Soccer Coaching Drills – Discover The Art Of Trapping

Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 10:43 pm

What if I told you that 50% of soccer coaching drills should focus on enhancing the trapping skills of your players? You won’t take it seriously. But make no mistake here. It’s trapping other than passing and dribbling which enhances your team’s ability to become a champion as per an investigation.

When a player catches the ball and is able to maintain its possession with him, it’s trapping. Such soccer exercises allow players to use thighs, feet and chest in doing so.

You must acquaint your players with this skill of trapping the ball. If not, they will never really be in control of the game because everything else comes after trapping the ball. Some of the following techniques help in enhancing the trapping skills of the players.

Use your feet: As a coach, you must teach the basic lesson of using the feet to maneuver the ball. Particularly in kids soccer drills, teach the kids to use inside of their foot. This is because the inside area of the foot id wide and very useful in engaging with the ball.

Soccer Drills

In soccer coaching drills, players can be taught to use the instep or crown of the foot along with entire foot when the players are senior and established. In cases where the ball bounces a lot, it is best to make them use their shin or ankle to tackle the ball.

Thigh Movement: To control high-speed and bouncy ball, thigh can be used very efficiently. Instruct the players to get in front of the ball, stand on one feet and rise the other thigh to stop the ball. Most importantly, practice dropping your knee once it connects with the ball for the ball to drop down and stay with you rather than getting away.

Continue repeating this exercise till the time you learn it by heart i.e. stopping the ball with your thigh and then tumbling the thigh down so the ball stays somewhere close to you.

Use the Chest: You can also use your chest to trap the ball that is high up in the air, just like your thigh. Make the players stand in front of the ball and then ask them to take their chests out as if to confront the ball. This will have the effect of breaking the ball’s speed and tumbling it down immediately.

But make sure that in soccer training drills, this technique should not be rigorously taught to the young players. It is natural for them to use their hands in dealing with the ball while attempting to use their chest. This can prove to be dangerous as the kids might develop a habit of using their hands while tackling the ball.

These soccer coaching drills should be then acted upon instantly. Advice players to practice more progressively. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get a good deal of such guidelines and tricks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: http://www.soccerdrillstips.com – Youth Soccer Training Drills.