By Matt Carroll -
The challenge with technical work, especially at a younger age, is having players understand how the work they are doing can translate to the full game. Players will dribble from cone to cone pulling moves with perfect technique, but then enter a game and never even try a pull back. The 2 Cone Slide Drill works on attempting to put the moves the players are learning into a context players can understand.
Start by creating a starting cone, then walk out five yards at an angle to the left and place two fones facing forward about a foot apart. Walk five yards to the right at an angle and repeat. Repeat this for as long as you feel appropriate for your players, then add an end cone five yards away from the last two cones, and make sure it is centered. Have each player have a ball and lined up at the starting cone.
The drill starts with the first player dribbling to the first set of two cones. There they pull the designated move. The move should take them into the path of the outside cone in the next two cone pairing. They continue to do this until they reach the end cone. The next player can start before the other player has finished.
There are plenty of options that you can choose from for the drill but a few are a roll and push, L-turn, and the scissor. With the roll push players should dribble to the outside cone in the two-cone pairing, roll the ball to the inside cone with the sole of their foot, then push with the outside of their foot to drive and meet the ball at the outside cone of the next pairing. In doing so players are using the cones to guide their actions creating accuracy in both close control, and their ability to drive to space. Next for the L-Turn players should drive to the outside cone at an angle that allows their L-turn to move towards the outside of the next pairing. With the scissor, the move should be pulled to the center of the pairing with the foot stepping over the ball landing on the outside cone, and the ball being driven in a way that it doesn't go through or hit any of the cones.
By Matt Carroll
