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.
The ability to capture the ball and retain it for a considerable time is called trapping. In such soccer exercises, they can use their feet, chest, and thighs to do so.
You must acquaint your players with this skill of trapping the ball. If they can’t trap the ball, they are sure to lose their grip over the match because this is very basic. Some of the following techniques help in enhancing the trapping skills of the players.
Engaging the feet: Firstly, train your players in using their feet to deal with the ball which is a basic skill. Kids soccer drills should predominantly include practicing the kids on use of the inside of their foot. The fact that the inside area of the foot is large makes it easy for the players to hold the ball.
During soccer coaching drills, the high ranking and senior players should be educated on the use of foot, its crown, and instep of the foot plus the whole foot. Guide the players to use their shin or ankle as the best bet to hold the ball if the ball is leaping too much.
Thigh Movement: Using your thigh to control rapid and bouncy ball is an excellent approach. Train the players to stop the ball with one thigh, get stable using the other, after getting in front of 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.
Master the skill of capturing the ball using the knee and then dropping the knee so the ball plunges down and stays within range by intensively working on this exercise.
Use the Chest: You can also use your chest to trap the ball that is high up in the air, just like your thigh. Teach your players to tackle the ball using their chest by getting in front of the ball and take their chest out. When they do so, the ball will instantly loose its speed and easily get down to the feet.
However, in the soccer training drills, it is important to realize that young players should not be exposed a lot to this technique. While using their chest to tackle the ball, it is common for them to use their hands. This can prove to be dangerous as the kids might develop a habit of using their hands while tackling the ball.
Now its time to start putting these soccer coaching drills into action. Make the players practice these more and more. You could get an easy access to vast amount of tips by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.
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.
Tags: drills soccer, soccer coaching drills, soccer drill, soccer drills, soccer drills youth, soccer practice drills, soccer training drills, soccer youth drills, teaching soccer, youth soccer drills