improve soccer dribbling skills

a soccer practice plan from eysa.org

age group: U8

Equipment

1 football per player, cones, practice pennies

Warm up

Ball Gymnastics – Balls skills in small area, Roll ball with bottom of foot forwards and backwards with right then left. Repeat from side to side. Tick-Tock. Pass the ball from inside of left to inside of right. Hat Dance. Lightly touch ball with bottom of right foot then with left. Ball should remain still. Increase speed for both. Movement. Tick-Tock but move ball slightly forwards each touch. Take it width of field then turn and return. Same with Hat dance. Sideways stance. Roll right foot over ball and stop with inside of left. On return use other feet.

Body

Around the World – Set out four or five cones in a large area. Have in mind either local cities or countries of the world. Name each cone and then have the players dribbling inside the area. On command they must dribble around the country/city that you name. Also name several countries/cities at one time.

Running Bases - Players try to dribble their ball without being tagged. If they get tagged, they exchange places with the tagger. Have taggers carry a pinnie to distinguish themselves. Hand pinnies over to the player that is tagged and use their ball to dribble. Players are safe in any one of the 4 bases. Only one player allowed in a base at one time. If a new players enters a base, the old player must leave.

Relay Races – Set up 3 or 4 courses so that each team only has 3 or 4 players in it. Initially have the players run the coarses without a ball. Then add in a ball and add restrictions. Dribbling with left foot, right foot, rolling the ball.

Application

4v4 dribbling – setup a 4v4 game, allow players to score either by dribbling across endline or by shooting the ball through a single small goal. Give double points for dribbling across the endline.