Soccer Drills

Soccer is a game of control, mentally, physically and with the ball. The better your technique with the ball the more likely you are going to win the game. The most important thing to have in your team are players who are happy and confident with the ball. Some players aren’t born naturally talented but if they are willing to practice and try hard enough they can be as good as anyone. Below we are going to go through a few soccer drills that will help.

First make sure that your players are happy with the ball, practice kick ups and basic ball control. This can be done as a fun thing for 5 minutes or so or if you prefer it can last a lot longer depending on the players ability and interest levels (you don’t want them to get bored!)

After this dribbling through a set of cones first at a slow pace before later making it competitive with a race scenario. Another favourite is to give each player a ball and put them in a square of roughly 20m squared. Let them dribble around with their ball changing direction every 5-10 seconds. Do this for 5-10 minutes before adding a bit more interest making the players kick out the other players ball, whilst protecting their own! These are fun soccer drills that also make the players conscious of what is around them and concentrate on looking after their own ball.

Now that you have gone through the basics in dribbling and ball retention now would be a good time for a couple of ball control soccer drills. This can be as simple as throwing a ball at a player and getting them to control the ball with their foot, knee, chest or head. (be sure to train on all of these, particularly both the left and right foot as a two footed player is always better than a one footed player) try and get the players to do these soccer drills at a quick pace as if they do it sluggishly in training then they are going to struggle when it comes to the match day!

By combining these fun soccer drills to your own ideas your players ball control and dribbling will improve. You and your players will get more confidence with the ball and this will show in a match situation hopefully on your way to victory!

Welcome to Professional Soccer Drills! After the Soccer Drills that the Pro’s use? Well look no further. We have the training methods that turn the weakest player or team into a champion!

At Professional Soccer Drills we try to offer you the latest and very best technique’s so that you can improve yourself or your team. With decent soccer coaching every player and team will improve regardless of age or ability. The focus of these soccer drills is on enjoyment of the game and not so much on match results hopefully giving the player more confidence in the process.

Below are the variety of soccer drills we have available:

Pre Season - Pre season Warm up

Fitness - Why Fitness and Stamina is Vital

Goalkeeping - The Art of Goalkeeping

Defence - How to Defend like an Italian!

Attack - King of the Dribble

Obviously there are two main principles of soccer, defending and attacking. In this section we will go through defensive soccer drills that will be enjoyable for the players but also make it easier for them on match days!

There will be many skills picked up in our defensive soccer drills the main ones being:

Jockeying opponents - limiting space and time for the opposition, giving your side the chance to regain possession.

Block Tackle - The most used method to regain possession the block tackle is an important skill to have and revolves around timing, get it wrong and you could be beaten or foul the other player.

Sliding Tackle - Timed properly the sliding tackle is extremely effective but because of a chance of failure should usually only be used as a final option.

Heading - Obviously an important part of the game attacking as well as defending. Having at least one good headerer of the ball playing in your defence is vital.

To learn these important defensive skills the kind of drills we will be doing are as follows:

1. Learning to keep a good defensive line/shape.
2. 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3 style defensive drills.
3. Recovery running.
4. Decision making - when to press, cover or drop.
5. Defending set pieces and crosses.

Being able to take on a player/beat an opponent to create a goal or score yourself is a brilliant skill to have. Every player with this sort of ability loves to show it off by dribbling with the ball whenever they can.

In this section we will be looking at soccer drills specially designed to show the players when and where to run with the ball or dribble. It’s vital that the players understand the best areas of the pitch in which to dribble and attack the oppositions defence. We’ll also look at what should be done once they beat their man as obviously there’s not much point in being able to dribble if you can’t pass, shoot or cross!

A positive mental attitude in these soccer drills are a must as the players will learn that they won’t dribble past a player 100% of the time, to learn to get over failure on the pitch is very important.

In this section of attacking soccer drills we will be looking at :

1. Learning how to dummy, shift weight to pass an opponent
2. Burst of speed into space, change of direction
3. Positive first touch.
4. Head up, accessing options and making the right decisions.

The basic principles of a good pre season always remain the same regardless of age or ability.

Training sessions usually begin with a good warm up but if its your first session back at pre season it would be wise to make it a bit longer maybe even up to 20 minutes in this order:

• 5 minutes of jogging
• 5 minutes of static stretching (holding your stretch)
• 5 minutes of jogging
• 5 minutes of dynamic stretching (using active muscle movement to produce the stretch)

These warm up soccer drills enable the players to catch up with each other after their time off. This will allow you to judge the players general fitness and see who has maybe been a bit slack during their time away!

Remember running is good for the players but too much too soon can hit the body hard, so after the warm up we’ll be looking to get into some ball work.

“The goalkeeper. They also call him doorman, keeper, goalie, bouncer or netminder, but he could just as well be called martyr, pay-all, penitent or punching bag. They say where he walks, the grass never grows.”

Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow

To play the position of goalkeeper requires special training, skills and mindset. As one of the most important roles in the team the goalkeeper must always be alert even if they haven’t been busy for the previous 89 minutes.

To most, goalkeeping tactics and techniques are seen as a mystery. Even experienced outfield coaches and players might struggle to teach a young player how to play in goal.

In this section I will teach you how to play in goal or coach someone to play in goal. Outlining the basic goalkeeping soccer drills as well as going through the psychology of what makes a great goalkeeper.

Getting around the pitch for 90 minutes puts an obvious strain on you mentally and physically. Technique and ability will get you so far but if in a evenly matched game between similar sides the fitter side will usually prevail.

Warming up is essential for injury prevention (obviously it doesn’t cut out injuries all together but it reduces them.) and improves agility.

Stamina training for soccer is a vital componant for getting and staying fit. The soccer drills in this section will make you or your players stronger, faster and fitter all of which will benefit your team!

Stamina fitness training includes

• Hill running
• Cycling
• Jogging
• Shuttle runs
• Gym equipment such as treadmills and cross-trainers