Soccer Coaching Drills – 3 Simple Steps To Trapping
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
What if I told you that 50% of soccer coaching drills should focus on enhancing the trapping skills of your players? You won’t take it seriously. But make no mistake here. It’s trapping other than passing and dribbling which enhances your team’s ability to become a champion as per an investigation.
Trapping is the ability of the players to intercept the ball and then keep it near their body. Soccer exercises like these let the players use their feet, chest and thighs for this.
You must acquaint your players with this skill of trapping the ball. If the players don’t know how to trap the ball, the primary skill, they would fail to have control over the game. Trapping skills of the players can be enhanced by following the ways mentioned here.
Involve the Feet: Primarily, the coach must teach the players to use their feet in tackling the ball. In kids soccer drills, the kids must be particularly trained on using the inside of their foot. It is emphasized for the reason that inside area of the foot is big enough to catch hold of the ball.
Older and well-established players in soccer coaching drills should be trained to use their full foot, just the top, or instep. Guide the players to use their shin or ankle as the best bet to hold the ball if the ball is leaping too much.
Thigh Movement: To control high-speed and bouncy ball, thigh can be used very efficiently. Instruct the players to get in front of the ball, stand on one feet and rise the other thigh to stop the ball. It is important to learn that as soon as the ball meets the thigh, the knee should be dropped so that the ball drops right there and does not move away from the player.
Continue repeating this exercise till the time you learn it by heart i.e. stopping the ball with your thigh and then tumbling the thigh down so the ball stays somewhere close to you.
Use the Chest: You can also use your chest to trap the ball that is high up in the air, just like your thigh. Players should be positioned in front of the ball to face it but using the energy through their chest to stop it. As a result the ball will loose its tempo almost immediately and will fall down at once.
However, in the soccer training drills, it is important to realize that young players should not be exposed a lot to this technique. It is natural for them to use their hands in dealing with the ball while attempting to use their chest. This can prove to be dangerous as the kids might develop a habit of using their hands while tackling the ball.
Now its time to start putting these soccer coaching drills into action. Make the players practice these more and more. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get a good deal of such guidelines and tricks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: http://www.soccerdrillstips.com – Youth Soccer Training Drills.

