up but if the innate skill was there ... they would not need to catch up.

It's never too late. It does require them to touch the ball daily because they want to.

You have to define "catch up" for yourself, too. Is it can do the same moves but maybe not implement them as frequently? Is it when they do a particular move it looks fluid? Is it when they add 1-2 moves on top of their current go-to move and use all three frequently when necessary?

My DC knows many moves and looks fluid doing them and therefore has decent foot skills, but in matches reverts to the same one every time. For me DC is not "caught up" because the top 3-4 players on his team apply 2+ moves consistently in matches as the situations call for them.

My kid's foot skills blossomed from U9-U12. He worked hard on his own.

Now at age 15, he is equally good with right and left foot. He can 1-v-1 incredibly well, see kids fall down or get megged ...and juggling he can catch on neck, do around the world double feet, do many tricks which makes his touch in a game seamless. Your body grows comfort with the ball and catching it on different parts and dropping to the feet. Futsal helped tremendously too. He loves playing in tight spaces.

He was on a lower team/B team for a few years---but was always working on his own and really motivated to improve, always watching FIFA/international soccer, discussing it, etc. He did a lot of pick up and playing on lower team in youth let him try a lot of things out on the field, without fear of losing it or criticism from the coach.

The transition in middle school was pretty big. It's like it took on speed overnight.

Work on it young, the shot can be shored up later. The dribbling, touch and foot skills---the more work in the youngest years--pays out in dividends by teens.

It's not like learning a new language or instrument---the younger you start the better.

They have to practice daily. Footwork is not something that just "comes to them" after playing for a while. It's repetition and muscle memory.

are they naturally athletes with great natural coordination? If so then very soon after deciding they want to catch up. If the answer is no, then never

When they start practicing more foot skills that's when! By 13 years old it's pretty hard to catch up to an advanced player unless you're spending every single day working on your foot skills

To those with more much better foot skills? I mean the middle team to top team kids, not necessarily a lower team.