Assessing kids keeps them improving and developing

There are a variety of ways to measure your team’s progress. And as a coach and teacher you should be constantly measuring and testing.

You could do it on wins and losses. I think this is the worst way.

You could do it with formal tests. This way is time consuming and can be stressful for the kids. There is a place for it though, especially at more competitive levels.

And a few times a year, you should do fitness tests with your soccer team. Test for strength, speed, endurance.

It isn’t that you want your team being competitive with each other on these tests. It’s so that you can see if they are improving.

Sometimes it can be used to see if they are over-trained and need more rest as well.

There are a variety of soccer skills tests that can be assessed.

• Dribbling around a set of cones for time,
• How many toe touches on a ball in a minute,
• Kicking for accuracy and distance.

All of these things can be measure.

Another way to measure progress is to have a check list of skills that each kid should be able to do. This you can keep with you and if you notice a few children are behind you can spend more time with them helping them master the skill.

This is an easy way to monitor soccer skills. It takes some time to figure out what you want to assess but doing it is simply a matter of checking things off.

Soccer fitness and developing soccer skills is a matter of using progressions. For a complete description of exercises that will build your child or your team’s soccer fitness, click the link.