Soccer drills to improve dribbling have been the main conversation topic for many coaches and their technical staff.
Dribbling is one of the most important skills when it comes to soccer, thus seeking soccer drills to improve dribbling becomes a necessity for pretty much all players and coaches.
Today, we have gathered a few soccer drills to improve dribbling, and we will share them with you so that you may benefit from them.
Before that however, we need to talk about this opinion that some soccer experts seem to hold. The idea that dribbling is something that can’t quite be taught.
There are a lot of people who believe that such a thing like soccer drills to improve dribbling don’t even exist, at all.
This is a very wrong view and we believe it doesn’t hold up when you bring forward facts and point out certain things that can be taught.
For example, a coach will never be able to train ‘timidity’ out of a team, or train ‘bravery’ and ‘risk taking’ into a team. Yet, you can, say, lead by example and show your team that there is nothing to fear!
Although dribbling is undoubtedly a very hard thing to teach, we believe that when it comes to soccer, everyone can learn almost everything there is to know. Especially with things like private soccer lessons and so on…
How To Improve Your Dribbling In Soccer?
Allow us to share something with you here. Today we will share soccer drills to improve dribbling, these are not drills for certain tricks and specific movements that work well when trying to dribble past someone.
We won’t be covering effective dribbling skills, instead we will be focusing on the overall skills that are required to improve dribbling in soccer.
The difference between them is very important. Training specific skills is great, but training general abilities is key for improvement.
Dribbling is almost like a second nature to most talented soccer players. They know how to move, when to move, and where to go to get past an opposing player.
Learning specific tricks and movements can be beneficial, in a real match things can go south real quick. This is why simply learning dribbling skills, instead of doing soccer drills to improve dribbling simply won’t cut it.
We prefer focusing on soccer drills to improve dribbling, emphasis on the word soccer drills. As they can have a positive impact on the general ability of a player’s soccer skills in general.
While previously, we have tried to show dribbling skills, we will now try and give you the building ground on which you can construct these dribbling skills.
You want to train your reflexes to fire up under the right circumstance, and then have the knowledge of which skills to throw at your opponent.
Having understood the difference between dribbling skills, and soccer drills to improve dribbling allow us to show you our pick for soccer drills to improve dribbling!
1. The Cone Dribbling Juggler
This used to be my most disliked drill that our coach made us do! It is only now, several years later that I can fully grasp the importance of this drill. This might be one of the best soccer drills to improve dribbling there is!
Go to one corner of the pitch, put five cones one after the other, then move about 20 feet away from the last cone and put another five one after the other.
The idea here is to move with the soccer ball through the first cones, then start juggling the ball until you reach the other five. Bring the soccer ball down and continue moving it through the other five too.
You can move back and forth and do as many reps as you deem necessary for your, or as many reps as you want!
What differentiates this particular drill from all other soccer drills to improve dribbling is how broad this drill is in covering all the things a soccer player needs to become a great dribbler.
Moving through cones is something that you will be doing a lot as a soccer player, that is because this is a very reliable way of learning ball control.
Juggling is also a perfect way of learning ball control. Not only that but juggling allows you to ‘befriend the soccer ball’, meaning you will be able to work well with it once a match starts.
The whole concept behind dribbling is very closely connected to your mastery of the soccer ball and your ability to bend its movement to your will!
2. Control And Conquer
Unlike the previous entry, this is one of the soccer drills to improve dribbling that I came into contact with long after my soccer career ended. I feel robbed to an extent, as this is a great drill to practice.
All you will need is a soccer ball and an object in front of you! Throw the ball up in the air, as high as you can, and try to get it to land it, then immediately dribble past the object in front of you.
The object can be a backpack, a cone, a drinking bottle, anything you can find. You can also get creative and put multiple ‘defenders’ and once you stop the ball you can dribble past each one of them.
The idea here is to teach your reflexes to be quick and immediate. There will be many situations in a match in which you will have to land a ball that was in the air.
The ability to land the ball and immediately get to dribbling is a key one, in getting past any defender. You need to try your best to not give your opponent any time to think.
Above all else this drill tries to teach you better ball control, get you used to stopping the ball better, and most importantly give you fiercely quick reflexes.
3. One vs. One Situations
Soccer drills to improve dribbling do not get any better than the ultimate soccer drill of all times, the one vs. one drills.
Of all the soccer drills to improve dribbling this is the easiest to understand. Both in how to do it, and in how it benefits the players practicing it.
Find a friend or a teammate, especially ones who fancies defending and simply go to work against one another. Their goal being to stop you, and yours being to dribble past them.
All soccer players use these types of drills to emulate real soccer matches, in a safe, low stakes environment such as the training ground. Big soccer clubs build some of the best, most sophisticated training grounds for this very reason!
As we said, dribbling is very situational based, and the best way to train for something as unexpected is to go through as many unexpected things as possible.
If you can constantly dribble past your defender friends on the training grounds, or at the local soccer pitch, then you have a much higher likelihood to do the same on a real soccer match.
Hopefully our picks for soccer drills to improve dribbling help you on your endeavors to become a better dribbler!
