Featured Links

Fun Soccer Drills For Coaches - CLICK HERE To Download Now!

Strength Training For Soccer - A Tailored Soccer Fitness Program

Sample Individual Practice Plan

Really, there's not much of a difference in say a fundamentals training session whether you're six or seventeen, it's all about spending time with the ball and making the ball do what you want to do and not vice versa.

When you take a break between activities, you can either juggle or do sit-ups and pushups.

15 minutes

Start out near half field, try to hit the cross bar with the ball. Use this a warm-up, jogging to retrieve the ball, and dribbling back with the right foot and then left foot, alternating. See if you can hit the cross bar with your left foot too. When striking the ball towards the crossbar, you're not trying to drive the ball or chip the ball, it's a combination of the two, don't follow through when you kick, rather stop just after you hit the ball, that way you'll get some lift under the ball. Mastering this will give you a great feel for the ball, so you can play the ball to any part of the field, to any player or space. Incorporate some stretching into this warm-up phase.

15 minutes

After trying to hit the cross bar five or six times, juggle with each foot twenty times - repeat this three or four times. Next, do a cycle, from left foot to right, to right thigh and then left thigh, and then up to the head and chest - repeat this four or five times. Try to make up your own cycles, say left foot to head and then to fight foot and back up to the head.

20 minutes

When you're done with that, find a wall to strike the ball against, practice driving the ball, this means hitting the ball with power, but controlled, so again, not following through when you strike the ball like when taking a shot, by stopping just after you hit the ball--there's not that much back spin on the ball like with a chip--more steady. Spend about ten minutes hitting the ball against the wall with both feet. Spend a few minutes than striking the ball against the wall with all the different parts of your foot--inside, outside, and instep of both feet.

10 minutes

Moving on, kick the ball up in the air as high as you can and control the ball with the instep of your foot, see if you can actually steer the ball to one side when you're controlling it, as if there was a defender on you - repeat five or six times.

10 minutes

Next, try dribbling at speed twenty yards or so, touching the ball with each step but going as fast as you can.

Last, run through another cycle of juggling, vary your routine, two juggles on the right foot and then two on the left, then three on the right and three on the left, going up to ten.

5-10 minutes

Take a slow job around the field with the ball at your foot to cool down.