123 Soccer Drills for All Skill Levels (With Images)
Looking for new soccer drills to give to your team?
You've come to the right place!
For every soccer match, fast decision-making is critical. Players have to stay attuned not only to their rival team's moves but to their teammates’ moves as well.
In this blog post, we list down 123 soccer drills to coach your players with and help them develop their decision-making, skills, and coordination.
Each drill contains the setup, instructions, variations, and even coaching points to get the most out of each player every time you step on the pitch.
We've even categorized them into different age groups / skill levels, and even created a table of contents to make it easier for you to find the exact soccer drills you're looking for.
Here you go:
Soccer Drills By Age Group
U12 Soccer Drills
Soccer drills for the 12-and-under age group should be fun and friendly but at the same time competitive.
These five drills include:
- 4x3 Attack
- 5v4 Prevent Forward Play
- 5v5 Round Robin
- Crossing and Finishing Competition
- English Squares
They help develop passing abilities, positioning, balance, defensive movement, and finishing skills.
U10 Soccer Drills
For the 10-and-under group, you need soccer drills that are engaging. Otherwise, you'll find that your players will get distracted easily and find it difficult to focus.
These U10 soccer drills aren't too complex and will help teach your team the fundamentals of ball control.
The drills in this section include:
- 2v1 Dribbling End Zones
- 2v2+2 Crossing & Finishing
- 4v4+4 Wide Players
- 5v5 Wall Pass Scoring
- Tic-Tac-Toe Sprints
- Two Goal Two Touch
U8 Soccer Drills
These soccer drills for the U8 age level are not only exciting and fun, but they also teach your young players fundamental skills such as attack, defense, dribbling, and passing.
This is usually the age group where the more technical aspects of the game are introduced.
So, in addition to being engaging, these drills also help introduce technical skills to the kids.
The drills include:
- 1v1 Defending to Sideline Gates
- 2v2 End Zones
- 5v5 Two Goal Game
- Monkey in the Middle
- Power and Finesse
U6 Soccer Drills
The U6 age level can be tough to coach because they generally have short attention spans.
That's why the drills in this section are fun--something your players will really enjoy--but at the same time, they also teach the basics of dribbling and ball control.
These 5 soccer drills are:
- 1v1 End Zone Transition
- 4v4 Game
- Dribble Knockout
- First to Finish
- Tug of War
Soccer Drills By Skill Type
Warm Up Drills
Before training, you should warm up your players with drills to reduce the risk of injury and help prepare their mind and body for the games.
If you're training young players, then this is a good way to get them into the habit.
The drills in this list have game-like movements that will stretch out your players' muscles and prepare them for a competitive game.
They are:
- Catch Me If You Can
- Circle Passing
- Dribbling Commands
- Dribbling Gates
- Dynamic Soccer Warm Up
- Pull The Tail
- Run Up. Dribble Back.
- Shadows
- Triangle Keep Away
- Two Line Combinations
Dribbling Drills
Dribbling is the most fundamental skill in soccer.
Whether you're using simple movement or fantastic moves, you need to be able to carry the ball past your opponents while keeping in control of the ball.
These 10 dribbling drills will improve players' dribbling abilities so they can get the ball anywhere they want on the pitch. They will get better at keeping the ball close, changing their speed and direction, and keeping their eyes up to read the play.
This list includes:
- 1-on-1 Gate Dribbling
- 1-on-1-on-1 Dribbling
- Dribble Attack
- Dribble Knockout
- Dribble Race
- Dribble Relays
- Four Corners Dribbling
- Line Dribbling
- Musical Cones
- Shark Attack
Passing Drills
These 13 passing drills will help your players read the game better to know when they should make a pass and how to execute the pass correctly.
The drills include:
- 1-In 1-Out
- 4-on-3 Attack
- Grid Passing
- Guard the Castle
- Meet the Ball
- Numbers Passing
- One Touch Pairs Passing
- Pass & Overlap
- Pass Through Traffic
- Space Wars
- Switching Play
- Triangle Goal Game
- Two Teams One Touch Passing
Shooting Drills
This list contains 14 shooting drills to help your players practice different ways to finish around the goal.
These shooting drills will train your players to score past any goalkeeper.
The drills are:
- 1, 2 Shoot
- 1-on-1 Shootout
- Cross and Finish Competition
- Cross Control
- Diagonal Shooting
- Final Pass and Finish
- First to Finish
- Gate Shooting
- Moving Goal
- Power and Finesse
- Quick Finish Competition
- Sequence Shooting
- Team Sniper
- Turn and Shoot
Possession Drills
Possessing the ball is important for your team to score, and it requires good movement, teamwork, and creativity.
These soccer possession drills will help you with that. They teach you decision-making and ball control skills that will help your team dominate each game.
The drills in this section are:
- 4v4+3 Barcelona
- Blackjack
- Break the Line
- English Squares
- Four Quadrant
- Golf Possession
Defense Drills
If you want to win each game, your team should know how to prevent the opposing team from scoring.
These drills will help your team build up their defensive skills and make it harder for the enemy team to move the ball forward.
The 9 drills are:
- 2-on-2 Support
- 3-on-2 Defending
- 4-on-2 Overload
- Box Defending
- Channel the Attacker
- Defend the Gate
- Defensive Recovery Runs
- Horizontal Challenge
- No Turn 1-on-1
Finishing Drills
If your players develop exceptional finishing skills, then scoring goals won't be a problem.
This list of 6 finishing drills offers amazing ways for your players to score more goals.
They are:
- 2-on-2 Plus Two
- Agility Finishing
- Back to Goal
- First to the Ball
- Hat-Trick
- Two Goal, Two Touch
Goalie Drills
A goalie's job is very hard, that's why it's important to hone their abilities with drills every training.
If you don't have a specific goalie for your team yet, then the drills in this list are a great way to determine which of your players is the best fit for the position.
Here are the 10 soccer drills that will help your goalie block the opposing team's shots:
- Agility Hands
- Deflect and Dive
- Goalie Wars
- Goalkeeper Reaction
- Move With The Ball
- Rapid Fire
- Tip the Ball Over
- Traffic Crosses
- Turn, Find, Dive
- Under Pressure
Tryout Drills
If you're looking for drills for running soccer tryouts, these drills will help you evaluate the abilities of the players trying out.
You'll only have a limited number of sessions with the new players before you have to make a selection.
These drills will make it easier for you to decide:
- 1-on-1 Defending
- 8-on-8 Game
- Agility Tryout
- Crossing and Finishing
- Four In, Four Out
- Four Line Finishing
- Passing Pattern
- Plus 2 Possession
- Technical Warmup
Agility Drills
If you want your soccer players to dominate each game, improving their agility is a must.
To do this, they need to develop good body control, body coordination, balance, and the ability to quickly change direction.
These 7 soccer drills will help your players become more agile and have better movement during games:
- 1-on-1 Change of Direction
- Agility Course
- Four Cone Patterns
- Ladder Work
- Mirror Boxes
- Red Light, Green Light
- Star Agility
While you're overseeing these drills, make sure to focus on technique before anything else. After that, they can move on to increase their speed.
Conditioning Drills
A fit team is a successful team.
Because soccer games can last a long time, you need players that are properly conditioned to endure long games. If they get fatigued towards the end, that's basically handing the game over to their opponents.
That's why you should use these 8 conditioning drills during training to improve your players' fitness.
The drills in this list are:
- 3-on-3 Force Making
- 4-on-4 Touch the Line
- ABC 150s
- Alternating Box Sprints
- Dribble Patterns
- Rectangle Stations
- Tempo Runs
- Tic Tac Toe Sprints
Conclusion
Soccer drills are great for creating a fun environment during training while keeping things competitive. They're also super helpful for targeting specific skills such as dribbling, shooting, and defending.
The best drills will excite players and challenge them to get better every single time.
Hopefully this list of 123 soccer drills will make your training sessions better and improve the technique of your players.
