EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FOR GRASSROOTS SOCCER COACHES
BALL CONTROL 5
Shielding the ball
“Keep your body between ball and opponent” • “Use touch to keep opponent at arms length” • “Keep the ball close to your body”
Set up an area made up of 3 x 3 yards squares. Split your players into pairs and put one pair in each square with a ball.
The challenge is for the player with the ball to keep control of it for 10 seconds, using good technique to shield the ball from the other player.
30 seconds is a good amount of time for players to keep the ball so they can use it when outnumbered and waiting for team mates. Please experiment with times if players are finding it too easy or too hard
Try to pair players up evenly – you don’t want to have the biggest player shielding the ball from the smallest member of the group.
Players work in pairs.
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