Soccer Drill: Improving the Quality of Service (crossing & long passing)

Being able to serve the ball anywhere on the pitch is a skill that every player must work to improve. Players like David Beckham and Xavi Hernandez have made a career by being able to place the ball on a dime. This activity progression will help your players work on their ability to cross and serve the ball.

Warm up properly with a dynamic series of exercises.

Start with two players passing the ball over 20 yards with the inside, outside and laces of both feet to prepare the muscle groups for the next activity.

The players should both be in a 10×10 box (5×5 for better players) and the distance between the players can be increased to 30 yards. Now we make it a contest. Each player has 10 services. The ball has to hit the target in the box to gain a point. If the server misses the box, then no point is awarded. You can have the players do 10 with the right and 10 with the left.  You can have multiple groups with a championship field, so winners move on. The loser in the championship field has to start over in the last division.

You can vary the demands of service by asking the players to hit the ball driven with the laces with some back-spin, with the inside and outside. Based on the technical ability of the players, you may or may not be able to do everything with both feet.

Progress to more difficult game by adding a player in each grid. The ball is served as in the previous activity, but the recipient (player 1) has to knock the ball down to his partner (player 2) who in turn passes the ball back to player 1 to serve with one touch to the opposite grid. The two players there do the same thing. The service must land in the 10×10 0r 5×5 box to earn a point.

You can then add 2 more players in the middle 30 yard zone to pick services off. This adds a higher degree of difficulty and realism. If a team’s pass is intercepted, then they are now in the middle zone.

Fun and activities like this are the backbone of skill development for soccer players. With the addition of the middle zone defenders, the activity morphs from a simple skill session to something that more resembles the game of soccer. This is a key ingredient to every practice, and one that most coaches miss. Most practice sessions just don’t have enough game relevance in them.

This is a new concept for many coaches in the United States who may have come up with the typical drill environment as players. Soccer coaching is evolving, and we want you to help evolve with it. That’s one reason we put together Ciplified Soccer 2.0. This soccer coaching course is geared towards helping coaches create more dynamic practice environments for their players.

We have put together a special video that details what we have to offer with Ciplified Soccer 2.0. Please take a few moments to check it out as I know it will be hugely beneficial to your team! Click here for the video.