At one point or the other, every soccer player has gone for tryouts in their career. Players usually engage in soccer tryouts to get opportunities with a particular team or coach.
As someone who has been to a small number of them in the past, I can tell you categorically that it is always intense and it takes only a matter of minutes for the coach organizing the tryouts to start trimming the list down.
Usually, the soccer tryouts are designed to help coaches pick the best of a pool of players for their team.
The outcome can be cruel to the player, but this drill is an essential component in picking the players based on their output during the tryout.
Looking to go for one or a couple of tryouts soon? This article has you covered. Reading further, you will learn 11 of the best and most popular soccer tryout drills!
Let’s get to it.
Soccer Tryout Drills
Here are the best eleven soccer tryout drills.
1-on-1 Defending
This particular drill will help you test the attacking and defending skills of the players. It is a solid drill that will give them the chance to convince the coach they can be selected.
This is an open space, more like a match-like situation where the ability of the players to defend attackers will be put to the test.
In terms of the setup, you will need to mark a square (20×20 yards) with cones. In addition, you need to create a gate in the opposite corners with two cones, while the other unmarked two corners will have just a single cone.
After the set-up, the next thing to do is to divide the players into groups. One of the groups will start as the defenders behind the opening closest to the goal, while the second group will be the attackers in the opposite direction.
The plan is for the attackers to beat the defenders and score in the scoring gates created. After each round, it is expected that the players switch roles so they can also show their abilities – defensive or offensive.
It is a drill that can help a coach quickly decide whether to select a player or discard such a player quickly. I have actually been on the receiving end of a decision like this before.
8-on-8 Game
This particular drill is a form of soccer tryout drill that focuses on the players and what they can do in a controlled environment. It is to test the players based on their awareness, stamina, decision-making, defensive organization, offensive qualities, and many more.
This drill is also one that depicts a match situation.
The setup for this drill is quite simple. You just need two teams of eight players plus goalkeepers for each team, and they will play 8v8 to goals.
For the playing area, you can use cones to mark a 70×45-yard field and goals for goalkeepers to guard them. In addition, the selection of the team has to be balanced for proper examination.
This means that players are placed in their natural positions to see what they can do. In terms of the duration, at least three games of 8-10 minutes with two minutes of rest are suggested.
The importance of this drill is to keep all the players more involved and active in the game. In a controlled environment such as this, players will most likely not hide.
Agility Tryout
This particular drill is usually employed to test the fitness levels of the players. In addition, it also helps the coaches evaluate the ability of the players to cover ground and change directions quickly.
This is a drill that requires a lot of running, shuffling, and so on through several carefully arranged cones.
In terms of the arrangement, you need to create a gate of cones four yards wide and place another cone 10 yards directly in front of the gate.
Then on each side of the cone placed 10 yards away, put two cones at a distance of 5 yards each on either side. The last cone will now be 20 yards away from the gate initially created.
You should have two cones at the bottom, three cones in the middle, and one cone at the top – the finish spot.
You can then go ahead to create multiple setups based on the number of players available, but it is recommended to keep each setup to eight players or less.
According to your discretion, you can now determine the number of runs per session or use a timer for the session.
The execution goes as follows: the first player runs forward to the cone 10 yards away, shuffles to the left five yards, sprints right 10 yards, turns left, and then sprints to the final cone.
The player will now walk back to the starting position and others can follow suit in the same manner.
If you desire variations, you can now introduce a ball to test the dribbling abilities of the players and how quickly they can move from one place to the other.
Crossing and Finishing
Just like the others we have discussed above, this is a drill that simulates a match situation. It is adequate for coaches to evaluate soccer tryouts and determine their fate.
This is an important drill that will help the coach know the positional strengths of the players, the finishing of the attackers, and the awareness of the defenders in preventing the attackers from getting the ball in the back of the goal.
In addition, the shot-stopping ability of the goalkeepers is tested.
For the setup, you need three players to complete a series of one-touch passes before the ball is played out wide to the winger close to the sideline.
The three players who started the play will then run into the box just as the wide player dribbles to the end line and delivers a cross for one of the three attacking players.
In the defending team, you will place two defenders and a goalkeeper to make the drill exciting.
The players are expected to play based on the instructions given. The wingers are expected to be dynamic with their crosses – cut-backs, front posts, or back posts.
Overall, it is a great activity to evaluate players and the specific skills that are required for their positions.
Four In, Four Out
In this particular drill, you need a team of eight players and a marked playing area to execute it. Four of the players per team will be inside the square and the remaining four players stand outside of the square.
The players standing outside are also part of the drill as the players in the square can use them to retain possession when they win it back.
The drill is important for evaluating players’ possession and decision-making abilities.
This is a drill that can help a coach distinguish a quality midfielder from one that is not. In addition, it can help identify the work rate of some of the players as they combine resources to win the ball back.
You can spice things up to see how the teams can adjust and express themselves. The number per team can increase, while maintaining the four waiting outside the playing area, the size of the square is adjusted to accommodate more players within the marked playing grid.
Another form of variation is to allow dynamic changes between each team. It means that a player can be in the playing area for a start and pick up positions outside the marked grid.
As a coach, you will need to be vigilant so that a team will not have a numerical advantage during those changes.
The touch limit is another variation – which could be the same or different for the inside and outside players.
Four Line Finishing
From the name, it is obvious that it is a tryout drill that focuses on finishing. This is to see how the players can strike the ball at goal by beating the goalkeepers.
It is not quite straightforward as players are required to utilize their one-touch striking skills and ability to finish on the dribble.
The drill aims to simply evaluate the players’ ability to finish around the penalty box from multiple angles and different shooting scenarios.
For the set-up, you need one full-sized goal and multiple goalkeepers who will take turns after four to eight shots.
Four cones are to be placed at an equal distance from the goalline. Two of those four cones are to be played one yard outside the top of the box and two yards inside the edge of the box.
Meanwhile, the two center cones should be 5-6 yards outside the box and in line with the goalpost.
Divide the available according to the number of cones, and the ones in the wide areas must have a soccer ball at their feet throughout this drill. That means a good number of balls will be needed to execute this drill correctly.
The players in the wide areas will have to dribble a bit before shooting at the goal, while the players positioned at the center cones will finish off some of the passes from the players at the cones placed in the wide area.
This is a good drill to also evaluate the reaction time of the goalkeepers
Passing Pattern
Just from the name, I think you can guess the focus of this particular drill. The Players are expected to be able to pass, turn, and dribble through a series of cones to complete the passing pattern.
The purpose of this soccer tryout drill is to evaluate players’ ability to consistently pass over varying distances and angles. Players will be asked to execute two and one-touch passes to show their precision.
The cones are arranged in a defined pattern. You have to place the four cones on each side in a zig-zag pattern with the first three cones being 15-20 yards away from each other and the final cone 10 yards away from the third cone. Divide the soccer balls between the two starting lines.
The first player behind with the ball at their feet and it is important to note that there has to be at least two soccer balls circulating at once. As always, you determine the duration based on your discretion as the coach.
Plus 2 Possession
Anytime you hear possession in any soccer drills, it involves passing, ball retention, decision-making, and awareness. On this occasion, two teams play possession with the addition of neutral players.
Aside from being a proper warm-up drill, it can also be used during soccer tryouts. The small playing area will allow the players to have many touches and challenges to keep the ball by all means.
Use the cones to mark a 30×30-yard field. You can decide to increase or decrease the field size depending on the available players’ skill level.
But note that when you have less space, players will be challenged to think quickly before the ball gets to their feet, while a larger field will allow players more time on the ball. You will then select two players to start as neutrals.
Neutral players should be players who possess good possession skills as that can help sustain the flow of the game.
You can also have a variation of this particular drill. One-touch – this means players are to complete this pattern using only one touch at all cones.
This particular variation is meant for experienced players only and might be difficult for beginners or amateur players to execute it properly.
Technical Warm-up
This is another good form of soccer tryout drill that will see players partner up and work on passes and volleys while moving forward and backward.
The main focus of this drill is to get players moving with the soccer ball at the beginning of the session. It is a really good drill for warm-ups and can be used to help the players warm their muscles up with light movement and passing patterns.
In addition, it is a drill that can be introduced to evaluate some players and their abilities to pass and receive the ball while moving, which is going to be the case during matches.
In terms of the setup, use cones to make two, parallel lines, 30 yards apart. The lines must be long enough to accommodate all the players available at your disposal. You can then ask the players to partner up as they line up along the cone line.
For easy monitoring, the drill can start from the same players in the starting position. One partner will stand with the ball on the line while the other partner is at least 4-5 yards away but directly in front of them.
About 8-12 minutes should be sufficient before players stretch and prepare for the rest of the session.
It is a drill that helps the players prepare for more intense sessions.
Meanwhile, many patterns can be introduced for this particular drill.
- One-touch passing: this will require the partners to touch the ball only once while they keep finding each other from that close distance.
- Two-touch passing: it is a light pattern from the one above. It requires the players to control before passing back to their partner.
- Movement: One of the partners will be moving backward while throwing the ball back to the partner moving forward to complete some volleys – inside, outside, two-touch, thigh-foot, head-foot, thigh only, chest, etc.
- Headers: Another pattern is for the partners to head to each other. One is tasked with the tossing, while the other partner is to head back into the waiting arms. Another variation is to see the retreating partner touch the ball before heading it back.
- Juggling: Another pattern that is aimed at stretching the muscles.
In essence, just try to be creative with this particular drill. You can also give the players new passing patterns every turn or every other turn.
This particular action will keep players engaged and enable the coaches to examine the technical abilities of the players during their soccer tryouts.
Roll-On, Roll-Off 3v3
This is one of the soccer tryout drills that gives you an idea of how players can quickly bond and achieve one common goal. It is a team of three that will face one another, but it comes with a variation.
As soon as the attacking team loses the ball, they will be replaced by another team and the other team with the ball automatically becomes the offensive team, while the new team becomes defensive. This process continues.
The main purpose of this soccer tryout drill is to assess the skill sets of the player. In addition, this drill also helps you examine the players’ communication skills and abilities to function well in a team.
To execute this drill, you will need to create a 20 x 10-yard field with mini-goals on either end.
There will be no goalkeepers for this one, and as two teams compete, the next team watches and waits for their chance on the sideline to enter the playing field. If you have a large population of players, you can set up multiple mini-fields.
As with other soccer tryout drills, you can introduce variations like a time limit which can be set to 15 to 20 seconds for scoring a goal, touch limits, and the creation of a small penalty box or mark from where a legitimate goal can be scored.
3 Goal Mania
This is the final soccer tryout drill we will be discussing in this article. This drill requires you to create teams of four players and they will now compete against another team of the same number of players on a small pitch.
The twist is that, instead of having traditional goals on both ends, there will be three mini-goals along each end line.
The drill can also be regarded as a 4×4 drill that focuses on teamwork, technical skills, decision-making, and positioning.
As always, you will use the cones to create a mini-field that’s 20 x 30 yards. You can then go ahead to split the tryout group into teams of four players each.
Only two teams can face each other at once, while others are outside the playing area waiting for their chance. If you have a lot of players, you should set up multiple fields.
The coach starts the drill by kicking the ball into the playing area. As soon as that happens, the drill begins, and the teams can start jostling for possession.
Instead of their usual one goalpost, the teams have the chance to score in any of three mini-goals. A winner will emerge by outsourcing their opposition.
The losing team will need to leave the pitch, while the winners retain their slot to face the next team coming in.
Most of these drills can be varied just to see how the players can quickly adapt when faced with such situations in real life. One of the usual variations in any soccer drill is the minimum pass limit before a goal is scored.
This is to discourage the players from just scoring anyhow without the actual play. Another one can be that the teams cannot score in the same goalpost twice in a row.
Meanwhile, if you intend to have more fun, you can create a mini-tournament with this particular drill.
Final Thoughts
Soccer tryout drills can go a long way to helping the coaches reduce the headache of selecting quality players from a large population.
The drills that have been discussed in this article are quite simple to carry out and subject the players to. Even if a player is not eventually selected, the knowledge gained from these drills will not be a waste.
Truth be told, it is a way to help the coaches make the right decision. On the other hand, it is also an opportunity to prepare those who will be selected for the task ahead.
One thing is certain and it is the fact that after reading this article from start to finish, you are in a better position to be picked at your next soccer tryout.
