Backyard soccer goals and rebounders

With that said, a goal or a rebounder in the yard is the single best gear purchase most soccer families make, because it changes how much soccer actually happens. A ball on its own gets kicked about for ten minutes. A target produces repetition, and repetition is the whole game at these ages.

Goal or rebounder first?

If you are buying one thing, the answer depends almost entirely on whether your kid has somebody to play with.

The goal versus rebounder comparison goes further, including the combined units that do both — QuickPlay's Kickster swaps a panel in seconds, and Open Goaaal's system adds a backstop that stops missed shots leaving the yard entirely.

If neither is the next purchase, the cheap end of the category does more than it looks like it should. Cones, a solo trainer and a reason to use them turn the same yard into practice for a fraction of the price — the training equipment picks set out what to buy first at each age.

Size by age, and by yard

Goal size is where money gets wasted, in both directions. A 4x3 foot pop-up is the right size for a six-year-old and completely pointless for a twelve-year-old, who fills it standing still. An 8x5 is a proper training goal for a teenager and absurd in a small yard with a U7.

• U6–U9 — a 4x3 or similar pop-up. Fast to put up, small enough not to dominate the yard, cheap enough to replace. See the pop-up goal picks.
• U9–U12 — a 6x4-ish goal, or a rebounder, or a combined unit. This is the age where a rebounder starts producing genuinely useful repetition. See the rebounder picks.
• U13 and up — an 8x5 or larger, in a real goal shape, or nothing. A teenager striking a ball properly needs a target that behaves like a goal. See the goals for teens picks.

Measure the yard before you order, and measure the run-up rather than just the goal's footprint — a goal you cannot take a proper shot at is a clothes horse. What size backyard soccer goal do you need has the numbers.

The thing nobody mentions: where the missed shots go

Buy a goal and you will immediately discover that the interesting problem is not the shots that go in. It is the ones that miss, clear the net, and end up in a flowerbed, a road, or a neighbor's garden. In a small yard this is what actually limits how much a kid can practice, because eventually somebody says stop.

Two things fix it. A goal with real net depth keeps the shots that go in from bouncing back down the yard. A backstop — netting that extends above and around the goal — catches the ones that miss. Open Goaaal's system builds the backstop in, which is the main reason it costs what it does and the main reason it is worth it for a small yard.

Portable, semi-permanent, or fixed

Portable pop-ups fold into a bag in under five minutes and are the right call if the yard has another job — a lawn you mow, a patio you eat on. Semi-permanent goals stay up all season and get used far more often, because nobody has to decide to set them up. Fixed goals are for a family that has accepted the yard is now a soccer pitch.

In practice, the purchase that gets used is the one that is already standing. If you can leave it up, do — but if you leave a goal up, the anchoring guidance above stops being advice and becomes the whole point. And when the yard is unusable for three months, the indoor goal picks cover the mini goals that work on a floor inside the house, where none of the anchoring advice applies.

One thing to plan for either way: the frame outlasts the net. Netting takes every shot, sits in UV all summer and is the part that fails, and a goal with a holed net looks finished when it is not. Best replacement soccer goal nets covers which nets fit which goals, the two specs worth checking, and when a patch kit is the right answer instead of a new net.

The CPSC's specific recommendations are worth stating plainly: anchor the goal at the rear with the anchors flush to the ground, using auger-style helical anchors (at least two), peg or stake anchors driven in at an angle, or sandbags and counterweights on a hard surface where you cannot stake. When the goal is not in use, remove the nets and lock or chain it — to another goal or to a fixed structure like a permanent fence.