Soccer Drills - Exercises with ball
Increase the efficiency of your drills
We hear it many times from coaches. Especially the youth teams do not have enough time to include all the physical and technical aspects in their training session. So coaches often have to make a difficult decision. Will they prioritize a dribbling drill over endurance training? Or do they have to send their players for a cross-country run because their fitness is not up to par? We have a better solution. Combined drills, that include physiological and technical aspects will help you achieve everything you want. In such drills, you have a focus on endurance or sprint ability but also include a ball so your players consistently have to work on their technical skills as well.
If you are looking for such drills we have got you covered. You can either use the four soccer exercises on this page to get started or simply browse our database for more inspiration for your upcoming session.
4 (+4) vs 4 on several goals
Set Up:
Divide the group into three teams of 4 (you can vary the amount of players in a team). Place 5 cone/pole goals with a width of 3m, on the pitch (30m x 30m). Adjust the size of the field and goals to the amount of players.
Execution:
Two teams (red and orange) play as one versus the third team. The 4+4 team is the ball controlling team and tries to create spacing, through fast passing and good positional play. Goals can be scored, when succesfully passing and receiving the ball through cone/pole goals. The third team of four tries to keep the two attacking teams from scoring, with maintaining a good positional play.
Playing time: 6 games of 2 minutes – Each team of 4 will be playing defense twice.
Shooting Drill – Precision from distance
Set Up:
Place two big goals next to eachother, with a distance of at least 15m in between. Two poles on each goal line divide the goal in thirds. Put another pole 25m in front of the two goals. 3 cones, behind the pole, mark the shooting area (see drawing). The players will then line up at station 1 and 2.
Execution:
The first player of each station starts dribbling towards the pole at the same time, after the coach has given the start signal. Both players try to get around the pole as tight as possible (Consider the player coming from the other side). As soon as the players have passed the pole, the coach will give a signal on where to shoot the ball. The goal shot must take place inside the shooting area. S1 will use the right foot and S2 the left.
Count the goals – Who has the highest score after 5 rounds at each station?
The end zone game - 4v4
Set Up:
Use 4 cones to set up a field of approx. 15m x 40m. Set up two 5m long end zones in the field by using two cones each. Divide group into teams of 4 players. Place balls near the sidelines in case ball goes out of bounce.
Execution:
This exercise is a regular 4v4, with the objective of getting the ball in the opposing team's endzone. Defenders and attacking players can not enter the endzones before the pass is played. 3-4 rounds of each 5 minutes with different variations. Variations could include: Click link to check the full exercise.
2 +2 versus 2 - Majority in a small sided game
Set Up:
Set up a field of approx. 30m x 20m - One big goal on each end of the field. Three teams of 2 - One goalkeeper per goal. Place balls near goalkeeper for a quick pass, in case ball goes out of bounce.
Execution:
In this drill your players will learn to play a fast, yet controlled majority game, to take advantage of the situation. Team A (Blue) plays a free 2vs2 against Team B (Yellow). Neutral Team C (white) will always support the ball possessing team in their attack - After a goal Team C joins the attack around midfield.
Played with offside rule. After change of ball possession the neutral team C has to transition quickly as well. Because of the small sided game setting, this drill will get quite exhausting. Use little breaks where players can catch their breath to coach them up.
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Passing exercises do not yet make a complete football player. A precise and fast pass can not only look good but create important and dangerous goal scoring chances. Therefore, these skills should be combined in training with other skills. Passes are very well suited to integrate them in small sided games or shot on goal drills. To help your create your next training session plan almost automatically, we put up lot more exercise examples and variations on our drill pages.
