More, simple, fun, and effective drills...

1) Turn and Shoot

All players stand by their ball, in a line, with their backs to the coach. Without the players looking, the coach places a cone on the ground, runs off and yells, “Go!” All the players turn, find the target and shoot. The first ball to knock the cone over gets a point for that player, but in order to score the point, the ball cannot be the last ball. In other words, if every ball, except the last ball, misses, no point. Trick players by placing the cone off the ground, in the net, or on top of a goal.

2) Redirect (with a ball chaser)

Two coaches stand somewhat apart and in front of the first player who is standing in a line, the other players waiting their turn. The first coach passes or tosses the ball at the player who must redirect the ball to the second coach. If the second coach catches or stops the ball, he tosses or passes the ball back to the player who redirects the ball to the first coach. If either redirect misses a coach, the player becomes the ball chaser and must collect the errant ball. The chaser waits by the coaches until there is a new ball chaser before getting back in line. [Hint: Start with easy passes, then you can move to bounced passes and/or headers.]

3) Ball Brushing Roundup

Bring many different kinds of balls: tennis (if the grass is cut low or indoor), bocce, mini and normal soccer balls. Start players off with two of the same size balls. Players are required to brush both balls forward, one with the left foot and one with the right foot, by stepping on the top and slightly rolling each ball forward, about ten or more feet, and then back again. After that, players use balls of different sizes, e.g. a bocce for the right foot and a mini for the left foot, etc... Once they get that down, add another ball.

My son showing examples of ball brushing...



4) Touch-Step Dribbling

To teach players to keep the ball close, have them dribble across the field with a ball by alternating touching the ball forward with one foot while stepping forward with the other, i.e. touch, step, touch, step, touch, step, etc... Inexperienced players often kick the ball forward and then run after it (kick, step, step, step, kick, step, step, step, etc...); however, to be able to move through traffic more easily and do moves on a whim, players should learn how to run fast while touching the ball forward so that the ball remains close at all times.

5) Dribbling Race

Set up cones in a line, for dribbling through, and additional paired cones, like flags in slalom skiing, in a similar pattern and number on either side.

Have one player stand at each end with a ball. On the coach’s signal, the players dribble through the course toward each other, passing their opponent on the way to the other side. The first one to reach the other side, wins. If someone misses a cone, they must return to complete that cone or else their finish doesn’t count.

Sometimes we hold a mini tournament to determine a dribbling champion. [HINT: a fun and fair way to seed players for brackets of any mini tournament, i.e. dribbling or 1v1, is to use juggling. Each player is asked to juggle. The player who gets the most touches is seeded number 1. Ties have a juggle-off until everyone is seeded.]

5) Obstacle Course

We sometimes hold timed races through on obstacle course. My typical obstacle course consists of:

i) cones, for dribbling through;

ii) golf clubs set across the tops of two spaced apart cones, so that the ball can roll under the golf club while the player jumps over the golf club;

iii) crossing a line (similar to the 3v3 soccer midfield line) and taking a long shot into a goal. If the player misses, he or she still has to collect the ball to continue;

iv) chipping and jumping over a small object like a cooler or kid’s chairs;

v) wall passes against cinder blocks

I set up four cinder blocks set apart, two on the left and two on the right, like this _–_– , set narrow enough so a player can dribble in a straight line through the middle of the cinder blocks, passing the ball against each cinder block. My son showing an example of going through cinder blocks...



Because cinder blocks are small, some players want to dribble right up to them so you might have to place cones so they'll wall pass around the cones; and,

vi) chipping over a tall backstop, into a goal. When the ball goes into the goal, the timing ends.

Each passed cone or dropped golf club adds 5 seconds to the timed total.