David Smith - Soccer Drills: A Guide for all Levels of Ability

Soccer

Drills

A Guide
for all Levels
of Ability

David Smith

The Crowood Press

First published in 2012 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

David Smith 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 916 2

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank the excellent soccer coaches I have had the privilege of working with and who have helped in the development of ideas for this book, especially Steve Melt Elliott, Michael Buffalo Bill Hillary, Simon Big Mac Wilby, Kelvin Mouse Dawson and Michael Laidler.

Secondly, to my lovely wife and son for their support and patience whilst writing this book and for having to wait around and amuse themselves as I coached three-hour sessions, sometimes twice a day, on soccer fields around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Also many thanks must go to the fantastic Matthews, Wilson and Lamb families for showing us such great hospitality and keeping us entertained, over many summers of coaching in the United States.

For helping to produce this book I am very grateful for the help and guidance of Hannah Shakespeare and all the other staff at The Crowood Press who have contributed to its publication.

Then there are the countless number of parents and volunteers who give up their time to run teams and recreational soccer programmes on both sides of the Atlantic, without whom children would not have the wonderful opportunities that they do to experience and enjoy this beautiful game.

Finally, I give my thanks to all the staff in schools I have had the pleasure of working alongside over the years, who have provided invaluable feedback when trying out my new ideas.

Soccer drill diagrams created using Soccer Playbook 010, by Jes-Soft.

Front cover photo and back cover bottom image iStockphoto.com/srickke

Back cover top image iStockphoto.com/kycstudio

Back cover middle image Shawn Pecor/Shutterstock.com

All the drills in this book are original ideas conceived and developed by the author alone or in association with those coaches mentioned in the acknowledgements. Any similarity to drills published elsewhere is purely coincidental.

Contents

Introduction

Contained within this book are 190 quality soccer drills, each with three or more diagrams and step-by-step instructions to make them easy to follow. Most of these also conclude with suggestions as to how you could change the numbers, organization, or level of challenge, to make them suitable for almost any group you may find yourself coaching.

What makes this book special is that they are organized into chapters, using similar playing areas, to make it easier for you to plan fun, clearly focused sessions, with a minimum amount of time, effort and organization. If youre quite new to coaching, then suggestions have been made at the beginning of each chapter as to how the drills could be combined to create different sessions. If you are an experienced coach, or once you become more familiar with the drills, you can just dip in and use particular activities that you like, or mix and match them to suit your own coaching needs or requirements.

If youre a Physical Education teacher like myself, or even if you just find yourself teaching one or two lessons of this subject a week, then this book also offers a great source of quick and easy-to-use ideas, suitable for all age groups. The great thing is that it doesnt matter whether youre teaching basketball, netball, rugby, hockey, cricket, rounders or even althletics. This fantastic collection of activities can be used to provide warmups, skill practise and fun games to liven up your lessons, whilst still meeting the requirements of the National Curriculum.

CHAPTER 1

Large Area Drills Beginners

Although aimed at those new to soccer, the great thing about this first collection of drills, is their accessibility and sense of fun for all levels of ability. With the purpose of achieving maximum participation, they only require a basic level of equipment, an open area of ground and any number of players.

They are carefully designed to act as a great vehicle for promoting the essential basic skills required to begin the mastery of a soccer ball. Athletic development is promoted by focusing on activities that demand co-ordination, balance, speed and agility. Developing techniques such as dribbling, running with the ball, turning, receiving and passing, is achieved by combining the need for both repetition and practise, within a functional, game-type environment.

All you need to do is mark out a rectangular area of a suitable size for the age and ability of your group. The smaller the space, the better the level of skill and control required from the players. Then, select and combine the drills to suit your purpose and enjoy session after session of fun, whilst ensuring your players get the best possible start they could have to their soccer learning journey.

POSSIBLE SESSIONS

The following selections are only suggestions of how drills could be combined to create a one, or two-hour session. As a teacher or coach, you need to assess the ability of your group and take into account possible numbers before making appropriate choices of your own. All these sessions could also be started with a warm-up of your own and ended with some regular, small-sided games.

	High Five
	Skittle Ball
	Pirates and Buccaneers
	Traffic Jam
	Body Parts Dribble
	What time is it Mr Wolf?
	Star Wars
	Defend the Castle
	Animal Safari
	Cone Signals
	Dribble Pursuit
	Locked in the Stocks
	Cone Gates Passing
	Guardians of the Cones 2
	Through the Gate