There are many areas in football that will always require improvements and there will be exercises designed specifically for that. Here we will show you some of the basic football exercises for beginners so your children can begin practising in the garden. Ready for the big Sunday games with their local team.
Table of Contents
The basics of football include the following:
The equipment that will be required for all of these drills:
Football
Our recommendation would be the Mitre Impel Training Football which is available on Amazon for a great price.
Football Goal
You will want to grab yourself a good quality football goal to carry out your football exercises for beginners. The FORZA 6’ x 4’ is the perfect option and a great size to start with.
Cones
In my opinion, the Lusum Set of 20 Flat Rubber Disks are the best ones out there to get. The flat cones make it easier to practice your drills without having to pick up the cones every 2 seconds if you knock one over. They also take away the tripping hazard that comes with buying normal cones, so you won’t have to worry about your child hurting themselves.
It is amazing what can be achieved with such little equipment as it provides the opportunity to create many exciting and useful drills. We all know that the more you practice, the better you will perform. All the footballing sensations didn’t become professional footballers overnight. They continued to work on the basic skills over and over again until they mastered them.
Passing Drills
All passing drills are usually better to perform with a friend or family member to give you a true reflection on the pitch. Essentially you want to be aiming for something so in this case, it will be your partner.
Step One – Set Up The Cones
Place the flat cones out like the video displays above.
The distance between each cone will be about 1m roughly (3 big child steps).
Don’t worry too much about the distance as you can always progress with this drill by passing at further distances or making the target smaller.
Step Two – Passing The Ball
Each player must be behind the cones to start the drill and it will begin with the player with the ball, passing to your teammate. The aim is to get the ball between the cones to your partner.
Step Three – Returning The Ball
Once you or your partner have received the ball through the cones, take one touch and return the pass between the cones to your partner. It is that simple, as you get to grips with this you can then move on to one-touch passing.
Alternatively, this can be done with just one person, all you will need instead is a wall. So set up the drill as above but put the cones just in front of the wall. If you use the wall, remember that the ball will be returned immediately so be prepared to take a touch.
Shooting Drills
Step One – Put The Ball On The Penalty Spot
This one is a nice simple drill for all ages, it helps to improve penalties and overall shooting. Mark out a penalty spot about 10m away from the centre of the goal.
Step Two – Pick Where You Want To Aim
When stepping up for a penalty or taking a shot it is always important to know where you want to aim the ball. This is the basic level of shooting and without it, you will struggle. Therefore, when you have placed the ball, think of where you want to ball to go. Once you have decided, take the shot.
Keep repeating this step in different areas of the goal until you are confident and happy enough with your progress and being able to strike the ball where you want it to go.
To progress this further you can go further back and begin striking the ball whilst on the move. Therefore, knock the ball forward and then strike the ball. Again, remember to pick where you want to aim the football.
Alternatively, you can add a goalkeeper to put your shooting ability to the ultimate test with the aim of scoring.
There is also accuracy nets that you can add to your goal as seen below, this will help you perform more accurate shots.
Dribbling
Arguably one of the most important skills to learn in football is the ability to dribble the football at different speeds. Being able to dribble allows you to get up and down the pitch and also to take on players.
Therefore, within this drill, we work on the very basics of dribbling to get you started. This is a drill that you may have already seen before as it is used worldwide due to its benefits.
Step One – Set Up The Cones
Set up between 5-10 cones in a straight line with about 1.5m gaps in between each cone (distance can be down to personal preference). The amount of cones is also down to yourself and how much you want to test yourself. Usually, it is good to start off with a smaller amount of cones then work your way up.
Step Two – Dribble The Ball
Start with the ball at your feet and begin dribbling the football with the inside of your feet, in and out of the cones until you get to the final one.
Once you have reached the final cone, turn around and repeat the drill. When you are confident dribbling the ball with the inside of your feet you can then move on practice with different areas of your feet.
Therefore, progress by using the outside of your feet until you are fully confident with dribbling the ball with all areas of your feet.
This drill is also great if you are looking to merge it into another one. What I mean by this is, when you get to the end of the cones you can take a shot at the goal. Improving both your dribbling and shooting all at the same time.
