In this article we present you with 20 soccer drills, suitable for players of any age, which serve to master the four basic aspects of soccer: passing, shooting, defending and dribbling.
Any dream you pursue in life has its complications, its challenges, its difficulties. Without them, in fact, dreams would probably be a little less of a dream. Some are achieved through perseverance, others through perseverance, or patience. But in few, perhaps none, is work as important as in the dream par excellence of so many children: to be a professional soccer player.
Because soccer, or that is our philosophy, is work. It is perseverance and training. It is the ability to strive to the maximum, not only as a means to reach a goal, but as a path to learn to enjoy. In which, even if the ultimate goal is not achieved, the enjoyment, pride and satisfaction is there, in all those hours of work and improvement.
Training is, for us, both a means and an end, something necessary but also fun. For all these reasons, here we bring you the 20 basic soccer drills for the development of a soccer player. So that you, whether you are a player or a coach, can use them at any time, and you can follow our philosophy on your own.
If you are interested in developing your soccer even more we recommend the online soccer course of coach Pablo Huerta UEFA PRO which also offers personalized sessions and tutorials and video analysis to take your soccer to the next level.
Some are drills that we put into practice in many of our summer soccer camps and soccer schools around the world, others we have compiled specifically for this article. In any case, we divide them into four branches, covering the most important offensive and defensive technical concepts.
- Dribbling and ball control
- Shooting
- Passing
- Defensive concepts
We also recommend our online soccer course to learn new tricks and generally improve your soccer level with UEFA PRO coach Pablo Huerga.
The 5 best exercises for dribbling and ball control
The “canchero” player, as they call him in Argentina, is less and less common on the soccer field. The one who faces, does not cut himself off and throws a bicycle kick, a dribble, a back-heel. That soccer of the street, which we often believe has been lost with the arrival of the academic model. Although we do not agree, not at all. Because even in a school you can learn to play as if you spent days and nights on a pitch in Rio de Janeiro, and here we bring you some exercises to do just that.
Dribbling: one on one
No one will deny that Neymar Jr. is, today, the player with the best ball handling. His dribbling is fabulous, his ball control is out of this world, as if it were glued to his boot. Is there any way to achieve such technical quality? Or is that only possible with basic conditions within the reach of very few?
Becoming Neymar is very difficult, that is clear, but being a wing player, a winger with the ability to face his defender, is possible with hard work. A basic and simple exercise for this is to delimit a space, and carry out a series of one-on-one between two players. The learning process is twofold: not only do you learn how to face and dribble, gaining resources for the one-on-one, but also how to defend those situations. And the best thing is that it is a lot of fun, very competitive.
This video by Jonathan Mendoza is a great way to apply this exercise in groups as small as one of two people: you only need an attacker, a defender, a small delimited goal to attack and, if there are more than two players, take turns.
➔ Level of the exercise: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 4/5
➔ Number of players needed: 2, minimum.
➔ Equipment needed: ball and objects of any kind to delimit a goal.
Simple exercise with cones
But not everything has to be group exercises, of course. In soccer you can also work on certain qualities individually, and driving, or dealing with the ball, is something a player can work on on his own. Moreover, it should be noted that this is increasingly necessary, and for all positions of a soccer team: as we are seeing in this World Cup 2022, even goalkeepers like Unai Simon have to have an excellent deal with the ball, handle the different contact surfaces that are on the foot.
A good way to improve your ball handling is to dribble through cones arranged in an enclosed space. A great example is this video exercise from BetterSoccerDrills, which explores different ways of dribbling and can be performed almost anywhere.
➔ Drill Level: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 2/5
➔ Number of players needed: 1
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
If you want to learn how to play like at La Masia, check out this FC Barcelona summer camp.
Advanced drill with cones
This group of exercises from Become Elite makes the previous cones exercise a bit more complex, and creates different spaces with cones in which you must drive the ball at different speeds. The positive side of the previous one, in addition to its greater complexity, is that it also serves to work on physical toning and endurance if carried out at a high pace, or by applying changes in intensity.
➔ Exercise level: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 3/5
➔ Number of players needed: 1
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
Perhaps, if one had to look for another example of a mythical goal carried out after a slalom, with changes of pace and direction of all kinds, the perfect example is Ronaldo’s (the Brazilian) goal against Compostela, back in 1996. A true marvel. Again: the players on the field look like cones.
Circle of cones
Another simple way to carry out individual exercises with cones for ball handling is to perform the work in a circle. This video from OnlineSoccerTraining shows how soccer players of any age can perform it. The best thing is that it represents a more realistic game situation than the first exercise with cones, as the driving is not so linear.
➔ Level of the exercise: Easy
➔ Rating of fun: 3/5
➔ Number of players needed: 1
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
Here we turn to another sample of Brazilian magic, to Ronaldo’s successor and Neymar’s predecessor: Marta, probably the best footballer in history. Delight yourself with this video.
The cutback
Spanish soccer, less prolific than South American football in terms of the magic of dribbling, nevertheless has its own movement: the cut-back, a dribble in which the change of foot and rhythm is used above all, the feint with the body, to slip away from one or more opponents. Here is an exercise explained by Andrés Iniesta himself, one of the most brilliant magicians that European soccer has ever produced. A legend of Barça and the Spanish national team, and who mastered like no one else the art of the croquette, a cutback in which he used both feet.
Of course, if you want to do it individually, you can replace the opponents with cones to practice the croquette move.
➔ Exercise level: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 3’5/5
➔ Number of players needed: 1
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
Top 5 shooting and finishing drills
We love soccer because of all the poetry it has around it, but in the end it comes down to one verse: whoever scores one more goal than the opponent, wins. Having a goal, in professional soccer, is worth millions. Having a goal, in any category and in any position, is the best plus you can give a player. For this reason, here are five exercises to improve your shooting.
Shot after pass
The most basic exercise to train ball striking. A teammate passes the ball to another player, who controls it and prepares it for the shot, and then, with the second touch, shoots at goal. Uncomplicated but fun, especially when you add a component of competition between teammates. This video from OnlineSoccerTraining explains perfectly how to do it.
➔ Exercise level: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 3’5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of two players and a goalkeeper
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and goalie
Because in soccer nothing tastes better than a goal after a good shot, the kind that knocks the cobwebs out of the corners.
One-touch shooting
But it happens that, on most occasions, the dynamism of today’s soccer does not allow enough time to control the ball, adapt it, and hit it. Many times, the process has to be reduced to one touch, when hitting it first. And in that, as every soccer fan knows, the British are the experts. Every week, the Premier League gives us examples of great first touch goals, from very far away.
Therefore, here is a video from the British Reading FC academy on how to train the first touch shot. It is a simple work, but very convenient to adapt the body and the gesture to the first touch shot.
➔ Level of the exercise: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 3/5
➔ Number of players needed: One player and a goalkeeper
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and goalie
In this sense, whether it’s to hit one touch, several touches, or set pieces, if anyone can teach how to hit the ball well to any girl or boy, it’s Cristiano Ronaldo. This video that we show you here is to be kept in all soccer schools under the title: “How to hit a soccer ball”.
Another example of great strikes is Hakan Çalhanoğlu of Inter Milan, who has one of the most impressive goals ever scored from a free kick while playing for Hamburg:
Three-goal drill
For putting a twist on the previous methods, combining both driving and one-touch shooting, the three-goal drill can be put into practice. Typical of Chelsea academies, it consists of setting up two small goals with their defenders, and leaving the goalkeeper in a third life-size goal. This SocceCoachTV video explains perfectly how to carry out the exercise.
➔ Exercise level: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 4/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of four field players and a goalkeeper
➔ Equipment needed: Ball, goals and mini goals.
Displacements, turns and chest control
With only three players and a goalkeeper, a very dynamic exercise can be carried out, and one that can be perfectly transferred to the real game. It is a kind of roulette, in which the player who has just shot must then serve as a support for a teammate. The method is explained in this video from ProgressiveSoccer.
The best thing about this exercise is that you can apply all the variants that the coach or player wants: leave the ball bouncing, lift it to force a chest control, give a bad pass… the variants are endless.
➔ Level of the exercise: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 3’5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of three players plus goalkeeper
➔ Equipment needed: Several balls and a goal
And you may be wondering, is this exercise any good? Well, yes, of course, and if not watch how Spanish legend Vero Boquete is able to define, here, in front of the goalkeeper. Behind that shot, behind that perfect adaptation of the body, there are numerous roulettes like the one we have shown you.
Headers
But be careful, because soccer is played with the feet, but not only. In fact, in our sport, strategy and stationary play are becoming more and more important, and nothing is as crucial as knowing how to headers. To work on this, we bring you a super fun exercise to do in a team, applied by the Spanish coach Victor Sanchez del Amo in his time at Malaga CF.
The method is easy: create a competition between two teams, and each player will receive a pass from his teammates who are waiting in line for their turn. It is entertaining, competitive, dynamic and, moreover, as can be seen in the Malaga video, it can be done without goalkeepers.
➔ Level of the exercise: Medium
➔ Fun Rating: 5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Six or more, divided into two teams
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and goals
For anyone who wants to be inspired by a header finisher, we think the model to look to is Sergio Ramos. The defender from Camas does everything well when it comes to finishing: the jump, the tempo, the turn of the neck, the power he prints on the ball… not for nothing is he one of the highest scoring defenders in history, with 102 goals in his 671 games for Real Madrid. Almost nothing.
The 5 best passing drills in soccer
Spain is, along with the Netherlands, the cradle of passing and control soccer. The famous tiki-taka, which had in its precursor Johan Cruyff and was brought to excellence by Pep Guardiola’s Barça in which four artists of its interpretation as Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and Busquets joined. Here we leave you with the five best exercises you can use to continue, on your own, with that school.
Basic short passes
To start working on passing accuracy and intensity, nothing like a classic exercise between three teammates. It’s all about control and short pass to one side, control and short pass to the other. The foot surface that is usually worked on here is the inside, but you can extend the distances and also use the outside or the instep. This video from Progressive Soccer explains perfectly how this exercise works.
➔ Drill level: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 3/5
➔ Number of players needed: Three players
➔ Equipment needed: Ball
The rondos
The problem with the above drill is that, while it serves to build confidence with the ball, it’s not much fun, nor does it put players in tight situations. For that, there is nothing like the sacrosanct exercise of tiki-taka, the one that Guardiola implemented in the historic Barça of the sextete as a religion: the rondos. All you need is a few cones and, as you can see in this video, the laughs are guaranteed.
➔ Exercise level: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 4.5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of six players
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
The practical application of this exercise is more than clear. Just look, for example, at how Pep Guardiola’s current team, Manchester City, plays. A soccer symphony of the highest level.
The long pass
When the opposing team is closed in on the part of the field where the ball is, or when they play with a very advanced defense, there is nothing like the art of the long pass to break their schemes. A single long pass can disrupt the best defense in the world, and this is a great exercise that Profe Bazan proposes.
In addition, the work is twofold with this method: the passer practices the long pass, but the receiver improves his ability to control and finish. Two for one.
➔ Exercise level: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 3’5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Two players and a goalkeeper
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and goalie
Probably no one has ever mastered precision long passing, combined with excellent vision, as well as Xabi Alonso, former player of the Spanish national team, Real Sociedad, Liverpool, Real Madrid, or Bayern Munich. His was crazy.
The deep pass
Working the deep pass is not easy. First of all, because playing through a defense requires a lot of peripheral vision, a lot of understanding of the game, and the quality to execute the ball at the right speed and through the right space. To practice this last part, we think a great idea is the one presented by La Clínica del Fútbol in this video:
Although not ideal, the dummy defenders can be replaced by cones, and with them you can represent the positions of a defense between which you have to filter passes.
➔ Level of the exercise: Difficult
➔ Rating of fun: 4/5
➔ Number of players required: Minimum of four players
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and dummies/cones
A master of the deep pass – and so many other things – is Spain’s Alexia Putellas, a double Ballon d’Or winner, as well as an absolute star of FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team. Here’s a compilation of her best moves, including a few out-of-this-world passes into space.
Control and passing
To work on the science of passing with one or two touches maximum, a basic pillar of the positional play of the teams of the school created under the wing of Johan Cruyff, we bring you one of the players who have best interpreted it in recent years: Sergi Busquets. Three exercises in one to improve control and passing in this Fútbol Emotion video.
➔ Exercise level: Easy
➔ Fun Rating: 3/5
➔ Number of players needed: One (plus a pin)
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and cones
Top 4 defensive drills in soccer
Let’s go, lastly, with what perhaps 80% of the male and female players feel less like doing, but which, nevertheless, must be learned: defensive concepts and technique. Because, as they say in basketball, offense can win games, but defense wins championships.
Pressure organization
Pressure is the most important element in soccer today. All teams know how to press their opponents in the opponent’s half, in the middle of the pitch, or even near their goal. The secret lies in knowing how to cover passing lanes, maintain structure and perform a series of coordinated movements that make it difficult for the opponent to move the ball.
To prepare for all this, in an exercise that is aimed above all at the collective, The Coaching Manual brings us this exercise to instill the basic concepts of pressure through the coverage of passing lines. A basic one.
➔ Level of the exercise: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 3’5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of ten
➔ Equipment needed: Ball, cones and dummies
which team has been the best at pressing over the last few years? Well, surely Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Quite a show of physical deployment to make the opponent’s possession uncomfortable.
Defensive resources and posture
Here, as defensive resources, we must differentiate between normal tackling and tackling. In the first, which could be any move to steal the ball from the opponent, it is not necessary to go to the ground. Tackling, on the other hand, is that movement in which the defender, as a last resort, crawls on the turf to scratch the opponent’s ball.
For both, it is difficult to find videos of specific exercises. Perhaps the smartest thing to do is to look for lessons on defensive fundamentals and put them into practice by combining them with the 1vs1 drills mentioned at the beginning of the article. For example, in this sense, one of the most useful videos to explain the optimal posture of a defender is this one of Real Madrid’s center back, Eder Militao, in Fútbol Emotion.
What he explains there, can be put into practice with the 1vs1 exercises, whose characteristics we leave you again here:
➔ Exercise level: Easy
➔ Fun rating: 4/5
➔ Number of players required: 2, minimum
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and objects of any kind to delimit a goal
Ground tackles or tackles
Something similar happens with tackles or tackles, those in which the defender slides along the ground to rebound the ball. There is no specific exercise, but it is best to practice it with the classic 1vs1 method.
Of course, if you have to choose a reference for this, the example to follow should be the AC Milan legend and former captain of the Italian national team, Alessandro Nesta. A legend of the best rearguard in the world, pure class and owner of the best tackles ever seen.
Defensive clearance with the head
Just as heading in attack is extremely important in today’s soccer, the same goes for defensive heading: a team whose defense does not have a good aerial game is doomed to perish against strong teams from above.
In this sense, the exercise proposed by SoccerCoachTV is perfect for working on this discipline. First of all, because it is fun, and it is almost a game in which the participants can enjoy themselves. And, secondly, because it forces them to internalize the key concepts of a good defensive head clearance: altitude, width and strength.
The game is a kind of volleyball where, instead of a net, there are two players trying to intercept the ball. The player who misses and sees his clearance intercepted will play the role of the net.
➔ Level of the exercise: Medium
➔ Fun rating: 5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of three, but ideally six
➔ Equipment needed: Ball
The small-space match
Finally, an excellent way to put into practice what has been learned in the 19 exercises mentioned above is the small-sided games. Why? Well, because everyone will have to apply all these techniques, since neither the defenders will be dedicated only to defend, nor the forwards only to attack.
In addition, playing in small spaces, everything will be more dynamic, with many more actions, and without any pause. A wonderful way to finish off a training session.
➔ Level of the exercise: Difficult
➔ Fun rating: 5/5
➔ Number of players needed: Minimum of ten, goalkeepers included
➔ Equipment needed: Ball and goals
