The Best Fun And Easy Soccer Exercises for Beginners

The best fun and easy training soccer (football) practices for young kids wanting to go pro

Does your kid love football? Does he want to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo? Then you can follow these simple steps to put together a simple training session with some soccer practice exercises to help become the next football GOAT!

Regardless of your skill level, regular practice is the best way to become a better soccer player. You’ve heard the old saying that practice makes perfect, well that holds true for soccer training too! It is the practice that will build confidence and develop the skills needed for soccer success.

Equipment needed for basic soccer drills

Most of these soccer skills can be practiced with just a soccer ball, you could also use some football goals, cones for dribbling, goal keeper gloves and so on if you have these available.

If you have a wide open space such as a soccer field, backyard, garden, or open space in a park then these are all excellent places to play and train but there are also many basic skills you can practice indoors at home when needed.

One of the most exciting parts of youth sports is watching your child become a little better each day as he or she learns new skills, so investing in some simple equipment to get in some extra practice outside of soccer club is definitely worth while.

Best Soccer Training Drills for Beginners

If you’re new to soccer or you’re looking to learn some basics, here are a few soccer drills that will help improve your skills.

My kids all love the great game, so my 13 year old boy helped put together this handy list of soccer training ideas that will also work for younger players.

Try These Simple Soccer Practice Hacks to Make Training More Fun

Warm Ups

The best way to get ready for practice is to warm up properly. This will allow you to use the correct muscles and reduce the risk of injury while improving performance.

The key to successful warm up is to work on all the major muscle groups and make sure that the body is as warm as possible. Football uses the entire body so you’ll need to warm up the whole body before you start your coaching sessions.

If you are doing a lot of running during your warm ups, make sure to include sprinting to increase your heart rate. The more fit you are, then the more you can perform.

Some simple warm ups you can use for soccer training are

• Forward or backward jogging
• High knees
• Relay races in a straight line
• Jumping jacks
• Forward and backward lunges

Passing Drill Ideas

With a friend, you could do one touch passing (only one kick and you have to pass accurately) with each other until someone loses the ball. If it’s too easy, then go further back to put more distance in between you.

Dribbling and Ball Handling Practice

Walk outside in an open space with a football and simply dribble the ball. Simple dribbling practice is a good one to do alone and it also doubles as exercise for your child. It will increase their stamina, speed and, of course, dribbling and control of the ball.

When dribbling, practice using the inside of your foot, outside of your foot and use little toe taps rather than bigger kicks.

Dribbling with Cones

Cones are the perfect tool for some great soccer drills to help work on ball control and dribbling precision.

Place the cones in different positions and formations, and practice controlling the ball through the course, past the first cone and so on until you make it all the way through to the last cone without allowing the ball to touch any of the cones.

You can have your child dribble through the cones, then come back in the opposite direction.

Use a timer to see how quickly the kids can make it through the cones, without sacrificing accuracy and ball control. This is a fun way to develop quick feet.

Dribbling Obstacle Course

For the next drill, set up an obstacle course with cones, ramps, tunnels and so on and have the kids dribble the ball accurately through the obstacles.

Place the obstacles and cones close together as a great way to help kids build the skill of working with the ball in tight spaces or under pressure from attacking players on the other team.

Freeze with the ball

This game is kind of like musical statues for soccer. Have the kids dribble freely with a ball each, but when someone shouts freeze all the players need to stop and trap the ball under one foot.

This simple drill is a lot of fun for younger players, and helps build valuable skills.

Shooting Skills

With shooting, you need to work on both power and accuracy, so working on both of these will give you better chances to score.

For a power shot, you would be using the area of your football boot (soccer cleats) with the laces and for a simple accurate shot, you would shoot with the inside of your foot.

You can practice penalty shoot outs, or play 1 v 1 shooting.

For accuracy training, hang a hoop over the goal or buy a specially made target practice goal and practice scoring through specific smaller areas of the net.

Goalkeeper Training

Here are a few fun soccer drills to practice your goal keeping abilities.

It can be as easy as throwing a ball at a wall and catching it! You can throw at angles to make harder chances for you! If you do this enough, you could be a Manuel Neuer play-alike!

If you have people to play with, it could be a parent, guardian, a friend or maybe a sibling, you can shoot against them. This also helps with shooting as a 2-in-1 training activity.

Or if it’s just you, simply jumping on your sofa can help with diving. Go from one side of the sofa and try to reach the other. Then try to save an imaginary ball, but this does require some imagination!

Identify weaknesses to work on

The first step to being great is knowing your weaknesses and getting to know them. It is important to be honest with yourself and know what you need to work on. If you are not good at something, you should not be surprised or discouraged by it. Soccer is a tough game and there is always room for improvement. Don’t give up on yourself and your abilities. Instead focus on what you can improve on.

For example, if your left foot is your weak foot then this is a reason to practice with that foot even more. So take some time to focus on shooting practice using the weaker foot until it’s not so weak.

There’s no denying that football is hard work, it’s also a lot of fun but for any kids wanting to become advanced players then the ability to look at your weaknesses and face them head on is a real essential.

Practice Matches

Whether training as an attacking player, or playing in a defensive position, you will really improve your core skills the most when playing against an opposing team in an actual game.

So, play a footy match! If you have a full set of team mates available then this is an essential part of any football or soccer practice.

Playing friendly matches helps with everything really! Passing, Shooting, Dribbling, Vision, Reactions, Ball Control and so on. Playing a friendly soccer game in training, whether a full sized match or even a five aside team match, is the best way to put all of your essential skills together and become a better player.

Fun soccer practice is essential to help kids get in shape and learn skills. We hope you enjoyed these ideas for kids soccer practice drills that will help to build self confidence, sportsmanship and focus, as well as helping your kids to become the best soccer players that they can be!