Develop great soccer skills in 12 minutes a day

Nigel Reed
www.coaching-youth-soccer-for-success.com

Today you will learn how the drills that I used to develop my teams soccer skills and first touch, and all it takes is 12 minutes a day. These touches ensure that you will get between 500 and 1,000 touches every day, and as long as you keep doing these exercises, your
touch and confidence on the ball will improve.

Look at the videos to see how they are done, and remember that the point is to get as many touches as possible.  It is not a race, so make sure that the touches are of good quality. 

 For each exercise, the player should do 15-20 touches each way, and spend about 90 seconds on each exercise.

 The Exercises 

1.       In-betweens with step-over 180°turn.
View Video

2.       Toe touches moving forward alternating feet. 
View Video

3.       Toe touches moving backward alternating feet
View Video

4.       Side hop rolls moving forward, first right foot then back with left.
View Video

5.     Outside foot touches with "fast feet" between touches. 
View Video

6.    Outside to inside roll right foot across body, touch forward with left foot. Alternate. 
View Video

7.     Inside to outside roll right foot out to the (right) side, touch forward with right foot. Alternate.  
View Video

8.       Inside-Outside. Dribbling, cutting the ball across your
body with the inside of your foot, and then back the other
way with the outside of the same foot.   It is important that the ball is cut across the body and not just kicked forward.

9.     Skip touches. Skip forward touching the ball with the front foot, each skip.
View Video

The drill that I use once the players have mastered this technique is:

- Mark out a diamond, where the
     points are 10 yards from a
     center cone

- Have the players in 4 groups,
    and each group is lined up
    behind a point of the diamond.

- The 1st player in each group
    has a ball

- On your command each 1st
    player performs the first
    exercise towards the center
    cone.

- When the player reaches the
    center cone, they perform a 90
    degree turn to the left and pass
    the ball to the player on the
    next cone and then follow the
    ball and take up a position at
    the back of the line. (this
    means that 4 players should
    arrive at the center cone
    simultaneously)

- When players return to their
    original starting cone, they
    move on to the next exercise