By Jebreel Bubtana
This exercise can be used as a warm up for most of your sessions as it gets the players working on their endurance whilst maximizing the number of touches that they have on the ball.
Set up the field as shown below in figure 1. Each player will need a ball and they start off by dribbling around anywhere in the area.
The coach will then use numbers as instructions for the players as follows:
Number 1 – ten toe taps
Number 2 – ten boxes
Number 3 – switch soccer balls with another player as quickly as possible
Give the players time with these 3 numbers before adding to them with the following:
Number 4 – five yard sprint with the ball
Number 5 – change direction
Number 6 – any skill that the player wants followed by a 5 yard sprint
After the players complete a task related to the number shouted out by the coach, they always continue to dribble with the ball around the area waiting for the coach to shout out the next number. As the coach you can change what the players do with each number so you can be creative with this, for example, one number may be that you get the players to throw the ball up in the air and control with their laces before continuing to dribble the ball around the area and so on.
Coaching Points:
- Soft touches on the ball to keep it close
- The players must keep their head up while dribbling to be able to see the space in the area
Jebreel Bubtana
Director of Marketing at BRASA Brazilian Soccer Academy
NSCAA Advanced National Diploma
NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma
Follow me on Twitter @jib1989
