Soccer Skills and Drills for a New Player

Soccer is a game that not only motivates you to keep active, fit, and healthy, but promotes working with a team, and developing solid athletic skills. However, there are a few basic soccer skills every new player should know and practice. These skills will help you begin the game and will only improve in time as you begin to utilize what you learned. As you utilize the skills you will become sharper and more practiced.

Dribbling. This skill refers to keeping control of the ball so you can move it up the field. As a new player you will use the inside of your foot moving it back and forth between both feet by kicking it a little bit ahead. However, as you become more practiced you will learn how to use the outside of your foot and front of your foot to dribble up the field. This is a fundamental skill to learn as it will provide you with control over the ball.

Drill to Practice - Stop and Go

You want to begin this drill by jogging slowly while dribbling the soccer ball. It is helpful to have a defender beside you because you will then stop for a moment and then sprint past the defender full speed while keeping control of the ball. This will improve control over the ball while the offense tries to steal the ball away.

Passing. Soccer is a team sport and you will need to learn how to be skilled at passing the ball between team members on the field. You will want to keep the ball moving amongst your team. There are many different ways to pass the ball, but as a new player you will find yourself sticking to the long and short pass to begin with. When performing a short pass it is important to use the inside of your foot and aim the ball just ahead of your team member, which will allow them to run upon the pass. When performing a long pass you can either use the inside of your foot again, or the top of your foot. If you practice both methods you will find one will most likely work better than the other for you. However, keep practicing and you will become a pro in no time. As you become more confident with these passes you will be able to try other pass types to increase your skill base.

Drill to Practice - Keep Away Ring

Form a circle with the team and have one person stand in the middle of the circle. The person standing inside the circle will try to intercept passes between players. This improves strength and accuracy of passes amongst players.

Shooting. A very important component of the game is shooting on the opposing teams net. There are different ways to shoot, but again you should stick to the basics until you become more comfortable. You may dribble up to the goalie on a breakaway and shoot on the goalie. The other method is a long shot where you will deliver a hard shot from farther out in the field. With both of these methods it is important you keep a couple of tips in mind which are: (1)Shoot away from the goalie because by doing this the goalie has to make a greater move to get to the ball in time. (2) Shoot the ball as hard as you possibly can and follow-through. This will make it harder for the goalie to recover the ball. (3) Shoot the ball with the inside of your foot or the top of your foot as this will give you greater control and force in the direction and power of the shot.

Drill to Practice - Go For Goal

The players will divide into two lines on either side of the coach. The coach will throw the soccer ball towards the empty net and a player from each line will run for the goal with the winner going for the shot on net. As the players become more practiced at this a goalie can be added into net to make the drill a little more advanced.

References:

http://www.thecoachingcorner.com/soccer

http://www.soccer-training-info.com/soccer_dribbling_skills.asp

http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/soccer_passing_drillsx11.htm

http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/drills_that_improve_shooting_skills.htm