We had a reader write in and say that she needs to work on her confidence, because every time she gets the ball, she gets nervous that she’s going to lose it. This is actually a fairly common problem for players to have. Part of the reason for this is that there is a misconception among players as to where they are supposed to work on their fundamentals.
See, most players think that the place to develop their fundamentals (like dribbling, trapping, etc) is at practice. This is not correct. When you are at practice, you will spend a large amount of time doing things designed to help you work as a team. This is very valuable, but if you are going to practice without working on your fundamentals at home, you are going to be underprepared. This is where nervousness with the ball comes from. You are at practice, expecting to develop your fundamentals, and you jump straight into tactics and team play, so you feel underprepared and nervous.
The only way to get past this is to start doing ball control training at home, outside of practice. The only way you are going to gain confidence with the ball is to get a lot of touches on the ball. That’s why this week’s drill video includes 5 drills (plus some variations) that you can do at home.
You don’t need to spend hours and hours a night doing these drills or anything like that. Instead, pick 2-3 of these drills and just do them over and over for 15 minutes. The secret to building confidence with your ball control isn’t spending a lot of time with the ball every now and then. The secret is consistently spending a little time every day practicing. If you can do this consistently, your confidence with the ball will improve exponentially.
Drill 1
Outside Inside Slalom – Soccer slalom drills are drills where you set up a series of cones and dribble between them. Specifically, this drill helps you focus on quickly moving from the left side to the right side of your foot.
Drill 2
Figure Eights – This individual dribbling drill helps you work on your turns with the inside and outside of your foot.
Drill 3
Tick Tocks – This ball control drill helps you work on keeping the ball tight to your feet when you dribble.
Drill 4
Toe Taps – This drill helps you develop both leg strength and control with the soles of your feet.
Drill 5
Sprint/Pulls – This drill helps you work on your quick starts, as well as transitioning from dribbling forward to backward quickly.
So – did you find these drills useful? Let me know in the comments below! Also, if you would like me to do some drills for a certain soccer skill, leave a comment below!
For more free individual soccer drills, visit our free drills section.
If you’re looking for a good place to get started with your individual soccer training, CLICK HERE to download our free 5 day individual training plan.
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