Soccer Camps - Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge - FFTW Development
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Hope you are all doing well.
Our third week is officially in the bag with all our age groups working on ground control and first touch.
Here are the coaching points below:
6-7/8-9 Age Groups:
- Control the ball with the inside of your foot
- Make contact with the middle of the ball (slightly lift your foot)
- Eyes on the ball at all times
- If you are trying to take your touch forward or to the sides, when you make impact with the inside of your foot, do a mini pass to yourself (slight push forward of the ball)
- To go right or left, open up your hips to the side you want to go and then make contact with the inside of your foot
10-13 Age Groups:
- Control the ball with the inside of your foot
- Your hips help you guide what direction you want to control the ball
- When going right, left and backwards specifically, remember to open your body up on angle to receive the ball
- When creating space away from a defender, ensure the passer plays the ball right when you check in/check out as if you are just standing there the defender will react straight away to your movement
- To ensure crisp control of the ball, make sure you are controlling the middle of the ball every time to create consistency in your first touch
- Check your shoulders/look around to see where the defender is allowing you to know which direction you can take your first touch away from the defender
- Use your back foot to protect the ball by getting your body in between the defender and the ball ***
6-7/8-9 Age Groups:
Comments from Coaches
The group did well to get the concept of controlling with the inside of the foot, especially the forward direction and controlling the ball directly at feet (a cushion touch which keeps the ball still). However when going to the right or the left, players have a bit of trouble with this technique and at this age, this will happen.
Players need to continue working on their body mechanics which we will continue to do in the upcoming weeks and to go right or to go left, players need to remember to angle (shift their hips) towards the direction they want to go. Don't forget the little touch out and then to accelerate away to get away from your defender.
To some this may be a bit advanced but there are definitely players in this group especially in the 8-9 group who should be working hard and perfecting this technique.
10-13 Age Groups:
Comments from Coaches
Both groups did very well as we worked a lot of repetition with our first touch ensuring crisp and sharp first touches with the addition of accelerating away once creating space away from our defender.
The main areas players need to focus on are knowing what direction they are going to go before they receive the ball as well as showing which foot they want it on. Although sometimes the passes were more of an issue than the touch itself, players need to ensure they are ready to receive the ball and depending on where the defender is, use the right surface of their foot (inside or other part depending on situation), getting a touch away and then accelerating.
We did a lot of work by adding defenders in allowing the players to then use their heads in terms of where to take their first touch and how sharp/big their touches could be. In the game, it was superb and a lot of players started using their back foot to receive the ball especially on the wings which was excellent. Players still heavily lack checking their shoulders however and that still needs to be worked on as that should be part of their overall game.
All in all, excellent job and see you all very soon!