Soccer Coaching Drills – Winning Tactics on Trapping
What if I told you that 50% of soccer coaching drills should focus on enhancing the trapping skills of your players? You would probably dismiss it as a fancy. 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 skill which enables a player to catch the ball and keep it close to himself. In such soccer exercises, they can use their feet, chest, and thighs to do so.
Players must be familiar with the job 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. Some of the following techniques help in enhancing the trapping skills of the players.
Use your feet: As a coach, you must teach the basic lesson of using the feet to maneuver the ball. Kids soccer drills should predominantly include practicing the kids on use of the inside of their foot. The biggest reason for this is that the inside area of the foot is broad and is most helpful in tackling the ball.
Older and well-established players in soccer coaching drills should be trained to use their full foot, just the top, or instep. In cases where the ball bounces a lot, it is best to make them use their shin or ankle to tackle the ball.
Thigh Movement: A thigh is very useful in controlling the fast and bouncy approaching ball. Guide the players to come in front of the ball, take one thigh up to capture the ball and other thigh to stay grounded. Most importantly, practice dropping your knee once it connects with the ball for the ball to drop down and stay with you rather than getting away.
This activity has to be practiced regularly in order to become an expert at it by first using the knee to catch the ball and then bringing the knee down to prevent it from getting away.
Use the Chest: Just like the thigh, chest too has a vital role to play in trapping the ball flying high in the air. Players should be positioned in front of the ball to face it but using the energy through their chest to stop it. The ball will therefore loose its pace immediately and drop down right away to the feet.
But keep in mind that in soccer training drills, young players are given only a few modest lessons on this technique. When they try to tackle the ball using the chest, it is their normal tendency to use their hands. This can prove to be dangerous as the kids might develop a habit of using their hands while tackling the ball.
These soccer coaching drills should be then acted upon instantly. Encourage the players to practice these to a great extent. You could get an easy access to vast amount of tips by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.
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.


