Drills for Soccer Ball Control
#13
Drills for soccer ball control are fun and rewarding. Young players should take at least 30 min every day to simply play around with the soccer ball.
Focus on keeping the ball close to the foot, kick it around and have fun.
All of my training sessions are planned around drills for soccer ball control with touches, creativity, agility and speed.
Warm Up Drills for Soccer Ball Control
This soccer training session kicked off with juggling the soccer ball for 15 minutes.
Juggling boosts creativity and gets young players to do something repetitive but fun. It lets players compete against themselves as they try to get more kicks in before the ball hits the ground.
The better you get at juggling, the more fun it is to juggle and do tricks with the ball.
I encourage players to juggle after the soccer ball hits the ground. It happens often in the game, so why not in training.
Boys get a drink and progress into timed ball movement and control.
My goal is to get the players to simply touch the ball and move around the grid I set up.
Touches will lead to skills with the soccer ball, leading to confidence on the soccer field.
First stage of training is always spent on drills for soccer ball control with lots of touches.
Players are fresh and get more and more tired as the training progresses.
- (00:00) JUGGLING - 10 MIN
- (00:36) RIGHT FOOT BALL CONTROL - 90 SEC
- (01:57) LEFT FOOT BALL CONTROL - 90 SEC
- (03:02) BOTH FEET FREESTYLE - 90 SEC
Shooting Soccer Drills
Shooting was always the fun part of training for me, when I was young and as an adult.
I let the boys have fun by taking shots on me in goal.
I encourage players to train how they want to play. Positive habits are built on the training field.
Players take 12 shots from different set ups including air ball, first time shooting and 2 touch shooting soccer drills.
- (04:36) AIR BALL CONTROL AND SHOOT - 4 REPS
- (05:47) ONE TOUCH SHOT - 4 REPS
- (07:39) RECEIVE AND SHOOT - 4 REPS
One VS One Drills for Soccer
In this exercise I let the boys go one vs one and encourage them to get creative and use their speed and smarts to get past their opponent and score a goal.
For more skilled players I add another defender changing it to one vs two. Every player takes 4 turns as an attacker and the defender.
After the dribble and shot, the attacker takes the position of the defender.
- (08:39) ONE VS ONE - 4 REPS
Drills for Soccer Ball Control
Coordination and Shooting
More shooting with coordination and footwork. Boys use stationary Step-Overs and finish with a shot on goal.
I let them do the Step-Overs 30 - 45 seconds before yelling out the command to shoot.
Scissors around the soccer ball are done after for another 4 reps but I didn't get it recorded on camera.
- (11:54) STEP-OVERS AND SHOOT - 4 REPS
- SCISSORS AND SHOOT (NOT RECORDED) - 4 REPS
Agility, Speed, and Fitness for Soccer
Soccer is a sport where running, change of speed and direction is done throughout the game.
This exercise adds competition, speed and direction change.
Boys sprint, back pedal, and explode forward to try and beat their teammate.
- (12:49) RUNNING COMPETITION - 4 REPS
Soccer Dribbling and Shooting
Boys get more touches with the ball as they control and dribble the soccer ball through the agility poles and finish with a shot on goal.
I encourage players to slow down if they start having sloppy touches with the soccer ball.
- (14:38) DRIBBLING THROUGH POLES & SHOOTING - 4 REPS
- (18:07) DRIBBLING THROUGH POLES, PASSING AND SHOOTING - 4 REPS
Core Strength Soccer Drills
Core strength is important for many different parts of the game.
Boys always finish the training session with planks, pushups and game time.
Great way to the strong core is to do planks and pushups every night before bed.
Positive habits start at home.
- (19:35) PLANKS - 90 SEC
- (19:53) PUSHUPS - 90 SEC
Game Time Fun
Soccer training is always rewarded with fun.
Boys train because they love to play so I let them play the last 20 - 30 minutes of every training session.
I use this time to pick up all the equipment and slowly bring the session to an end.
- (20:13) GAME TIME - 25 MIN
