Practice dribbling, keeping the ball in as close as possible to your body, and keeping your head up while you dribble. Practice trapping the ball with your feet, your thigh, and your chest, and making controlled touches as you dribble. Practice your passing, making short, crisp passes that stay close to the ground.
Practice your approach to the ball, placing your plant foot just behind the ball when you want to get some air under it, and just ahead of it when you want to keep the shot low. Practice driving the top of your foot, along the laces, through the ball, keeping your head down as you shoot. Not all players need to be able to shoot the ball, but learning to make accurate passes and crossed is a good skill for all players. If you’re a defender, practice taking free kicks and corner kicks, passing to open players, instead of working on your shot placement.
Practice controlling your short dribbles as you run at high speed with your weak-side foot. [4] X Expert Source Walter MerinoSoccer Coach Expert Interview. 29 January 2020. If you can do this, you’ll be an effective ball handler.
Do lateral runs, moving your feet from side-to-side, to keep your shuffle step faster than the competition. Practice your vision as well, working on your visual acuity, to keep your eye-on-ball skills sharp.
Even if you’re not a big fan of running, try working on your distance endurance, running at a low or moderate speed for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Many teams do team workouts and strength training over the summer, before the season starts. If you want to make the team, it’s important to go to these workouts.
Try keying in on a single player and watching how they negotiate the game, rather than just watching the ball. Where does your player move, off the ball? What does your player do that you wouldn’t do?
Do your passes often get intercepted? Work on making sharper, more accurate passes and keeping your head up to look for available options on the field. Do you often get beat to the ball? Work on getting faster, increasing your cardio endurance and your on-field awareness. Do your fundamentals need work? Practice dribbling, shooting, and trapping the ball with both feet.
The striker’s job is to take passes and score points. These players are generally the quickest and most accurate shooters on the team. Center midfielders are the field generals, controlling the flow of the ball and the tempo of the game. Their job is to feed the ball to the strikers, or out to the wings, and to defend attacks in the center of the field. Center midfielders play both defense and offense. Wing midfielders’ job is to spread the field out and make crosses in to the strikers, to try to score. Typically, wings will do the most running on the field, going all the way up on offense, and coming all the way back on defense. Defender’s are the last line between the offense and the goal. Their job is to mark up on the strikers and cut off the passes that come to them, keeping them from shooting.
If you’re open, call for the ball and call out your placement on the field. Sometimes, players will yell “square,” when they’re at a right angle to the player with the ball, and “line” when they’re straight back or straight ahead and open. It’s also good to warn your teammates of oncoming defenders, or warn your defensive teammates of an impending attack.
Sports drinks are sometimes good for recovery, but they can be filling during your workouts. Try to stick to plain water, then have a sports drink afterward to replenish your electrolytes.
It’s also important to listen to ways that you can improve. If your coach, or a teammate, is yelling encouraging instructions from the sideline, you need to have your ears open, so you can hear them.
If you feel like you might not make the team, talk to your coach one-on-one and ask what you need to do, specifically, to make sure that you make the team. This demonstrates a serious commitment and a desire to compete.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If someone is hanging back and struggling with a drill, encourage them and help. Drop back to run with a teammate who’s feeling winded. Encourage your teammates when they need it. If a teammate gets punished and has to run a lap all alone, gather your teammates to do it together. Take every punishment as a team. Coaches love that kind of thing.
