7 Best Individual Soccer Drills for Players at Any Level
You can’t always control when your team practices or when games are scheduled, but you can always control how much extra work you’re willing to put in on your own. By far the best way to improve at soccer is to play against other players and learn through experience, but the reality is that not every player will have access to as many competitive games or team trainings as they’d like.
That’s where individual soccer drills come in. Even if you are training with a team or playing in different leagues throughout the week, if you really want to stand out from others, you are going to have to put in extra work on your own, on and off the field.
Remember what the point of your training is: to become a better soccer player, so every drill you do should have a purpose. Mindlessly doing drills for the sake of working hard is a waste of time if you are not going to be directly improving the key pillars of player development: talent, game IQ, mindset, athleticism, fitness, recovery, and discipline.
During your individual training, the goal is to improve the most fundamental skills of the game to help build your talent, such as decision making, awareness, composure, first touch, passing, dribbling, shooting, and defending. That is why in this blog post, I will go over the best individual soccer drills that will benefit players of all levels when they want to get extra training.
To perform the drills on this list in the most efficient way, it will be important to have some of the following training gear and accessories:
- Rebounder – To have a training partner that doesn’t get tired
- Soccer balls – Have a few to spend less time shagging balls
- Soccer ball bags – Easy way to carry your soccer balls
- Soccer Cleats – Wear the right cleats based on your playing surface
- Portable soccer goal – Important to work on scoring goals
What are the Best Individual Soccer Drills to Improve Technical Abilities?
The following individual soccer training drills are designed to improve your fundamental soccer skills and can be performed with minimal equipment in almost any open space. All of these drills can be done with soccer cleats or barefoot, and I highly recommend training barefoot occasionally to develop better ball feel, strengthen your feet and ankles, and improve your natural movement patterns.
It is also highly recommended for all of the drills to work on both your dominant and non-dominant foot, and to perform each drill mindfully and at game speed. For the time length, you can vary it based on what you’d like to prioritize and what equipment you have available.
Ball Juggling
The simplest drill that every soccer player has to master is juggling the soccer ball. Although you won’t necessarily be juggling in a real game, all of the skills that you learn from juggling directly improve your game, such as first touch, passing, receiving, keeping track of the ball with your eyes, creativty, and much more.
As with the rest of the drills on this list, make sure you use both your dominant and non-dominant foot, and also challenge yourself by juggling at different heights, juggling with different parts of the foot, different parts of the body, and with different-sized training balls.
Ball Control From the Air Drill
This next soccer drill is designed to help you improve your ball control skills. For this drill, you can start by either juggling the ball a couple of times and then hitting the ball high in the air, or simply start by kicking or throwing the ball in the air.
As the ball drops back down to the ground, the goal is to control the ball while keeping it as close to you as possible without letting it bounce everywhere. To make this more challenging, create a square or circle, as big or as small as you would like, and try to keep the ball under control without it leaving the grid you created.
Once you do this a few time, you can add a bit of dribbling by controlling the ball first, not letting it bounce away, and exploding in to space, mixing any of the following drills into this one as well.
Wall Drills- Passing
By far the best way to improve your passing and receiving skills individually is to find a wall, or use a soccer rebounder, which acts as a training partners that never get tired. Depending on the type of wall or rebounder that you find, you can practice different types of passes, such as one-touch passes, two-touch passes, ground passes, air passes, driven passes, or even crossing.
The goal with this drill is to challenge yourself by trying different types of passes with both feet, controlling the ball with different surfaces of the feet once it comes back to you, as well as hitting the ball at the wall with different speeds. For this drill, you can choose a type of pass, a foot, set a timer, or count the passes, and you are ready to train.
Wall Drills- Passing + Turning
This next drill can be used as a progression to the previous drill. Once you have practiced only wall passing for a certain amount of time, you can progress to wall passing with turns.
For this drill, pass the ball at the wall repeatedly, and after a few passes, work on turning with the ball and dribbling out to space. The point of this drill is to work both feet and to work on different types of turns, such as a half turn, the outside of the foot turn, the inside of the foot turn, or any other variation.
If you do not have a wall, simply work on kicking the ball in front of you, getting to the ball, turning, and dribbling past from where you started.
Shadow Soccer Dribbling Drill
This next drill is similar to when a boxer does “shadow boxing” except it is designed for soccer players to improve their dribbling skills. To start this drill, dribble around the open space you have available at game speed, if you have access to a full soccer field, that is best, and as you dribble down the field as fast as you can imagine, defenders coming towards you trying to take the ball away.
The goal of this drill is to dribble at game speed, use different skill moves, and use your imagination to evade “defenders” coming towards you. If you are only going through the motions of dribbling, this won’t help much, which is why you have to do this at game speed, as you should with all of the drills on this list.
The more you practice getting used to dribbling at game speed, while using your creativity and imagination, the easier it will become once you step onto the field during a real game. Remember, the important thing here is to use different types of skill moves and to get comfortable performing them at game speed.
Cone dribbling can be useful too, especially as a complete beginner, but eventually you will learn that the only way you will get better at dribbling past better players is actually going up against those players.
Shadow Soccer Dribbling Drill to Shooting
This next drill can also act as a progression to the last two drills and must also be done at maximal intent. Whether you realize it or not, no matter what position you play, one of the most important soccer skills to have is being able to shoot the soccer ball.
As an attacking player, such as a striker, winger, or CAM, shooting is a skill that must be practiced a lot, but even as a defender, such as a center back or full back, knowing how to shoot the ball is very important because improving your shooting skills will help improve other skills like passing and crossing.
To begin this drill, find a goal, and if you do not have a goal, grab two cones or any other objects and create a goal. Position yourself far away from the goal and start by kicking the ball in the air, or by rolling the ball out to space.
Control the ball and dribble towards the goal with maximal intensity, and as you get closer to the goal, perform a skill move to create space for yourself, and then take a shot, aiming for the corners just as you would if there were an actual goalkeeper. Once you take a shot, reset and repeat.
For this drill, the more training balls you have, the better, because you will spend less time ball shagging, and more time training.
Maximal Intent Barefoot Sprints (With and Without the Ball)
This next drill is a very simple drill that is designed to help players improve their speed and agility, and it can be performed in different ways. For this drill, you can use the lines of the field, cones, or anything else to create a mark.
With this drill, you can perform maximal intent sprints, meaning the player starts from one position and sprints as hard as they can to another, or they can perform maximal intent shuttle runs, which will work more on agility and changing directions.
With this drill, you can also have the player sit, lie down, or start from any other position besides standing, to test them even more and make it more challenging. The best way to get faster is to sprint as hard as you can and teach your body how to run faster.
This can be done before or after a training session. Before the training session, a player might have more energy, so they can focus more on speed, and if they do it at the end of the session, they can focus more on conditioning.
You can also do this drill with and without the ball, since you will spend time sprinting with and without a ball during a real match.
Final Thoughts
These best individual soccer drills prove that you don’t need a full team or expensive equipment to improve your soccer skills – just a ball, minimal equipment, and the dedication to train consistently with both your strong and weak foot. While individual soccer training is invaluable for developing ball control, first touch, and muscle memory, remember that these drills should complement team training since soccer performance is really about applying your special talent consistently and under pressure and making an impact.
FAQs
What are the best soccer drills for players at a younger age?
Youth soccer players who want to improve their skills have to follow the same exact tips and drills on this list that older players themselves would use. Some other drills to include would be a lot of 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 games because all kids want to do is play, and that is how they learn the most at those ages. This is how kids will get natural endurance, coordination, and technique, although guidance from a coach is needed as well to learn new skills, set targets, and progress.
What are the best soccer recovery options for players?
The best soccer recovery options for players include high-quality soccer recovery equipment, effective injury prevention tools, and structured habits built through following consistent routines, from training routines and daily routines to morning routines that support performance and longevity. It is also important for players to invest in off-field recovery tools and in-game protective gear, such as compression gear, shin guards, supportive footwear like barefoot shoes, extra recovery accessories such as EMF protection for soccer players, and foundational support from soccer supplements to help the body recover, adapt, and stay resilient throughout the season.
How do you improve as a soccer player?
To improve as a soccer player, you have to focus on the most important aspects of training on and off the field, which include:
