2 Secrets About Dribbling A Soccer Ball

Here are 2 "secrets" of dribbling that are seldom taught, so I encourage you to get your players to try them

Brazilians often relate their soccer to music, and have great rhythm when running and dribbling with the ball. The way to achieve this rhythm is to keep your upper body relaxed. This allows you to be flexible and helps you have much better upper body movements for deceiving the opposition. If you maintain a stiff body posture, your movements will be stiff and not really deceptive at all. A really good tip to get a looser torso while teaching dribbling is to encourage your players to open their hands. By doing this, the upper torso becomes loose and flexible, which in turn will lead to better upper body movement for body fakes. For instance if you try dipping you shoulder one way and then going the other way, the "dip" will be far more effective with a loose upper tors, and therefore far more likely to deceive the defender.

To emphasize the point, make a fist with both hands and clench your fists tight. Now try moving your upper body and you should notice how stiff and awkward it is

Secret #1 for dribbling is to keep your upper torso relaxed and keeping your hands open and floppy

When dribbling it is more effective to be "small". The reason for this is similar to the reason for the first tip. By keeping small and close to the ground with your legs slightly bent, you will have greater mobility and able to twist and turne to deceive the defenders more easily.

To Emphasize the point, stand straight up with rigid legs. Now try and deceive a defender by lunging one way and then going the other direction. Now try it with the legs bent and in a more relaxed fashion. See the difference?

Secret #2 for dribbling is to keep your knees slightly bent and keeping close to the ground Stand small not tall

A useful drill to help Here's a drill to help with this and you can incorporate both secrets into this drill Have your players dribble the ball around and on your command the players must stop the ball "dead" using the knee.

Stopping the ball with the knee automatically achieves two things;

(1) gets the players to lower their bodies by bending their knees, getting their body low to the ground (coiled and ready to accelerate).

(2) forces the shoulder to dip and makes the upper torso turn.

Note this is important to help deceive your opponents when faking to go one way before exploding in the other direction

During the practice alternate knees, try double touches, right, left and continue dribbling, vary pace of the exercise.

Incorporate this little tip in your next warm, its' fun and productive. the Coerver Coaching Method has over 30 1V1 moves to beat defenders

The SoccerHelper coached his team to the top of the league using the Winning Formula a combination of Coerver, Principles of Play and Small sided games.

Click Here for Details

© 2007 TheSoccerHelper.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nigel_Reed

3 Basic Elements Of Individual Soccer Defending

As a defender, you are not the only player who covers all possible roles in defensive. All of your teammates that are not in possession of the ball should also be considered as possible defenders.

The first element in soccer defense is to stop your opponents from scoring. You need therefore to keep a strong focus on your opponent. The biggest mistake you can make as soccer defender is to keep your eyes on the ball and don't have an idea of where your opponent is.

You may have noticed that professional soccer players (defenders) don't look for the ball especially often. Instead they always mark their opponents tightly making it hard for them to receive the ball and do something useful with it.

As a defender you need to be aggressive and act fast but you must always analyze the current situation and try to find best solution. This is why practised defenders are so good because they have faced similar situations many times during their soccer carrier.

The second element is to be sure that you are familiar with various soccer skills and techniques. The more you know about defending the better you will be or? It is obvious that your defending skills will increase as the more you learn about subject defending. But, you will still need to play regularly to apply what you have learned.

The third important element of soccer defending is to ensure that you are mentally and physically capable of performing these techniques. Playing soccer is a physically challenging and it remains true even during soccer training. It is vital to maintain a healthy lifestyle to be certain that you are up to the task.

You should always try to do your best and use every practice to increase your soccer knowledge. Don't get satisfied just because you have been voted as the player of match. Instead, try to reflect over what mistakes you did during the match (there are always mistakes) and try to improve them in your next game. Good Luck.

http://www.soccer-training-guide.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mirsad_Mr_Hasic

Different Methods Of Defending in Soccer

Containing. When containing an attacker you must lower your center of gravity by bending your knees and leaning forward. Backpedal if the attacker moves sideways. Never face a dribbler straight on, because he will put the ball between your legs or he may run by you. You won't have the time to make a complete 180-degree turn. Instead, approach the ball carrier at a 45-degree angle forcing him towards the sideline. Be prepared to move laterally with your opponent, do not just lunge at him.

Block tackle. The block tackle is the most basic way of depleting an opponent of the ball. It is designed to give you possession while keeping you on your feet. Plant your supporting foot firmly so that you don't lose balance. Then, just as your opponent contacts the ball, you must put your free foot perpendicularly to the direction in which he is moving. If executed properly, this will cause your enemy to stumble or cough up the ball.

Poke tackle. With poke tackling, you basically stab the ball away from your opponent. You must use the foot which is closer to the ball. This method does not guarantee that you will gain possession of the ball.

Slide tackle. Although spectacular, slide tackling should not be used unless in desperation or when you're away from your own goal. It can also be very effective against opponents dribbling down the sideline or shielding the ball.

To learn more about playing football please visit http://soccerboots.blogspot.com. You can find more about football training and playing tips.

Master the art of diving!

I can’t believe that I’m saying this but one of the most important skills that strikers and centre forwards have to master is the art of diving to get penalties and free kicks. No coaches in the world would admit this officially but the fact is that every one of them secretly taught their strikers and centre forwards to dive convincingly and of course with finesse. Italian soccer is full of such tricks, making it one of the dirtiest soccer leagues in the world.

As for Perak’s soccer team, Khalid Jamlus and Razali Umar Kandasamy should learn to master this ancient art as soon as possible. I’m not worried about Caceres; he seems to have a lot of this in him. :-)

Stevie old Darby, you should know what to do. Teach them all the tricks in the book, old chap!

MSL 2007-2008: The best possible formations for Perak

I have been meaning to post this for a very long time but I cannot do so earlier because it requires inputs from a few experts (local coaches with years of experience) in the field. I finally received all inputs from them early this morning and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for taking the time to help me on this. Thanks guys!

Okay now… Based upon Perak’s current team lineup, the best possible formations for Perak are 4-5-1 and 4-4-1-1. Take note that both formations only have one strike option upfront. I have to explain this further so that you can understand why such formations are perhaps best for Perak at the moment.


Perak soccer fans should know that we have a new team. Our new Chilean imports and a few other new local players need time to adjust. Perak is in shambles in all departments at the moment. Our defense is weak and letting in soft goals; our midfield lost at sea and our strike force fired blanks and failed to capitalize on chances. Bad news for Perak and Stevie old Darby!

I have confidence in the 4-5-1 formation since it is a defensive formation but it can be turned into an attacking 4-3-3 formation pretty quickly. I feel that Perak must put more emphasis on strengthening our defenses at the moment. Perak can abandon this formation once we have a working team that understands each other and that will take some time.

As for our current strike force, both Jamlus and Caceres are not really good strikers. They are actually good centre forwards. Both positions have lots of difference. Good strikers are those that can run and sprint with the ball and create scoring chances. This is something Jamlus and Caceres did not have but I’m glad to say here today that Perak has a real good striker in Razali Umar Kandasamy (he has great potentials and Steve Darby should consider using him more often) and he has this feature in abundance. Jamlus and Caceres are good centre forwards with lethal first touch (sorry for over exaggerating); they can pounce on the ball and find scoring chances in tight situations. That is all Jamlus and Caceres (based on his past records) is really good at.

Knowing those two facts mentioned earlier, at least I can understand why the experts that I have consulted suggested 4-5-1 and 4-4-1-1 formations for Perak. Perak can capitalize on the strength of our two out-and-out centre forwards by using only one of them at a time in a 4-5-1 formation. In a 4-4-1-1 formation, Perak can push either Jamlus or Caceres upfront with Razali Umar Kandasamy as the roaming striker behind either one of them. Bear in mind that the 4-4-1-1 formation is also a fair defensive formation and Perak should benefit a lot from such defensive formations at the moment.

Well Steve old chap, I certainly hope that you are reading this post today. I know that you did not like people telling you what to do, your stubbornness and silly persistence is quite legendary. We all know about it. What I’m doing here today is for the sake of Perak and our soccer team. I do not expect Perak to win every tournament in the world, I do not expect Perak to win every game but I certainly want to see Perak fight like a fighter out there. With the right formations, Perak can certainly do that. I have faith in the team (not in Perak FA though) and I wish them all the best in future matches.

Tags: , , , ,