A Common Goal - FutiBlog: July 2012

The following activity will improve your skills and help you get ready for

the season. It is imperative that we not lose sight of the most important skill of soccer.

And that is TOUCH. Touch determines what happens when the ball finally

gets to YOUR FOOT. The other important thing about TOUCH is that players can develop this skill and ability on their own away from team practice! And that is what you

should be doing. That way, we can incorporate these growing skills INTO team sessions and make team sessions far more interesting (i.e. FUN) rather than spending 30-45 minutes of valuable team time learning the very basics. You need to MASTER at least 3 different moves. And I mean MASTER. That means on both the left AND right foot, or in both directions. That means at game speed. And that means as a reflex – without having to think to yourself “ok, I want to do such & such move now, so the 1st step is”…etc. That also means including the exploding acceleration into the space you just created

for yourself every time you use (or even practice) the move. Of course, the more moves beyond 3 that you master, the more dangerous you will be to opponents because they will not know how to defend you. There are over 20 skills, feints, turns, and moves in our basic warm-up for you to learn. Just imagine how deadly a player you can be.

1000 Touches

This is the world's best daily soccer routine

or pre-game warm-up.

50 BALL TAPS

BELL TOUCHES

(50 touches) On this video, a lot of the moves are shown, but the Bell Touches movement is the first one.

To continue with the FULL 1000 TOUCH WORKOUT, add the following cycles:

BALL & A WALL

Spend another ten minutes passing against a wall. Use both feet. Use one touch, two-touch, and three-touch pass backs. Pass back with both the instep and inside of feet. Include fake kicks. Keep feet moving and your weight on the balls of your feet. Receive balls with your body square behind the ball and work on accuracy with your passes.

JUGGLING/TOUCH LADDER

Spend ten minutes juggling the ball trying to get 100 consecutive juggles or, if you are not yet proficient enough a juggler, work the Touch Ladder.

PATTERN DRIBBLE

Pattern Dribble for 10-15 minutes.

(IR=inside right; OR=outside right; IL=inside left; OL=outside left)

Begin with easy 1 foot patterns:

IR-OR-IR-OR-IR-OR-IR-OR-IR-OR and IL-OL-IL-OL-IL-OL-IL-OL-IL-OL

Progress to more complex patterns. For example:

IR-OL-IL-OR - IR-OL-IL-OR - IR-OL-IL-OR - IR-OL-IL-OR

IR-OL-IL-IR-IL-OR - IR-OL-IL-IR-IL-OR - IR-OL-IL-IR-IL-OR

IR-OL-IL-stepover-OL-IL-OR-IR-stepover-OR - IR-OL-IL-stepover-OL-ILOR-

IR-stepover-OR

Make up your own patterns. Be Creative. Have fun with it.

RUNNING, SPRINTING & SLOWING WITH THE BALL

Accelerate & Decelerate under full control of the ball. This is different from dribbling. Dribbling is about change of direction. This is about pace and change of pace. The ability to change you pace - explode or come to a dead stop with the ball under full control - is as important as any take-on move you can ever learn. The direction is roughly straight ahead. Start from a moderate pace and then explode for 10-20 yards then bring the ball back down to moderate pace all the while not breaking stride. 10-15 minutes.

Work hard.

Commit yourself to your own soccer future.

And have fun!

(knowing all of these IS fun!)

TOUCH LADDER

5 Steps To Mastering Touch On The Ball

This is a progressive 5 step system of developing your juggling skills. It is important to understand that juggling is not a soccer skill, as it were. You don’t see professional players juggling the ball up and down the field during matches. However, what you DO see is spectacular 1st touch by most professional players. And that is something that juggling will help give you. Absolute mastery of the ball is the 1st step in soccer success. And juggling off any desired surface at will and from surface to surface at will IS mastery of the ball. So juggling is something beneficial and to master the skill WILL greatly enhance your game. Here is a straightforward 5 step system to get there.

LEVEL 1 -

(All players start here). The player drops the ball and touches it once with the foot he prefers. The ball then bounces onto the floor, only once, then the player touches with his foot again, then the ball bounces, the player touches with his foot, the ball bounces and so on. If the ball bounces more than once on the floor then the counting starts again. For Level 1, either foot may be used anywhere within the touch cycle. So that the pattern goes

like this:

foot - bounce - foot - bounce - foot - bounce - foot - bounce - etc.

50 consecutive touches completes this level.

Hints:

Visualize the “bottom flat” of the ball.
Keep the foot straight with the toes pointing down so that the foot presents a flat surface and the ball strikes cleanly.
Strike flat level surface of your foot precisely to the “bottom flat” of the ball

LEVEL 2 -

(For those who have completed Level 1). This exercise is very similar to the previous one but this time the player touches the ball 3 times with his stronger foot and lets the ball bounce on the ground and then touches once with his weaker foot and lets the ball bounce (this completes one round). So that the pattern goes like this (assuming your right foot is your strong foot):

right foot - right foot - right foot - bounce - left foot - bounce

(one round)

right foot - right foot - right foot - bounce - left foot - bounce (two rounds)

right foot - right foot - right foot - bounce - left foot - bounce (three round3)

right foot - right foot - right foot - bounce - left foot - bounce (four rounds)

And so on....

(Remember that the sequence is always 3 touches with the stronger foot, bounce, 1 touch with the weaker foot, bounce (1 round), 3 touches with the stronger foot, bounce, 1 touch with the weaker foot, bounce (2 rounds) etc.)

25 rounds completes this level.

LEVEL 3

(For those who have mastered Level 2). The player starts with the ball in his hands. He throws it into the air and with his INSTEP (the INSTEP is the SHOELACE portion of your foot; not to be confused with the

The sequence then is: (one round)

LEVEL 5 - EXCELLENCE

hands - instep - hands - other instep - hands - thigh - hands - other thigh - hands - head – hands

25 rounds completes this level.

LEVEL 4 -

(for those who have completed Level 3). In principle, the exercise is the

same as the one in Level 3 except this time there are 3 touches with the

stronger foot, one with the weaker, 3 with each thigh and 2 with the head.

The sequence then is:

hands - r. instep - r. instep - r. instep - hands - l. instep - hands - r. thigh - r. thigh - r. thigh - hands - l. thigh - l. thigh - l. thigh - hands - head - head - hands

25 consecutive rounds completes this level.(one round)

-inside of your foot) returns it to his hands. He repeats this with his weaker foot, then with both thighs and lastly with his head and always returning it to his hands after each touch.

The same sequence that was started in Level 3 but this time we increase the number of touches for each round.

Eg. - thigh, hands, head, hands, 2 touches with instep, hands, 2 touches with other instep, hands, 2 touches with thigh, hands, 2 touches with other thigh, hands, 2 touches with head (2 rounds);

3 touches with each surface for round 3 and so on up to 20 rounds.

If the sequence is broken or the ball falls to the ground you start again from the beginning.

Congratulations!

Your have now mastered quality touch on the ball! With this kind of touch quality, you are probably already better than 99% of players your age. And with this kind of touch quality, there is no other soccer skill you cannot learn. You have laid the foundation to every dribbling move, every kind of shot & pass, and every collection method this sport has to offer.

FOUNDATION SKILLS
(10 each)

1) Inside-Outside

Video one is going to show just a simple version the move for your foundation. Video two builds into the application on the field.

2) Triangles - you can find a version of triangles called Push Out Pull In at 45 sec mark

3) Vee

PULL-BACK SKILLS

Do sequence with one foot then switch (4 times each foot)

1) Pull, Instep Push

2) Pull a Vee

3) Pull & Take with Outside of foot

4) Pull & Roll Behind

TURNS:

From moderate speed, turn 180 degrees and explode/accelerate for 3 touches. Then bring it back down to moderate pace for the next turn (4 times each foot)

1) Pull Turn

2) Drag-Back

3) Inside Chop

4) Outside-Cut- This video chows 3 great moves: Outside Cut, Inside Cut, &Twist Off.

5) Cruyff

6) Stepover Turn

This shows the same move with the full turn and the 90 degree turn

7) Step-On Shield & Turn

TAKE-ON MOVES:

Explode/accelerate after the move for 3 touches. Then

bring it back down to moderate pace for the next move (4 times each foot)

1) Hip Swivel

2) Roll-Touch

3) Roll-Push

4) Inside-Outside (Mathews)

5) Stepover

6) Rivolino

7) Body Swerve (Scissor Behind the ball) @ the 4:44 mark

8) Scissor

9) Double Scissor

10) Ba-Dink (Cap) @ the 5:11 mark

Complete as indicated in the summer program. Recommended 6 days a week (6000 touches/week).

FULL 1000 TOUCH WORKOUT

SEVEN MINUTE DRILL

The footwork activity here is designed to give you about 1000 touches in seven minutes. And I know that everyone can find seven minutes a day to work on their soccer skills. This warm-up should be done daily as a regular part of exercise and training preparation. Ideally, on practice days and match days, I would love to see everybody arrive 15 minutes early and get this warm-up in before we even begin the regular

training session or match preparation.

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