Soccer training – Ball Control – Soccer Drills Selection

Fundamentals to feel for the ball and ball coordination

We thought about it long and hard whether we should create a special chapter for coordination training. We eventually decided against it. The topic of coordination is contained in many chapters. In duels, passing, dribbling, goal kicks, headers, in goalkeeper and in warm-up, in all of them you will find coordinative training. Coordination is part of fitness training and yet has little in common with the classic perception of fitness. Therefore we would only create confusion by adding a chapter in which all elements of soccer training are contained. Many soccer coaches would lose sight of their targets and constantly modify the training content. As a result, optimal instruction of soccer players would no longer be guaranteed. It is difficult to integrate the topic of feel for the ball into the other chapters, hence we treat it here as a separate issue.

So as to avoid mix-ups we intentionally did not call this chapter “Coordination Training”; the same holds true for the topic “Tricks”. You could otherwise think that Soccerpilot has nothing further to offer in terms of coordination in soccer. Far from it! All topics are loaded with coordinative training. In the chapters “Feel for the Ball” and “Tricks” we deal strictly with teaching ball coordination, - and this not always specifically soccer-related. A good sports person masters the ball with the entire body. Regardless whether foot, thigh, head or hands, a good feel for the ball is developed with all parts of the body. Therefore we have not omitted anything. Practicing feel for the ball has a large advantage: A great deal of fun – more would hardly be possible. We paid special attention to that aspect when selecting the soccer drills. All soccer drills series have been tested in practical application and were repeatedly and successfully implemented.

Coordination is a daily routine in soccer training and should not be left out of any practice unit. Coordination is particularly essential with the youngest participants.