Favorite Drills

This section is provided to share drills that players have have found fun and help develop skills.

The emphasis is on fun, since youth soccer should be fun.

We want to encourage a life time commitment to good exercise, and the best way is to assure that our young players enjoy coming to practice rather than seeing it as a chore.

Title: Soft foot

Purpose: To improve weaker foot skills

Description:

Have players tie a small inflated balloon to the top of their dominant foot's shoe. Then conduct regular drill or scrimmage with the objective of not popping the balloon.

( A quick way to determine a new player's dominant foot is to have the player(s) close their eyes and lean forward, farther and farther forward until they loose their balance. The foot that they through out to catch their balance is their dominant foot.)

Title: Target Practice

Purpose: To improve shooting skills

Description:

Make up point value targets (paper plates, a hole punch, kite string, and a large marker work fine), the points can be any values you choose greater than 1. Tie the targets to hang from the corners of the goal. Run shooting practice with one point for each goal, and extra points based on the point value of targets for each target hit. This practice works best by having a goalie defending the goal, This helps train players to aim for the corners since many players look at the goalie and thereby end up shooting straight towards her.

Title: Obstacle Course

Purpose: To improve ball control

Description:

First, gather a bunch of cardboard boxes, some poles (even relatively straight branches will do), cones (any marker will do – even old water bottles filled with sand or water to keep them from blowing over). Use your creativity to layout an obstacle course.

* cones spread out to dribble around,

* boxes opened up to have to pass the ball through them,

* other boxes set apart with a pole across them for the players to pass the ball under it while they jump over the pole (make the sure the pole will easily push aside if a player hits it)

* If you have a large refrigerator box, open it up so players have to crawl though it,

* boxes set up as a blind alley so that the player has to kick the ball up over the last box

Title: Keep Away

Purpose: To improve passing skills

Description:

Randomly assign players into any number of even numbered teams of at least 3 players. For each 2 teams, provide one ball and have them play keep away from the opposing team. Best if boundaries are used to mark out an area large enough for the players to make space, but small enough that they can't just dribble around in circles. Size of area will vary based on number of players per team and skill set of the players.

Send in your favorite drill(s): open e-mail form