Ariggo Sacchi, the legendary Italian soccer tactician and manager, once said that “football (soccer) is the most important of the least important things in life.” This should tell you that as serious as playing soccer can get, it is basically a fun activity.
No one can be a doctor, lawyer or engineer for fun, but everyone can play soccer to relax, bond with friends and strangers and to keep fit (because it’s a high cardio activity).
In essence, if you’re not having fun playing soccer, you should quit.
To help you get better, here are some drills you can perform for fun as you work to improve your soccer skills.
Warm-up Drills
Here are some warm-up drills that you should add to your training regime.
Dynamic Stretches
This is a simple warm-up drill that helps players get warmed up by stretching their muscles which will be hard at work once a soccer ball gets involved.
This can be light jogging, light cardio, skipping, backwards jogging, jumping jacks and any light workout that can be done to get players’ engines running ahead of training, scrimmages or real games.
To make it fun, coaches should allow the players come up with these stretches themselves.
Dribble Around Cones
This fun warm-up drill is also called the “Figure 8 dribbling drill”. The name comes from the imaginary “8” which the player makes while dribbling around the cones.
Two circles are created close to each other and the player dribbles clockwise around one and anticlockwise around the other. The dribble must be completed with one foot and with the ball no less than three inches away from the dribbling foot.
Passing Drills
Passing drills are a must, no matter which position you are aiming for.
Triangle Passing Drill
There are several variations of this drill, but they all have one thing in common: triangles are involved.
The triangle is the most deployed passing sequence in-game day tactics, so players have to understand how to form natural triangles and pass the ball within them using as many combinations as possible.
To perform the drill, set up a triangle with cones and pass the ball around using any passing combination you can think of.
Keep Away Game (Rondo)
This is one drill that can cause a player to feel all kinds of emotions. The drill is set up with one player in the center of a circle of players (the team determines how big the circle is).
The players in the circle pass the ball among themselves in one or two touches while the player in the middle chases the ball down to intercept it.
If the players in the circle are technical enough (i.e. with good touches, ball control, and passing technique), the player in the middle may find themselves frustrated.
This drill, while fun, helps players get better at pressing, which is key to all defensive tactical plays in soccer.
Shooting Drills
Aiming for the goal is a top priority, and practice ensures that your ball always hits the back of the net.
Target Shooting Challenge
This is a fun game that can be done anywhere. Anything (within reason) is a target in this game where the player has to aim to hit with the ball.
The most common one is done with bullseyes placed in different areas of the goal, which the player is expected to shoot at. A variation of this is done by placing hoops or vehicle tires in different areas, which the player aims their shot at.
Shooting Relay Races
This is a fun and competitive drill that builds teamwork and the speed of players. The drill is done with lanes which are marked by cones. Two teams will like up in front of their lane.
At the blast of the whistle, one player from each team runs to the end of their lane and then around it back to the start, where another player is waiting. The last player runs to the goal straight from the lane and shoots.
Dribbling Drills
As a soccer player, you must know how to dribble well. After a while
1v1 Dribbling Duel
Football is a game of 11 men facing off against 11 men. Performing this fun dribbling drill among teammates can help them master skills they can use to beat opponents in the very common 1v1 situations that will arise.
For the drill, a player starts dribbling toward goal with one defender in a zone. He beats the defender and faces the goalkeeper to score. Failure means a switching of roles.
Fun Team-Building Drills
Soccer is always a team effort, so whether you will work well together on the field depends on whether your teamwork clicks at practice.
Capture the Ball
The coach sets up as many home bases using cones and places as many players in them. In the middle of this setup, he gathers as many balls as possible.
The players compete to get the most balls in their home bases to become the winning team of the drill.
Soccer Tennis
Tennis is fun, but have you tried playing it with a soccer ball? This is a challenging drill that helps players trust each other especially when it comes to giving and receiving passes.
Set up a lawn tennis net in a grid that is about 25 to 30 yards long. Get a soccer ball and start passing it to your partner using the fundamentals of tennis: one bounce before a return pass to your partner.
Reaction and Coordination Drills
This drill is crucial for growth as a soccer player.
Color Cone Reaction Drill
There are several ways to perform this drill but the two most popular ones are below:
- Two squares of four differently-colored cones are placed a few yards apart from each other. The coach calls one color then plays a ball into space. The players in the square run to touch the color that was called out, then to the ball. The person who gets the ball first gets it. No tackling. Then the first to the ball attempts to score past a goalkeeper who will be waiting.
- A player stands in a circle made of differently-colored cones with soccer balls placed upon them. The coach calls a color and the player runs to kick the ball off it. The player must knock all the balls out before sprinting past the coach to touch a target. To make this interesting, coaches can time the players’ reactions and crown the fastest player as the winner.
Quick Feet Ladder Drill
Ladder drills help with your footwork. The tools you need for this drill are training ladders, which you place on the floor.
Jump through them using a series of combinations, making sure that you don’t step on the rungs. Combinations you can try include the hip switch, icky shuffle, and the in-n-out.
Game-Based Drills
This is possibly the most fun set of drills there is.
Mini Games (Small-Sided Matches)
Scrimmage is great and all, but have you experienced a three-a-side, four-a-side or five-a-side match with one week’s lunch on the line? This is how fun soccer can get among friends and teams.
Divide your team or group of friends into smaller teams and face off against each other for as long as you like.
Make it a mini-tournament and attach a prize to it as well. This environment helps you and your team put your skills to the test in high-pressure environments.
Crossbar Challenge
This drill trains the shooting accuracy of soccer players by having them shoot at the crossbar of the goal post. It can be made into a competition among the players with a prize and a penalty attached to it.
The game is simple: players line up with balls at different distances and shoot the ball aiming for the crossbar. As time goes on, increase the shooting distance to make it harder and even more fun!
Final Thoughts
As you must have surmised from the drills described above, fun soccer drills are also important for teams. When managers and coaches allow players to have fun in practice, it translates to quick growth for the players.
They are also able to internalize lessons faster, which makes tactics assimilation quicker. Whether the player is four years old or forty years old, they should be able to have fun on the pitch.
Remember, if you’re not having fun playing soccer, you shouldn’t be playing it at any level, for your sake.
