Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills

Soccer School Ball Mastery is so important at this level. The more comfortable they are on the ball, the more they will enjoy even the most basic of drills.

Most football movements will feel foreign to a kid just starting off, so getting them moving in different ways will really help their development.

For 90 % of Soccer School Drills, the ball should be at the children’s feet.

Warm Up

Before each session, to get them used to moving differently try these runs.

1. One Width of pitch running Forward
2. One Width of pitch running Backward
3. One Width sidestepping left
4. One Width sidestepping right.

Take it slowly, encourage all the way, It will be strange for most of them and many will fall over at first. Make sure there is plenty of room between them so they don’t stand one each other.

Do the runs with them and tell them why and when they may use these movements during a game.

Try and keep them all at the same pace, it’s very difficult at the start, but as time goes on, its a great way to create a team bond if they are all in it together.

Do this every week and it will be amazing how balance improves.

How to Start

We’ve put together 5 phases of Ball Mastery. These shouldn’t take up much of the session, at this age it’s all about having fun while they learn through games.

They are, however, something that you should start with every week.

It will make the games more fun, and improve development and coordination.

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Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills – Phase I – Basic Movements

These are the most basic of movements, even numbers 3-6 may be too much for some at the start, but stick with them over the course of a few weeks and watch the improvement.

1.	Top Taps – Right Foot, Left Foot in turn each tapping their foot on the top of the ball.	x 50
2.	Penguin Feet – Ball in-between their legs, tapping the ball from right foot to left foot.	x 50
3.	Left Foot Roll Out / Roll Back – Using bottom of their foot from a standing position, roll the ball out maintaining contact, then roll back	x 25
4.	Right Foot Roll Out / Roll Back – Using bottom of their foot from a standing position, roll the ball out maintaining contact, then roll back	x 25
5.	Left Foot Roll Left / Roll Right – Ball in front of player with foot on ball. Roll it Left, then Roll it Right	x 15
6.	Right Foot Roll Left / Roll Right – Ball in front of player with foot on ball. Roll it Left, then Roll it Right	x 15

Getting these Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills practiced each week is such a good foundation for the kids and will get them engaged and ready for the fun games to follow later in the session.

Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills – Phase II – The Cones

After the basic movements it’s time to bring out the cones. Again, repeating these every week will improve players touch very quickly.

Integrate slowly at first. Maybe bring in for a week, then go back to the Basic movements for a couple of weeks before returning to the cones.

Layout between 4-6 cones for each player and go through each of the following methods to navigate them.

Again it will be very strange to them, but its such a good grounding to be learning these techniques as young as possible.

There are 5 different methods of navigating the cones, each player has to complete 3 runs of each

1.	Insides of Feet Only	Players must navigate through the cones using both feet, but are only allowed to use the insides of the feet
2.	Outsides of Feet Only	Players must navigate through the cones using both feet, but are only allowed to use the outside of the feet. This is tricky and will feel unnatural at first.
3.	Right Foot Only	Players must navigate through the cones using their Right foot only, this will utilise both of the moves in the previous 2 runs.
4.	Left Foot Only	Players must navigate through the cones using their Left foot only, If this is their weaker foot, it will probably be the most difficult
5.	Rollovers	Players must navigate through the cones using both feet, but each time the must roll their foot over the ball to move in-between the cones.

These are drills that should be practiced every week to really see improvement, and ideally get the kids doing them at home.

Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills – Phase III – Turns

Next up in Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills is the Turn.

Again, start integrating these slowly once they are getting comfortable with the cones and looking ready to move on.

A lot of these skills will feature in other games you do and

Once the players are getting comfortable with the ball at their feet and navigating through the cones, its time to through in some turns.

These can be done two ways.

Either working in a straight line between two cones, or in a more freestyle environment where they can begin to express themselves.

Numbers 1 and 2 work best between cones, 3 and 4 work best on Freestyle

The freestyle option is great, as it also brings awareness of other players around them.

There are 4 different turns that they have to learn are

1.	Inside of Foot	Run between the two cones and go round the cone using the Inside of the foot to turn
2.	Outside of Foot	Run between the two cones and go round the cone using the Outside of the foot to turn
3.	Drag Back	Run in any direction and on the whistle, stop the ball and perform a Drag Back turn
4.	Cruyff Turn	Run in any direction and perform a Cruyff Turn and go off in another direction

As they start to develop, they will love the freedom to express themselves as they improve.

Being able to keep control of the ball whilst moving in another direction is a fantastic skill for them to develop as they learn.

Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills – Phase IV – Advanced Movements.

The next phase of development is starting combine movements.

Taking some of the basic movements from the warm ups that you’ll be doing every week, and adding in ball work too.

This is why the warm ups are so key. Good body manipulation leads to good ball manipulation.

The following Drills will really start to give the players confidence on the ball.

Enabling them to manipulate the ball with both feet going in any direction will really help with the balance.

Keep practising these drills until the players can do them without looking down at the ball.

1.	Backpeddling Drag Backs	Players must move backwards whist keeping their foot on the ball and dragging / rolling it back with them – Take turns with both Feet
2.	Right foot Rollovers – Moving Left	Players must move to their left, whist rolling their Right foot over the ball to move it with them
3.	Left Foot Rollovers – Moving Right	Players must move to their right, whist rolling their Left foot over the ball to move it with them
4.	Flick Up	Players must roll the back back to themselves, then get the foot under it to flick it up
5.	Stepovers – Both Feet	Players must run with the ball and perform step overs as they go and change direction after each one

Soccer School Ball Mastery Drills – Phase V – Kicking Techniques

Although it seems like it should be the first thing to teach, most of the early days of Soccer School will just be running and toe punts and getting used to moving about the pitch

You can definitely phase 1 & 2 in earlier but, by learning all the above movements first, it will massively help the technique for this phase and stop bad habits developing.

All of the following should be taught using both feet.

Following the theme, it is about getting the players as comfortable as possible with every movement on both feet.

1.	Laces Kick – Shot	Toes pushed down, kick through the ball with the Laces. Start off with the ball on top of a cone to allow a good contact point
2.	Instep Kick – Pass	Inside of the foot, push the pass to a team-mate
3.	Outside of Foot Kick – Pass	Inside of the foot, push the pass to a team-mate
4.	Chip – Shot or Pass	Push the foot down into the ball to get under it and get some height.

Why this works

By following a plan and not rushing it, it will enable the kids to have a better grasp of the basic movements and ball control well in advance of them progress to Under 7’s football

Just having 5-10 minutes of each session dedicated to Ball Mastery is so important to their development.

Paired alongside the other drills and games they will play, you will notice a quicker improvement over time.

Focusing on all the different movements, touches and controls on both feet will set them up so well.

Moving on – Passing Drills

Check out these 10 Brilliant Passing Drills to try out with your players

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