Part of improving to make it to a higher level of play is making sure you have a high technical ability. It is common that soccer players that make it to the next level train on their own. I try to make it simple for players to understand skills so that they can work on them in their spare time. Below are some of the ways that I instruct players on certain skills.
You can learn a lot from watching high level players do things. For example, there is a YouTube video called “Ronaldo – The Rocket Man,” in which Ronaldo clips of him shooting from distance are put on display. I have been asked numerous times by people on how to shoot from distance and keep the ball down. At approximately 1 minute and 48 seconds into that video, Ronaldo takes a shot left footed. That is how you do it… Apply the steps below, and emulate Ronaldo’s form, and you should get better at shooting from distance.
Another thing that I all too often hear is when doing passing exercises coaches will ask the players to pass it at a pace your teammate can handle it. I disagree wholeheartedly with that statement. While taking a 12 year old on trial overseas I learned that in a simple passing exercise, like a passing square, you should pass the ball as hard as you can with control. This does a few things for you. First, it shows you if you have poor technique. You will not keep the ball on the ground if you are passing it hard with bad technique. Second, your teammates improve drastically because they have to be able to handle the ball at the pace it’s coming. As the coach, if you have to adjust the distance of the pass a bit to make it work better, that’s fine, just don’t tell players to pass it so that their teammates can handle it.
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