Soccer: Leave the Ball Behind

Close control dribbling with the ball. This practice is a good practice to set up as part of a skill circuit where the players pratice lots of variations of dribbling.

Place the cones about 5 metres apart and ask the players to dribble around the cones in a figure of eight as fast as they can.

Set up 3 gates on each side as shown.

The blue team run through the blue gates and the red team run through the red gates.

Players run with the ball through all the gates, round the last cone and then bring the ball back.

The first player to get back wins a point for their team.

Group in pairs. One ball per pair. Position one player on each side of an imaginary line made by the discs. Repeat in 5 other areas for a total of 12 players.

One player starts with the ball. Neither player is allowed to cross the imaginary line. The player in possession of the ball attempts to dribble to either of the discs before the defender touches the very same disc. Repeat practice with the other player in possession. To encourage feints, try doing the practice first without a ball, then with.

Players run towards the cone and when they are about to go past the cone they pull back the ball with the sole of the boot and change direction to run at the next cone. This is a good practice for repetition.