improve soccer dribbling skills

a soccer practice plan from eysa.org

age group: U9

Equipment

1 ball per player, cones, pennies

Warm up

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 save 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.

Body

Conquer the Pyramid - Dribblers (in Red) try to dribble through the three zones occupied by the blue defenders. 3 defenders in first zone, two in the next zone, and one in the last zone. Defenders must stay in their zones and try to kick any ball they intercept out of bounds. Dribblers go three at a time. If the dribbler ahead of you in your line gets their ball knocked out, you may start right away. As soon as the dribbler in front of you moves to the next zone, you can also go.

After beating the last defender, the dribbler must shoot the ball into the goal to get a point for their team.

Coaching Points: Good dribbling technique. Look for an opening.

Team Knockout – 15 minutes, 20x30 yards, half the players with balls, the other half need to be around the outside of the grid, the players outside the grid will come into the grid and work together to steal balls away from the dribblers and dribble the outside of the grid, once a player loses their ball they can help their team mates out by passing with them, time the team that started with out with the ball on how long it takes to get the ball out of the grid

Application

4 v. 4 Line Soccer - Each team has a line to defend and attack. Score a goal by dribbling the ball over any portion of the line that your team is attacking. The size of the field is the same as a standard 4 v. 4 game, but it is turned sideways. The wider, shorter field creates many good 1 v. 1 situations which challenges the player's dribbling skills. Players need to evaluate and identify when to dribble and pass. This variation highlights: The correct attitude (when to take a risk aggressively) and the technical development and execution of dribbling.