I’ve been fortunate enough to watch two excellent Arsenal vs Bolton games in the last week. Already Bolton under Owen Coyle look like a team who want to be more careful with the ball and play football on the ground. But in honour of Arsenal returning to the top of the Premier League I’m posting [...]

Shielding the ball is one of football’s most fundamental skills and one that makes an exceptional contribution to your player’s confidence.
When a young soccer player learns that they can hold onto the ball, even under intense pressure from opponents, they will ask for it more in games.
A team of players who are always asking [...]

Young players sometimes struggle to lift the ball off the ground and I have found that teaching them Chip Passes is a great stepping-stone to more complex movements such as the Long Lofted Drive.
Chip Passing is also a really useful skill for young footballers to have when they come up against well-organised teams. The change [...]

Swerve passes, played with the outside of the foot (young players understand this area as the ‘little toe’) are much easier to disguise than push passes because the passer’s body shape is a lot more closed throughout the movement.
The ball swerves because spin is applied to the pass, this means outside arch passes can be [...]

Grassroots football players are more likely than most to find themselves behind the defence and one-on-one with the opposition goalkeeper.
These opportunities stack the odds in the attacker’s favour, but so frequently we will see players lack the confidence or the ruthlessness required to take advantage and score from a one-vs-one chance.
You can use these attacking [...]

Check out this short video which provides a look at the technical points for the slap cut technique and reverse slap cut technique. Both these moves are great for pulling the defender off balance and then skipping away from their challenge and into the space behind.
You can also read some more soccer coaching points for [...]

Check out this short video which provides a look at the technical points for the outside cut technique and inside cut technique plus a simple ball manipulation exercise.
You can also read some more soccer coaching points for cut moves in this earlier post.

Outside Cut
With the ball just in front and between your stance:

Bring your dribbling [...]

In the next series of posts we’re going to look at the technical side of dribbling skills. It’s an area that I find kids are always excited to practice and – performed well – these moves can dramatically boost your young player’s confidence.
We start the series by looking at Cut Moves (Outside Cut and Inside [...]