Football drills being practised by a young playerFootball is the most followed and revered sport on this planet. Billions of people watch the sport globally and follow their superstars. However, most of the magic one sees on screen, needs years of hard work and practise to master them.So, if one wishes to play a high level of football, there are certain areas one needs to work upon religiously to do well.Let us have a look at the most important football drills you need to practise in order to become a good player.
#1 Juggling
Juggling is the art of continuously tossing the ball using one’s feet and keeping it in the air. It can help a lot in developing a feel for the football and can help you perfect your touch.
When juggling, you should try to play with the ball in different ways. For example, try to juggle without spin, with side spin, with back spin, and top spin. If you can develop the art of controlling the ball, you can manipulate it when making passes during a game.
Apart from this, while juggling the ball, try to catch the ball at the top of your foot while juggling. This will help in another of football’s important skills we will discuss in the next drill: trapping. One should ensure one practices all these with both feet to become good with both.
#2 Trapping
Trapping is the art of stopping a moving ball with your feet and redirecting it again. To develop this, you should kick the football as high as you can and try to settle it, as it comes down with your shoelaces.
Now, the important part here comes next. As you settle the ball coming down, you should ensure that the ball does not bounce very high off your shoes. This is very important to retain control on the ball and make a quick pass if needed.
#3 Dribbling
Dribbling is the art of taking the ball forward past defenders, with slight touches of the feet. It is one of the most difficult ball skills to master and one of the most useful attacking moves.
Dribbling can involve a wide variety of manipulative tricks and feints in order to go past an opponent. One can use shoulder feints, whereby you pretend to move in one direction and actually go the other way.
When dribbling, work on keeping your eyes up and in front of you, rather than staring down at the ball. If you have a pet who likes to chase the ball, you can use him as a defender and try to get the ball past him.
#4 Passing
This is the art of moving the ball to a desired player from your side. You can place another football at a distance of 10 yards and try to pass the ball at the exact distance. Ensure that you can pass to the exact same location, as even if it misses by few inches, it can be costly in an actual match.
Also, you should try to pass a moving ball, as that will be the situation in an actual match. Later, you can increase the distance by 5 yards each, one by one, till you can perfect ball passing for longer distances like 35 or 40 yards.
After perfecting the art of passing the ball on the ground, one can practise passing the ball in the air, keeping an imaginary target in the air, at fixed distances, starting with say 20 yards. When passing the ball in the air, you should try to reach your teammate at a comfortable height above the ground, so that he can control it easily.
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#5 Kicking a soccer ball against the wall
If you have a wall in your home or local playground, you can use it to hone your football skills. Start by kicking the ball against the wall with the instep of your foot (alternating feet), allowing the ball to bounce only once.
You can begin by standing about 2 feet away from the wall. As you improve, you can move back about a foot. Try to get in 100 one-bounce kicks off the wall. Once you have mastered the instep, move towards striking the ball with your laces against the wall, allowing only one bounce before striking it back into the wall.
This practise helps a lot in developing control over the ball and is now being used by many football coaching academies across the world.
