In our post earlier on in the week, Improving a Soccer Player’s First Touch, I discussed how critical it is for a soccer player to be comfortable controlling a ball with both feet. A player who’s one-sided has a distinct disadvantage in the modern game.
In my effort to put increased emphasis on my soccer team to work on the mechanics of their ball control and first touch, I decided to use tennis balls. We’re training in an indoor gym which has a hard basketball floor – the tennis balls move quickly.
Our first set of exercises involved each player with a tennis ball facing the wall and knocking it against the wall, receiving it and playing it back against the wall. Sounds very simple, but I wanted to establish the fundamental technique of receiving the ball and playing it. I made the boys do this with both their strong foot and their weaker foot. I then timed them to see how many they could do in a minute. It was no surprise that those boys who were comfortable with both feet got the higher score.
The next exercise involved me setting up pairs of cones about two or three yards apart around the gym. The boys then got in two or threes, dribbling around the gym, passing and receiving through the cones. I used this exercise because I wanted them to get used to controlling the ball with their weaker foot on the move. I got them to do this with their right foot, left foot, and alternating foot (both the passing and dribbling).
So, the exercises so far have been non-contact. The last part of the hourly training session was keep-away. I wanted to see how quick their reactions were, and which foot they decided to use. The first few times I didn’t specify a foot, but they fell into the old pattern of favoring their stronger foot. Then I got them to use their weaker foot. They tried to control the ball in a pressured environment with their toe – as if they were trying to chip it, but weren’t getting underneath the ball. They almost all were doing this.
I stopped the session and asked them to look at the surface of where their toes are in their tennis shoes and how there’s not much surface to control the ball with. See the image below. Note that the surface of the tennis ball is almost as big as the end of my tennis shoes.
Now, look what happens if I open up my foot. Look at the difference in surface contact area than in the image above. Once I showed the boys this, I swear I could almost see light bulbs going off in their heads.
The first touch is vital – I always tell my players to be positive with their first touch, take the space if it’s available and keep the opponent on the back foot. However, there are times when I want them to play smart soccer – if the ball needs to go back so we can keep possession, then let’s do that and switch the field if we can. If you establish good fundamentals with your players early on, you set the tone for the rest of their soccer playing career.
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