The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.
Jean-Claude Kelly
The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.
Jean-Claude Kelly
2009/2010
2009 Blitz United Under Armour Fall Invitational
Champions
2008/2009
2007/2008
OK President's Cup
2008
Champions
Champions Challenge 2008
3rd Place
Blitz Fall Invitational 2007
Semi-finalists
BASC Labor Day 2007
Semi-finalists
Beat the Heat 2007
Semi-finalists
The following activity will improve your skills and help you get ready for the season.
It is imperative that we not lose sight of the most important skill of soccer ... TOUCH. Touch determines what happens when the ball finally gets to you, and you have an opportunity to make a play.
The other important thing about TOUCH is that players can develop this skill and ability on their own away from team practice... that's what we'd like to encourage YOU to do. The more you proficient your first touch becomes, the easier it will be to incorporate these growing skills INTO team sessions and make team sessions far more interesting (i.e. FUN) rather than spending 30-45 minutes of valuable team time learning the very basics.
You goal should be to MASTER at least 3 different moves. And I mean MASTER. That means on both the left AND right foot, or in both directions. It means at game speed, and as a reflex - without having to think to yourself "ok, I want to do such & such move now, so the 1st step is" ... etc. It also means, including the exploding acceleration into the space you just created for yourself every time you use (or even practice) the move. Of course, the more moves beyond 3 you are able to master, the more dangerous you will be to opponents because they will not know how to defend you. There are over 20 skills, feints, turns, and moves in this basic warm-up for you to learn. Just imagine how deadly a player you can become when you've mastered them all!
The footwork activity in the 1000 TOUCH WORKOUT is designed to give you about 1000 touches in a short period of time (7-10 minutes). I know that everyone can find seven minutes a day to work on their soccer skills. This warm-up should be done daily as a regular part of your exercise and training preparation. Ideally, on training and match days, it would be great to see everybody arrive 15 minutes early and get this warm-up in before we even begin the regular training session or match preparation.
It is recommended that this warm-up be done 6 days a week (6000 touches/week). Complete descriptions of all of the moves in this warm-up are included in a separate document, and will be available in the Player's Resources section of the ODP website.
To continue with the FULL 1000 TOUCH WORKOUT, add the following cycles:
Spend another ten minutes passing against a wall. Use both feet. Use one-touch, two-touch, and three-touch pass backs. Pass back with both the instep and inside of feet. Include fake kicks. Keep feet moving and your weight on the balls of your feet. Receive balls with your body square behind the ball and work on accuracy with your passes.
Spend ten minutes juggling the ball trying to get 100 consecutive juggles or, if you are not yet proficient enough a juggler, work the Touch Ladder (explained on the next page).
Pattern Dribble for 10-15 minutes.
(IR=inside right; OR=outside right; IL=inside left; OL=outside left)
Begin with easy, 1 foot patterns:
Progress to more complex patterns, for example:
Make up your own patterns. Be Creative. Have fun with it.
Accelerate & Decelerate under full control of the ball. This is different from dribbling. Dribbling is about change of direction. This is about pace and change of pace. The ability to change you pace - explode or come to a dead stop with the ball under full control - is as important as any take-on move you can ever learn. The direction is roughly straight ahead. Start from a moderate pace and then explode for 10-20 yards then bring the ball back down to moderate pace all the while not breaking stride. 10-15 minutes.
This is a progressive 5 step system of developing your juggling skills. It's important that you understand that juggling by itself is not a soccer skill. You don.t see the pro's juggling the ball up and down the field during matches. However, what you DO see is spectacular 1st touch by most professional players, and that is something that juggling will help give you. Absolute mastery of the ball is the 1st step in soccer success, and being able to juggle using any desired surface, and from surface to surface at will, IS mastery of the ball.
So juggling is something beneficial and to master the skill WILL greatly enhance your game. Here's a straight-forward 5 step system to get there.
(All players start here). The player drops the ball and touches it once with the foot he prefers. The ball then bounces onto the floor, only once, then the player touches with his foot again, then the ball bounces, the player touches with his foot, the ball bounces and so on. If the ball bounces more than once on the floor then the counting starts again. For Level 1, either foot may be used anywhere within the touch cycle.
So that the pattern goes like this:
50 consecutive touches completes this level.
Hint: visualize the "bottom flat" of the ball. Keep your foot straight, with the toes pointing downward so that the foot presents a flat surface and strikes the ball cleanly. Strike the flat level surface of your foot precisely to the "bottom flat" of the bal).
(For those who have completed Level 1). This exercise is very similar to the previous one but this time the player touches the ball 3 times with his stronger foot and lets the ball bounce on the ground and then touches once with his weaker foot and lets the ball bounce (this completes one round).
So that the pattern goes like this (assuming your right foot is your strong foot):
25 consecutive rounds completes this level.
(For those who have mastered Level 2). The player starts with the ball in his hands. He throws it into the air and with his INSTEP (the INSTEP is the SHOELACE portion of your foot; not to be confused with the inside of your foot) returns it to his hands. He repeats this with his weaker foot, then with both thighs and lastly with his head and always returning it to his hands after each touch.
The sequence then is:
25 consecutive rounds completes this level.
(For those who have mastered Level 3). In principle, the exercise is the same as the one in Level 3 except this time there are 3 touches with the stronger foot, one with the weaker, 3 with each thigh and 2 with the head.
The sequence then is:
25 consecutive rounds completes this level.
The same sequence that was started in Level 3 but this time we increase the number of touches for each round.
The sequence then is:
If the sequence is broken or the ball falls to the ground you start again from the beginning.
