Are you a beginner in soccer looking for drills to improve your skills and abilities? Soccer is the most popular sport in the world because it is easily accessible to a majority of the world and hardly any training equipment is needed to start playing.
All you really need to start improving your skills is a soccer ball itself as well as your feet and some empty space. All the other equipment, such as shin guards and cleats, are only mandatory if you want to play competitively or recreationally.
By far the best way to become a better soccer player is to play the game as much as possible and against other players either through team training, real matches, pickup games or any other variation of the game. This is because players have to train how they play the game, and these exercises best resemble the unpredictability of a full-field soccer game.
However, with that being said, there may come times where you will have to train on your own which is why it is important to know what drills to do. In this blog post I will be going over the best soccer drills for beginners and as a way to get the most out of these drills it is best to practice them barefoot as well.
Barefoot juggling
One of the best ways to start any training session, no matter what level you are at, is with barefoot juggling because it helps you get numerous touches on the ball in a short amount of time. By dedicating just a few minutes each day to barefoot juggling, you can achieve tens of thousands of touches annually.
Although you won’t ever have time to juggle the ball as you wish during a real game, the skills that you learn from juggling directly translate to making you a better player by improving your touch and comfortability with the ball.
Barefoot juggling is also a great fun way to master the ball and there are so many types of “juggling games” that you can play on your own to improve your touch and ball control.
Wall Passing
Wall passing is a straightforward drill that will improve one of the most important skills of the game, passing. For this drill all you have to do is find a wall or any surface that can bounce the ball back to you.
Depending on the height of the wall you can work on different types of kicks and techniques. Practice passing with both feet, varying your techniques with one-touch passes, two-touch passes, ground passes, and aerial passes.
This drill is excellent for improving ball control and first-touch skills, making it one of the most effective individual training exercises because the wall is basically a training partner that will never get tired.
Also, depending on where the wall you are training at is located you may be able to do this drill barefoot.
Wall Turning Soccer Drill
Similar to the wall passing drill, the wall turning drill requires a wall to bounce the ball back to you. After a few passes, work on turning with the ball and dribbling into space, aiming to replicate game speed and intensity.
Focus on using both feet and practice various turns, such as using the outside of your foot, the inside of your foot, or any other type of turn. If a wall isn’t available, you can still practice by kicking the ball ahead of you, then running to the ball, turning, and dribbling past your starting point.
This is a way to progress from the last drill. So once you are more warmed up with passing you can begin adding some turns after every couple of passes.
Maximal Intent Soccer Dribbling Drill
This next drill is also a progression from the last one. Once you have warmed up with passing and turning you can now start adding in some dribbling.
This drill involves dribbling down the field (or within the space available) at full game speed, incorporating various skill moves along the way. The aim is to simulate game scenarios by imagining opponents approaching and using skill moves to evade them, similar to how boxers use “shadow boxing” to prepare for fights.
This drill is one of the best ways to enhance your dribbling skills, especially when done at full speed to replicate a match-like intensity. You can either do this drill on its own, or progress from the last two drills by passing the ball against the wall and after every few passes turning and dribbling out to space at max speed.
Maximal Intent Soccer Shooting Drill
One of the most important parts of the game is shooting and scoring goals. That is why this next drill will help you improve on that.
For this drill start by positioning yourself far from the goal (or a makeshift goal using cones) and kick the ball into the air. Control the ball, dribble towards the goal with maximum intensity, and shoot as you approach.
The more training balls you have, the more efficient the drill will be because you will spend less time retrieving balls. If you are lucky enough to have a wall near a goal then you can also do this drill by playing a pass into the wall, taking a touch and controlling the ball, and then shooting towards goals.
Full Field Sprints
This last drill is mostly designed to help improve your speed as well as game-day fitness. This drill is best if done in a full sized field, but it can also be used in a smaller-sized field.
For this drill start at the corner of the field and sprint the entire length of the sideline of the field. Once you reach the goal line walk or lightly jog the entire width of the goalline and then once you reach the sideline do a full sprint again.
For this drill you will be basically sprinting the entire sideline and walking or jogging at the goal lines. Do a couple of laps around the entire field and then take a break. You can also repeat this drill with the ball after you do it without it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, training sessions for beginning soccer players do not have to be complicated. The best advice I can give you is to train the most basic skills of the game, which I mentioned in this post including juggling, passing, controlling the ball, dribbling, shooting, and sprinting, and make sure you train them at game speed.
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