Soccer Drills for Fun and Fitness

The 2018 World Cup kicks off Thursday June 14, and if you’re a soccer fan like me, then this is one of the highlights of this summer.  You get a chance to watch the best players in the world compete for one of the most sought after trophies in all of world sport.  So now is a great time to pick up the beautiful game!

A recent study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that soccer training is some of the best medicine for people with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and other sedentary related diseases.  Since playing soccer includes endurance training, High Intensity Interval Training, and strength training, playing gives you a great overall workout.  The study found that recreational soccer improves cardiovascular, metabolic, and muscular fitness.  An added benefit is the social, motivational, and competitive aspects of playing a game, which makes playing soccer more fun and inviting way to workout than flying solo at the gym.

Bottom line – playing and practicing soccer is a great workout!  Here are 6 drills you can try out for your next cardio or HIIT workout, all you need is a ball and some cones, and a beautiful pitch.  Put these 6 drills into an EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) circuit, doing each of the drills for one full minute before moving to the next drill.  Complete 3 rounds of the circuit for a full workout.  Then grab some friends, and head to the park for a friendly game of footie!

Bring your knees high and gently tap the top of the ball with your toe, quickly alternating sides.

With the ball on the inside of your foot, gently kick it to the opposite side of your foot.  Let the ball bounce off your other foot, and then repeat.  You’ll continue this, hopping back and forth, trying to stay on the balls of your feet.  Try to keep the ball centered between your feet as much as possible.  Start slowly, and then build up speed as you get more practice.

Start by dropping the ball on your dominant foot.  Kick it back up and catch it.  The trick it to keep your foot flexed, with your toes pointing toward your face.  Keep trying until you can juggle the ball back and forth with your feet.  Set a goal to kick the ball 5 times without it touching the ground, then 10, then 15, and so on.

Set your cones about ten to twelve yards apart.  Take an athletic stance, and then side shuffle from one side to the other, and back.

The best dribblers are said to have magnets in their boots (cleats) because the ball sticks so close to their feet.  The goal here is to run a pace that allows you to keep the ball in front of you, gently pushing it along.  Run back and forth between your cones while dribbling the ball along.

This is a popular agility drill for all types of sports.  Set the cones in a L shape.  Line up at the cone at the top on the L and sprint to the cone at the bottom of the L.  Round the cone at the bottom of the L, and sprint back to the cone at the top of the L.  Round the cone at the top of the L and sprint back to the cone at the bottom of the L, this time rounding the corner and sprinting toward the 3rd cone.  Round the third cone and retrace the L shape, finishing with a sprint at the top of the L.

If you find yourself getting into the drama of the World Cup, you might enjoy these books on soccer, which are two of my favorites:

Encyclopedia Blazertannica by Roger Bennett and Michael Davis (aka The Men In Blazers) – These English ex-pats look at all of the underlying narrative, characters, and hilarity that populates the world of soccer, Amercia’s sport of the future since 1972.

Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski – Simon Kuper is one of the best soccer journalists/authors in the world, and this look at how the economics of different countries impacts the success of their national teams on the pitch.