Setup

• Each player has a ball
• Set down cones to make a 40×30 steps field for 10 players – larger if more players
  • Anything can be a cone (an article of clothing, a water bottle, any marker)
  • Set cones every ten steps
• Do not set up any goals
  • If there are goals, players will shoot on them and not listen to you
• Demonstrate each drill / game before starting it

Game 1 – “Spiderman” Coach – 5 minutes

Setup

• Each player has a ball
• The coach holds a training vest

Game

• Players dribble anywhere within the field of play
• Spiderman (the coach) chases the players with a training vest

• Spiderman throws the training vest at players’ balls
  • Players evade the vest by dribbling or shielding the ball from it

• If a vest touches the ball then the players have to:
  • Pick up the ball and hold it in their hands
  • Stand with their feet spread wide apart in one spot, as if they caught by the spider web (kind of like freeze tag)
  • Players remain in the  web until another player passes a ball through the caught player’s legs, which untangles them from the spider web
  • The player can then drop the ball onto the ground and continue to play
• In the meantime, spiderman picks up the vest again and looks for the players to entangle into the web

The caught player waits for a teammate to pass the ball through their legs to be released from the web. The teammate runs around the caught player, after passing it through the legs, to get to the ball and continue dribbling and shielding it away from spiderman

The caught player is untangled from the web, drops the ball, and starts to dribble and shield it away from spiderman again.

Game 2 – “Spiderman” Players – 10 minutes

Same as “‘Spiderman’ coach,” except:

• One of the players becomes spiderman while the coach helps players with their dribbling and shielding techniques
• Change the player who is spiderman often so that many players get a chance to be spiderman
  • Even though being spiderman is fun for the kids, the soccer value of the drill is in being one of the players being chased, so minimize the time players spend as spiderman

Game 3 – “Cookie Monster” – 5 minutes

Remind players how to “shield” the ball

• Put your body between the ball and the opponent trying to steal the ball
  • Keep the ball close enough to you to control it but far enough from the opponent to steal it

Game

• The players dribble around until a “cookie monster” (coach or a parent volunteer) approaches them
• Players then protect the ball (the “cookie”) by shielding it from the “monster”
• When the “monster” goes away the players continue to dribble

Instruction

• Encourage players not to lose composure as a monster approaches them
  • They have the power to protect the cookie from the monster by positioning themselves correctly or by keeping the ball close to them while dribbling it

Drill 1 – Dribbling – 15 minutes (4 3-minute mini drills + setup and demonstrations)

Setup

• Place two lines of cones
  • The two lines are about 20-25 steps apart
  • The cones on the same line are about 7 steps apart
• Put players into groups of 3
  • Assign 2 players to each cone on Line 1
  • Assign 1 player to a matching cone on Line 2
  • If the numbers do not work out, create 1 or 2 groups of 4 players
• 1 ball per group
  • The 1st player on cone in line 1 with the ball
    • The 2nd player on cone in line 1 stands behind without the ball
    • 1 player is sent to the opposite cone on line 2, also without the ball

Instruction

• For each of the dribbling mini drills, demand that the players take at least 10 touches before they give the ball over to the teammate on the other side of the cone
• No hands
• Take a quick break every few touches to take a look (lift your view from the ball to the intended cone) and make sure you are heading towards the cone that you are supposed to be heading to

Mini Drill 1 – Dribble (no restrictions) – 3 minutes

• The player with the ball dribbles to the opposite cone

• When the dribbler gets there, the player that was waiting on the opposite cone takes the ball and becomes the dribbler and heads towards the cone that the previous  dribble just came from
• The previous dribbler stays at the cone that he or she just dribbled to

• The take over happens again as the 2nd dribbler reaches the intended cone and the 3rd player in the group becomes the dribbler
• Keep going for 3 minutes

Mini Drill 2 – Dribble (right foot only) – 3 minutes

Same as Mini Drill 1, except:

• Players now dribble only with their right foot

Mini Drill 3 – Dribble (left foot only) – 3 minutes

Same as Mini Drill 2, except:

• Players dribble only with their left foot

Mini Drill 4 – Dribble (coach calls which foot) – 3 minutes

Same as Mini Drills 2 and 3, except:

• The coach will call a different foot for players to dribble with every 10 seconds or so
  • If the coach calls “Right” then the players dribble only with their right foot
  • “Left” then the players use only their left foot
  • “Either” then the players dribble as they see fit

Drill 2 – Pass, Trap, and Dribble – 10 minutes

REITERATE TRAPPING THE BALL WITH INSIDE OF FOOT

• Stay on your toes so you can move to the ball
  • Don’t watch the ball roll by you
  • Move side-to-side to where the ball is going
• Use the inside of your foot to stop the ball in front of you
  • Lift your foot just slightly off the ground
    • This way the ball does not roll over your foot
  • But, do not lift the foot too much
    • This way the ball does not go under your foot

Setup

The same setup as Drill 1, except:

• If needed, the 2 lines of cones may need to be brought a little closer together if the players are not strong or accurate enough to make a pass that travels the distance between the 2 cones

Drill 

• The 1st player on a cone in line 1 passes the ball to the player waiting on the cone in line 2
  • The player that made the pass then makes a run without the ball to the cone the ball was just passed to
• The receiving player traps the ball in front and then dribbles it back to the teammate waiting at the cone on line 1

• After dribbling back to the cone, the player gives the ball to the teammate who had been waiting and waits for a turn when the ball comes back to line 1

• The player who just got the ball on line 1 passes it to a player on line 2 who traps it in front and dribbles back to line 1

Drill 3 – Dribble (slalom) – 5 minutes

Setup

• Split the team into two groups
  • One group lines up behind the first cone of line 1
  • The other group lines up behind the last cone of line 2
• Each player has a ball

Drill

• The 1st player in both lines dribbles by slaloming through the cones in their line
  • When finished with their line, they join the back of the other line
• The next player in line goes when the player ahead of them has dribbled about halfway through the line

Game 4 – Trap, Dribble and Score – 5 minutes

Setup

• Coach takes all of the balls to one end of the tunnel (between the two lines of cones)
• Players line up on the other end of the tunnel
• Put a small goal about 7 steps behind the coach

Instruction

• Encourage the players not to stop after their dribble to pass the ball into the goal
  • See if they can do it without backing away from the ball to set up a shot
  • Everything should be in forward motion

Game

1. Coach passes or tosses the ball to the player in the front of the line; 2. The player traps the ball; 3. The player dribbles the ball past the coach; 4. The player passes the ball into the goal; 5. The player retrieves the ball, leaves it with the coach, and runs to the back of the line to await another turn

• The players trap a ball that is either passed on the ground or thrown to them by the coach
• The players dribble up to the coach
• The players pass the ball into the goal once they get to the coach
• The players retrieve the ball, leave it with the coach, and run back to the end of the line

Game 5 – Trap the Ball, Slalom, and Score – 5 minutes

Setup

The same as for Game 4, except:

• Place down 5-6 cones, about 3 steps apart from each other, in the middle of the tunnel

Instruction

• Encourage the players not to stop after their dribble to pass the ball into the goal
  • See if they can do it without backing away from the ball to set up a shot
  • Everything should be in forward motion

Game

Same as Game 4, except:

• Players will dribble through the cones in the middle by slaloming through them
• When they get to the coach they will pass the ball into the goal

End Practice

• Team cheer
  • 1,2,3 Go “team name”!