Soccer Coaching Blog

Fun Soccer Drills To Improve Ball Control And Possession

By Admin on October 23rd, 2011

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When it comes to soccer, it’s never too late to start practicing and improving upon your kid’s ball control soccer skills. Even though it seems that ball control, like any other soccer skill would be simple to learn and practice but your player’s need to practice it a lot more in comparison to other soccer skills before becoming an expert in it. Experienced soccer coaches propose that your training sessions should include practicing mainly ball control.

With a view to master the ball control skill, players need to get in touch with the ball.  The drills recommended in the subsequent paragraphs have the potential to make the kids practice and work upon a number of soccer touches that will also translate into a warm-up session for the practice match. You should therefore make it a practice to perform them in all your practice sessions as far as it is possible.

Delighted Feet: In youth soccer, this is the name most popular with the players. Here, you need to instruct the kids to use their inside foot to touch the ball and take it to the front and then move it back in between their legs. The ball at first will either go far-off in front of the players or will stay right behind them. When this happens, they must stop, and then move about the ball to get it back amid their legs, and make a start all over again.

After the kids become comfortable in doing it, they must be taught to make their touches crisp and precise.  While doing this they should keep the ball moving quietly between their feet.  Try and make them do it at an increased speed.  Tell them to take a quick look up and then bring back their attention towards the ball. In due course, they’ll become proficient enough to carry out the drill in such a way that does not even require them to give the ball a decent look.

Touch the ball using toes: This drill requires the kids to touch the ball at the top alternatively with their feet. Instruct the players to be gentle in touching the ball. Although it sounds like a simple thing to do but it can actually be very difficult for young kids to carry out this drill.  If they can’t do it and therefore feel discouraged, tell them to discontinue and try it all over again the following day.  It’s okay for the kids to feel frustrated but if they keep on doing it without any success, they are bound to get demotivated which you would not want.

In time, when they start feeling comfortable, they should be guided to gradually pick up the pace of their touches.  However, it is an exhausting exercise because they’ll have to move at a faster speed. To make it slightly easy, bring about a little variation in it where one player touches the top of the on one side and another player does it on the opposite side.

Sole Spins: Doing the sole spins will make your players comfortable in moving about the ball with the help of their feet; i.e. their soles. All they need to do is move the ball using either foot towards one side and then move it in the opposite side with their other foot. When they switch their feet i.e. bring into play the left foot in place of the right foot, instruct them to skip a little with that foot with which they roll the ball. This drill can be extremely difficult for players who are not used to touching the ball with their soles.

Drag and Cut the ball: In this drill, tell the kids to draw the ball at the back of one of their legs.  Then, without turning their body, they should use their inside leg to make a contact with the ball. Then repeat the same exercise with the alternating legs. This drill will also take the kids a lot of time to get a hand of it and will also require a lot of rhythm in their play.  In order to get a good rhythm, it is suggested you make them hop with their opposite legs. Otherwise your players might not be able to keep up with the pace of their teammates as well as the opponents.

Improve Ball Possession

As a coach, the fact that key to winning a soccer game is to keep the possession of the ball is not new to you. The team that ultimately wins the game has the ball’s possession for the maximum period of time. So, controlling the ball and maintaining its possession is by far the most challenging and important aspect of soccer.

Every successful soccer team has the ability to keep the soccer ball with them once they have the ball in their custody. It is important because no team can score goals and win games if they are not competent enough to take care of the ball. If you are planning to develop a team who is capable of keeping possession of the ball rather than simply kicking the ball up the field in the anticipation of a lucky break, you need to train your kids in this skill of ball control.

Now the question is how do you keep the ball in your possession? Most of the times, players tend to lose the possession of the ball because either they fail to control the pass, letting the ball get away from them, or dribble it for so long that the opposing player gets the opportunity to seize the ball. It happens especially with the younger players. Therefore, you need to train your kids in the skill of ball control.  Ball control is the ability of the player to receive passes and dribble the ball for just the right time.

When your team has the ball, your players should keep the possession even if it means getting backwards at first. No team can score if they don’t have the ball; whether it’s you or your opponents. This is why keeping possession of the ball is not just a very strong form of defense but a very strong from of offense as well.
When your team is able to keep the ball for majority of the game, it prevents the opposition from causing any issues for your defense.

You must have observed that if your kids have been out of the game for a while, when they resume their practice with the ball, their first touches are not that great. This proves that having the possession of the ball and getting lots of touches on the ball improves the quality of your player’s movement.

When your players are able to keep possession of the ball and constantly move it around the field, it’ll not just generate but also allow them to take advantage of openings in the opposition’s defense. Instead of moving the ball into areas where likelihood of scoring a goal is the least, good ball control will offer a better prospect of creating goal scoring opportunities for your team.

There is one more reason why you should try to keep possession of the ball. The opposition is bound to get exhausted by this as they’ll constantly be running after your kids all around the soccer field. And then, even if they get the ball, their exhaustion will negatively affect their attacking potential and skills.

Most importantly, developing and then improving upon your ball control skills is definitely much more enjoyable style of playing the game. You have the ball as well as the opportunity to create scoring chances and it is by far the most exciting parts about playing soccer. Therefore, it is only natural that every player would like doing it over and over again.

These are not the only reasons why your team should keep possession of the ball. These are just a few of them. So the next time you’re on the field with your players, make it a point to train them in keeping the ball, and creating scoring opportunities.

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