How Youth Soccer Coaches Can Get Players to Practice on Off Days
To get youth soccer players to practice at home, assign one specific, countable task a day, give every player the same assignments for the first two weeks, and make completion visible to the team. Plan for most players doing most of the work. I plan for 75% of mine to do 75%.
I'm Matt McWilliams, head coach of an 11U A team and co-founder of Train Daily. My team practices three times a week, which leaves four days when the ball sits still. I can't be there for those touches, so I built a system for them.
Why don't players practice on their own?
Players who are already motivated train on their own, and the rest need a task, a deadline, and a reason to come back. A few practices a week isn't enough touches to build a player, and you can't make the extra work happen for the rest of your roster by asking.
"Work on it at home" hands players three decisions: what to work on, how long, and when it counts as done. Some players will make those calls in favor of doing less. Make the decisions for them.
What should you assign for off-day soccer practice?
One skill, one count, and one time limit. My assignments run 15 to 30 minutes on non-practice days, and they sound like this: "50 inside-foot passes with your left against the wall in 10 minutes." They're ball mastery only, with no fitness work, and any player can finish them alone with a ball and a wall.
Make it competitive. If you line players up and tell them to "do pull-pushes for 5 minutes," you've lost them. Races, timers, and group-versus-group counts keep the touches coming.
Add scanning when you can. Have a parent or sibling hold up fingers or colors while the player works, and have the player call out what they see. That trains ball mastery and the habit of looking up before the ball arrives at the same time. "Picture, then ball" is the cue I use for it at every practice.
Should every player get the same assignment?
For the first two weeks, yes. Identical assignments let the habit form before anything personalizes, and no player has to wonder whether their work is the easy version.
After that, I tie the work to each player's development plan. Every player has three items: one technical, one tactical, and one mental.
I ask each player for three things they want to improve before I shape the final three, because a player who asked for help learns faster than one who got told what to fix. At least one item builds on a strength. Team-wide work goes to the whole roster, and plan-specific work goes out separately.
How do you make off-day work visible to the team?
Show who finished, and let the players see each other's results. A team-only leaderboard and streaks do that without any public exposure, and a coach can see at a glance who's completing the work and who's slipping.
Train Daily is my app, so weigh my numbers with that in mind. In the two weeks before my season, 13 of my players used it. On day one, their touch was way ahead of the same team a year earlier. That's my observation as their coach, not a controlled test.
Another coach reported a larger version on the Train Daily coaches page:
"We have 47 players using it and in just the past week, they've totaled more than 100 hours of drills. I don't know what they'd be doing without it, but I doubt it was practicing." Seth Reynolds, Parkersburg PRYS
Visibility is the part most coaches can't build with a spreadsheet and a group chat. Train Daily for coaches lets you pick a drill from the video library, add a note and a reinforcement question, and send it in about two minutes a day.
How much of your week does off-day work take?
With an app, about two minutes a day. You pick a drill from the library or upload your own video, the AI drafts the description, you add your coaching notes and a question, and you send it. A reinforcement question can be as short as "Where does the center back stand on corner kicks?"
Without an app, the cost is one message. Write the assignment, state the count and the time, and send it to parents. In week one, my Friday message to parents ended with three sentences about what the kids could do on Sunday and where to find it.
What completion rate should you expect?
Plan for 75% of players to do 75% of the work. On a 12-player roster, that's about nine players doing about three of four off-days. A plan that needs every player every day has no room for a family vacation or a club conflict.
A missed day gets a restart the next day, not a lecture. Set the next assignment at the normal count and keep the streak conversation positive.
How do you plan around players who miss practice nights?
Build the team-wide assignment so it reaches every player on the days they can't attend. Two of my players have attendance limits from other clubs. One attends Tuesdays and games only, and the other attends Mondays and games only. That shapes what I install on which night.
The off-day assignment gives those players the same repetitions on the days they're away. It doesn't replace a practice, but it keeps them in the same conversation as the rest of the roster.
How do you keep off-day work fun for players who aren't self-motivated?
Design the fun on purpose. I schedule it like any other part of the week: Pro Jersey Day, Celebration Day (goals don't count unless everyone touches the scorer), a size one ball thrown into the scrimmage, a yoga ball on the field. I announce the next one at the end of the prior week's last practice, so players have something to look forward to.
The same idea works for home assignments. Flag a challenge day before a big game and offer bonus points for extra effort, or give the team a shared count to beat. Small stakes change the energy faster than a better explanation.
What should you tell parents about off-day work?
Tell parents what their kid was asked to do, and tell them early. I cover it at the parent meeting and again in a weekly Friday message. Two things follow: parents see that the coach isn't picking on their kid, and the car ride home has something better to discuss than the score.
Keep the message short. State the assignment, the time, and where to find it. Parents who don't know soccer can still say, "How did the count go today?"
How do you connect off-day work to what you teach?
Use the same cues at home that you use at practice. I teach in two-to-four-word cues, and I repeat them in the assignment, the reinforcement question, and the practice session. If I can't say it in four words, I probably haven't understood it yet.
Then ask a question that checks what landed. When I ask the group a question at a water break, the answers tell me what my players took in, and a reinforcement question in the app does the same thing between practices.
Coaching a school team with fewer sessions? How school soccer coaches can keep players touching the ball when practice time is limited covers the same plan with the rules question up front. If you're weighing a leaderboard, does competition between teammates help or hurt walks through one exchange between two of my players.
What to do this week
- Write one assignment with a skill, a count, and a time limit, and send the same one to every player for two weeks.
- Pick one way to see who finished, whether that's an app or a shared tally.
- Plan for 75% of players doing 75% of the work, and restart after misses.
Frequently asked questions
How long should off-day soccer assignments be?
My plan for ages 9 to 11 uses 15 to 30 minutes of ball mastery on days without practice. I write each assignment with a skill, a count, and a time limit so a player knows when they're done. I haven't tested other age groups.
How many days a week should players practice on their own?
On the days you don't practice. My team practices three times a week, so there are up to four off-days. I plan for most players to complete about three of them, which matches my 75% planning assumption. A fourth session is a bonus for the players who want it.
Should I give every player a different assignment?
Not at first. For the first two weeks, give the whole roster the same work so the habit forms before anything personalizes. After that, tie the work to each player's development plan and send plan-specific work separately from the team-wide assignment.
What if only some players do the work?
Expect it. I plan for 75% of players to do 75% of the work, so some misses are built into the design. Restart after a missed day, keep the tone positive, and make completion visible so players see their teammates' results.
Do I need an app to get players practicing on off days?
No. You need a clear assignment and a way to see who finished. I co-founded Train Daily to make that visibility easy, and it takes me about two minutes a day, but a message to parents and a shared tally can work. The visible record is what matters, because it tells you who needs a nudge before the next practice.
