Soccer drills and skills

This season, never hunt around for a fresh soccer drill again. Get proven and easy to use drills for all groups and abilities with Soccer Coach Weekly. As a coach, it is your job to give your team the skills and technique to be great players.

The soccer drills in this section will help you coach your players in the core skills of the game. We’ll tell you what to look out for, how to get the ideas over to your players, and we’ll give you games and exercises to really power-up their skills.
 

Drills by skill

• Dribbling drills
• Turning drills
• Crossing drills
• Heading drills
• Tackling drills
• Passing drills
• Shooting drills
• Ball control & footwork drills

Drills by age group

• U5 soccer drills
• U6 soccer drills
• U7 soccer drills
• U8 soccer drills
• U9 soccer drills
• U10 soccer drills
• U11 soccer drills
• U12 soccer drills
• U13 soccer drills
• U14 soccer drills
• U15 soccer drills
• U16 soccer drills

Attack from midfield

in Email newsletters, Midfield, Shooting

With youth soccer tentatively heading back to the playing fields now is the time to think about how and where your goals are going to come from next season. MORE

Closing Down Opponents

in Defending, Midfield, Tactics

Central defenders and supporting players have a vital role in stopping the opposition’s build up play. Players will work on the defending angle of approach to try and force the attacker away MORE

Compact your team in midfield

in Midfield, Tactics

This session places an emphasis on midfield units staying compact and being hard to penetrate when out of possession. It identifies specific defensive roles for midfield players making them more compact and difficult to penentrate MORE

Attacking in twos

in Attacking, Practice plans

Attacking in twos can be easy against a single defender. However, take away the overload advantage and your attackers’ decision making will be really tested. MORE

3-2-1 control and pass

in Ball Control and Footwork, Practice plans

Having players comfortable in possession, as well as being quick and accurate passers, are key elements to a winning team. “3-2-1 control and pass” improves your players’ ability to control and pass the ball at different heights and speeds. MORE

Create cool defenders

in Defending, Tactics

A fun game that will encourage your defenders to be calm on the ball and confident in their passing. Having a defender cool enough to keep calm under pressure is an asset. This activity will help stop your defenders from panicking. MORE

How to stop clever attackers

in Defending, Tactics

Use this session to help defenders to decide whether to hold up play or win the ball when outnumbered, often the attacker will have their head down looking at the ball – the defender can hold a goalside position so the attacker has to look up which is the best time to force a mistake MORE

10 things to work on in training

in Attacking, Email newsletters

For a possession-based game players need to be competent with ball control and decision making. Poor first touch or taking the wrong decision to dribble or pass will result in losing the ball. MORE

Overload your defence

in Defending, Small Sided Games

This is an effective training session to teach your wingers to drop back into defence to help the team in order to double up on attackers and win the ball MORE

The scoring box

in Attacking, Practice plans

In a small-sided game, goals scored from quick one- and two-touch combination play count double. This rewards play that has been practiced and developed earlier in the session. MORE

Cross fire

in Attacking, Practice plans

Good communication between attackers is vital for a successful partnership because occupying the same area makes space easier to defend. “Cross fire” encourages your attackers to build an understanding of the runs they must make to create space. MORE

Responsibilities of a pivot player

in Defending, Other, Tactics

Pivot players are big news. Do you play with one or two? Against weaker teams one is enough but against stronger teams you're better off with two. But how do you know at grassroots level what your team needs? Check this out MORE

Who pulls the strings?

in Email newsletters, Midfield

When you construct your team often the missing player is the midfielder orchestrator; the one player who pulls the strings, who has great vision, who works between the lines and who can unlock the most stubborn of defences. MORE

Control the game in midfield

in Midfield, Tactics

One thing that will help you control the pace of games and give you a winning edge is to have an effective midfield. This useful session will help your players learn how to pass the ball through midfield on the move MORE

Running on to through passes

in Attacking, Practice plans

Your players need to be able to spot gaps in the opposition defence and exploit them by showing good pace to get in behind them in order to cross or shoot at goal. MORE

Touch and go

in Ball Control and Footwork, Practice plans

After being coached the basic skills of receiving and controlling the ball, players should be in the habit of using a positive first touch to move the ball into space. This creates more time for them to look up and see if a team mate is available before they make their next decision. Use this session to improve your players’ first touch and spatial awareness. MORE

Agility square

in Ball Control and Footwork, Warm Ups

Get brains and muscles into gear with this quick warm-up for training. It works on movement, agility and vision. MORE

Player positions for support

in Ball Control and Footwork, Warm Ups

Use this fast-paced training game to get two centre midfielders and a defensive midfielder moving quickly into positions to support each other, just like they would in a match. MORE

First touch to shoot

in Practice plans, Shooting

This session will improve the first touch of your attacking players. A centre forward must have a good first touch in order to guide the ball into space or away from a defender to shoot. Improving this skill will add speed to the forwards’ play and enable them to shoot at goal quickly in order to catch goalkeepers by surprise. MORE

Sidestep the last man and shoot

in Practice plans, Shooting

Attackers only need to create a little room in order to get a shot at the goal when there’s one defender between them and the goal. Get your players practising this attacking 1v1 situation. MORE

Give goalkeepers confidence

in Goalkeeping, Warm Ups

This goalkeeper warm up is all about reacting to balls played close to the keeper and getting them to take ownership of the ball. The goalkeeper can make a huge difference to a team, with a confident player who can clear the ball taking the pressure off defenders. MORE

Goalie handling and distribution

in Goalkeeping, Warm Ups

Warming the goalkeeper up needs more than just taking a few shots at him to see his reactions. This is a great workout that you can use as a warm up that tests goalkeeper handling and distribution. MORE

Strike it hot

in Practice plans, Shooting

Do you want your team to score more goals? If you can improve your strikers’ ability to score goals from various positions in the penalty area and with different techniques, then this session will help. MORE

Quattro goalkeeping

in Goalkeeping, Practice plans

Four balls, four goals and four chances to make a save, all wrapped up with a 4v4. This fast paced shot stopping session would even test the likes of Italian goalkeeping greats Gianluigi Buffon and Dino Zoff. MORE