The ONLY MUST DO 10 Drills You NEED to Become a Professional Footballer

about 20 years ago I remember hopping onto this new website called YouTube I typed in soccer drills in the search bar and I distinctly remember three videos popping up the first video there was just a guy doing Bell Taps another video just had a guy very simply weaving through a cone and the third video was this girl doing a drill which I eventually started calling the Ronaldinho drill at that time 2007 2008 that was all the information on YouTube about becoming a professional footballer Flash Forward to today and now the opposite is happening there's this over saturation of videos information drills skill moves on YouTube Tick Tock Instagram all over the Internet and on one hand this is amazing if 12 year old Matt Sheldon could see how much the internet and specifically YouTube has evolved with soccer content I think he would have lost his but at the same time I think he also would have been a little bit overwhelmed with just how much content there is out there the main problem that really occurs is where do you start too many drills too many videos too much content leads to this condition called paralysis by analysis where players are too busy analyzing all the available content and information out there instead of just getting outside and training and to be honest 99 of the videos out there the content out there the drills out there is great and it will improve you as a footballer it really is just about picking some sticking to them staying consistent and doing those multiple times a week for the next 10 years that's really how you improve as a footballer but if you're still feeling overwhelmed I have created My ultimate 10 drills the list of 10 drills that I think you only need to focus on in order to hit all parts of your technical game and improve as a footballer to hopefully one day become drill number one is the trapezoid passing pattern I think an absolute necessity in every single footballer's training regimen has to be some sort of tight space passing pattern like I said there are thousands of passing patterns that you can choose from but my personal favorite is this trapezoid one I love it because it's so fast-paced you're moving in different directions you have one touch passes in there you have two touch passes in there you have to touch in different directions with different parts of the foot and it's an absolute leg burner I typically do a couple different variations of this same pattern and the only thing that really changes is that touch across if you're by yourself you can completely replicate this by just finding a good wall or getting a rebounder Michael Cunningham I think has some of my favorite wall passing patterns so I'm going to link a video in the description if you want to check that out but again the actual pattern doesn't really matter as much as just picking one the second drill is to touch there's a reason why pros at practically every single professional football club around the world do some version of two touch before or after training and the reason for that is because it's really fun it's easy and it drastically improves your first touch usually Pros like to make it even a little bit more challenging and typically they don't allow thighs or the head to be used in two touch but you can make your own rules for your skill level this game is really simple every single player has three lives and you're trying to keep the ball up using only two touches if you're the player who drops the ball or messes up you lose a life and you play until someone runs out of lives there are a few different variations of this game you have the Brazilian altina it's invented on the beaches of Brazil and this just revolves around keeping the ball up in the air usually using only one touch but multiple touches are allowed if you need to do it the emphasis here if you can imagine is not only keeping the ball up but also adding in a ton of flare using flicks in different parts of the body trying to add Flair while also keeping the ball up in the air you also have this same exact game where you're just trying to keep the ball up with a partner over a longer distance and you're really trying to lace the ball and volley the ball over to your partner with more of a difficult longer range pass and finally a solo variation of this if you have nobody to play with is just going to the wall and do doing one two touch or other juggling variations against that wall drill number three is 1v1's to the Big Goal at an angle I think it's absolutely crucial to work on 1v1s regardless of what position you are on the field I think that a 1v1 is really footy in its simplest form can you win this matchup against your direct opponent standing in front of you and like I said my favorite version of 1v1s is 1v1 to the big goal in a lane at an angle not only do you get the 1v1 dribbling and defending component in the 1v1 but you also get finishing and that finishing is actually done in a more game realistic angle when I play this game we typically play to seven goals if you score a goal your Defender has to defend again and you get to go to the back of the line if the defender stops you if the keeper saves a shot or the ball goes out of bounds then the defender goes to the back of the line and you become the next Defender this way there's a bit more rotation in who you're playing against there's also that added punishment of being scored on variations of this are pretty simple you can move the angle to the other side of the goal you can attack straight on or if you don't have a keeper or a big goal you can just do the same 1v1s too many goals now a solo variation of 1v1s is tough you just can't really replicate defending a live attacker or attacking against a live Defender but you know you still can do components of it if you're by yourself I think the best thing you can do is do some sort of dribbling weave attack a cone perform a skill move and then either hit a pass or a shot on goal the fourth drill is 3v1 plus one Rondo transition game I think everybody understands how important a Rondo is for developing your decision making in your speed of play and I think there's a reason why every single professional team out there in the world incorporates some version of a Rondo in their team training probably once or twice at minimum per week the absolute classic is the 5v2 Rondo which I love but I think I love the Rondo transition even more and I like it more because it adds that extra transition aspect you're moving creating more angles it's a little bit more Dynamic and you have to think when the best time is to switch the ball over to the opposite grid the actual setup that you do the number of Defenders the size of the grid all just depends on how many people you have but my favorite is that 3v1 plus one I like that more because you get way more touches on the ball with those smaller numbers and it's a little bit harder because you don't have as many options to play but it's also the reason why typically I play unlimited or too touch in this game and I know that's kind of taboo being a Rondo because a real Rondo is one touch but this is just my preference I love how it's not just one touch because you also have the decision making of when it is the right time to play one touch you play one touch but when it's the right time to slow the game down take an extra touch and settle the ball you can take that extra touch the game is super simple once you combine five passes in one grid you can then transition over to the next grid now personally I like to add even more competition to this game and I play where if you get two transitions on that Defender Defender loses a life or if you Meg the defender the defender also loses life the first player in your group to lose their three lives loses variations of this are pretty simple you obviously have the normal Rondo 5v2 Rondo which I do all the time and I love and you also have the even larger scale three team over the river game this game is just an oversized Rondo where after you get five passes you're switching the ball over to the opposite grid to the opposite team now when it comes to a solo variation of this you can't really replicate a Rondo by yourself so if you don't have any players to play with then find some which I'm joking but I'm kind of serious at the same time but if you truly are by yourself then my advice is just to work on your technical passing and first touch with a wall or other drills until you do get some players that you can train with to do a Rondo with drill number five is just crossing and finishing super super simple again another basic staple drill and I really don't think it needs to be complicated with this drill I think you can get a little bit more position specific if you're a striker Center mid Center back I think you can stay in the center of the field work on the long ball distribution as well as finishing on goal and if you're an outside player a Winger a fullback you can stay on the wing and work on receiving and whipping and Crosses having said that though I do think you should mix it up and work on just at least being able to cross the ball even if you are a center-back or being able to finish a header when you get the chance if you are a fullback you don't have to specialize in it but you should at least have it in your repertoire my favorite way to do the crossing drill is where the players in the center start with the ball peeing out a long ball over to the full backs or Wingers on the side of the field they take one touch bring it down whip it across for the players running in the Box again if you watch professional teams train every single professional team is going to do some variation of this very simple Crossing and finishing drill another variation that I like to do all the time is just adding a little bit more passing combinations before each action so the strikers will do a little passing combination before firing one or two shots off on goal and then the center back will be passing the ball back and forth and then they'll time it so they'll ping out the ball out to the full back as the strikers are finishing that second shot the fullback will bring down the ball do a little one two with another Winger or somebody and then whipping across into the two Strikers running into the box same concept just adding a little bit more passes now a solo variation is a little bit difficult for this I think if you're wide player you can turn a goal so it's perpendicular to that 18 yard box and you can just work on tapping the ball out and whipping and Crosses into the back of the net if you're a striker it's really hard to replicate a whipped and cross into you into the box so I think in the meantime when you're by yourself just to work on tapping the ball out and finishing different parts of the goal with different parts of the foot and different styles next we have the Y passing pattern another passing pattern but this time it's on a larger scale you get that really fast paced tight touches in the trapezoid passing pattern but the wide passing pattern is a little bit more game realistic with the turns the passing the one two on a bigger scale now I like the wide passing pattern the most because you get again a variety of different actions in one drill I think again that this is just a staple drill that from what I've experienced most professional teams will incorporate into their training again the solo variation is hard with this I think the best thing you can do is just to hit the wall and do different passing combinations at different distances working on different turns touches one two touch all that kind of stuff against the wall drill number seven is the Ronaldinho drill I think it's pretty cool that one of the First videos about training to become a footballer on YouTube was about this Ronaldinho drill and Flash Forward 20 years I'm still doing the Ronaldinho drill and I still believe it's one of the best drills you can do for ball Mastery and dribbling I think it has all the benefits of those ball Mastery drills with the added bonus of it being instinctual if you do it right and you really put in a ton of effort and really focus on doing a lot of different touches with both feet and different parts of the feet and then adding in some skill work in there as well it is unmatched for how many touches you get in such a short period of time the standard Ronaldinho drill for me is typically 30 to 60 seconds where I just stay in that blob of cones but you can also add a ton of variety to it one thing that I really enjoy doing especially when by myself is doing the Ronaldinho drill before something so I'll start with the ball dribble into the Ronaldinho drill with a direction in mind dribble through these cones pop out Escape the Ronaldinho drill and then dribble to a cone perform a move before I do a shot on goal or a pass into a corner the next drill we have is horseshoes this drill at its core is just trying to trap a ball from your partner as close to a cone as possible you place two cones on the ground I typically place them across the width of the 18 yard box which is about 44 yards and then you have one partner stand on one side and you stand on the other you and your partner then try to trap the ball as close to the cone and try to get it closer than the other groups the ball that ends up being closest to the cone gets a point and then I typically play to seven points I love doing this drill as a finisher at the very end of my training sessions because you're warmed up and you can ping that long Ball but there's not much movement it's not tiring at all it's a really relaxed easy going slow game that I think is really really good when you have tired legs different variations of the Horseshoe game pretty much just changes how far the cones are between each other you can also limit the body parts that you can use to trap the ball I play where you can only use your feet to trap the ball and I also sometimes add where every other point has to be done and trapped with your weak foot if you're by yourself and you're looking for a solo variation again it's it's time to hit the wall and you just work on pinging the ball against the wall taking good touches and cleanly receiving that ball every single time I'm sure you guys are sensing a pattern here but if you're by yourself one of the best things you can do is to pass the ball against the wall or a rebounder drill number nine is passes to a shot on goal Simplicity really is key in my opinion I think the absolute basic drill of just passing the ball taking a touch and finishing on goal is one of the best things you can do to improve your finishing and there's also so many ways that you can tweak this drill to add variability to it you can change up the angle you can change up the distance you can change up the passing pattern you can do a little bit pattern or movement before the shot you can lay off the shot you can do a move before the shot so you can do a quick touch to a quick release so you're limiting the amount of steps you're taking between the touch and the shot there's so many ways you can change up this drill in every single way is going to work on something slightly different the solo very is really really easy if you have a rebounder perfect just pass the ball a couple times against the rebounder take a touch turn shoot on goal and if you don't have a rebounder then just tap the ball out and take a shot on the goal and finally drill number 10 3v3 small sided to the big goals the absolute staple of every single footballers training regimen should be playing I think it's incredibly incredibly important to have other drills in your regimen like the ones I've listed to work on other parts of the game but majority of your training should just be playing the little details that you learn just from playing pickup I think are invaluable as a player and my personal favorite version of small sided is that 3v3 two big goals I love the small numbers because it means you're always one pass away you're always involved you're always moving you get tons of touches but you also have enough players where you can make some really good combinations as well if you don't have goalkeepers or you don't have big goals then you can just play 3v3 to the mini goals and if you only have one goal or one keeper then you can play where the other side has to score on too many goals and every time a goal is scored in the mini goals you just switch sides now I think there is no solo variation to this drill you can do drills focusing on components of the game but you can't replicate small sided games by yourself so if you are alone you have nobody to train with then go to fields at the weekends or in the evenings at peak hours and just try to get involved with pickup games just ask to join in on those sessions but if you truly are by yourself you have nobody to train with then like I said focus on other drills hit the wall do other things to focus on your game for now until you get to a point where you do have people to play with now overall as you can see I truly believe that these 10 drills will hit everything you need to do on the technical side of the game to improve as a footballer of course there's other things like your Fitness and physicality and your mental side and the Tactical component of the game but if we're looking at the technical side of the game I think these 10 drills hit everything and like I said before if you've been familiar with me for a while you've been watching my videos you'll know that these drills make up 90 of all of my sessions or variations of these drills make up 90 of every single training session that I do anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this video my goal for this is really to help the people that are getting a little bit of paralysis by analysis with just the over saturation of how many drills and information there is out there and hopefully simplified a little bit so you just get started and get started training if you guys enjoyed this video please please hit the Thumbs Up Button subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next video bye guys peace foreign

Channel: Become Elite

Views: 870,553

Keywords: soccer, football, sports, vlog, matt, sheldon, become, elite, professional, pro, footballer, athlete, workout, weight, lift, train, training, saint, louis, fc

Id: 2b19RSXed0c

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023