Factor #1: Technical Ability (+ Training tips)

Consistency is probably the most overlooked aspect of players who give up when they don’t feel like their technical ability is good enough. You must remember the long term effects that you want to develop, and use that to drive yourself into becoming a workhorse for improvement. You may not see significant change from one day to the next, but as long as you have that 1% improvement, it will add up. This takes patience and persistence. Don’t let it discourage you. Remember that it’s all part of the process. 

Though you will naturally be better at some technical skills than others, you must remember to train each action that pertains to your position.

This list includes, but is not limited to these football Actions:

1.  Defending/Preventing a goal Actions:

Tackling, squeezing, challenging, dropping back, making the pitch small, deflecting, tipping, marking, pressing, playing compact, and covering (For goalies: catching, saving, punching, throwing).

2.  Building up/Scoring Actions:

Dribbling, crossing, pushing up, creating space, penetrating, passing (and receiving), keeping possession, making the pitch big, controlling, overlapping, throwing, shooting, and heading.

Although these are all important, the 5 fundamentals I’ll focus on now are:

• Controlling the ball
• Dribbling
• Tackling
• Passing & Receiving
• Shooting

This will be an overview of each action and how you can get ahead of the competition faster. It's a good place to reference if you need a reminder on what to work on in training! 

Controlling the ball

This is an important skill because during a game, you’ll have to be confident in your ability to play the ball with different parts of your body. This skill helps you increase your ability to efficiently complete quicker actions with the ball.

Tips to improve in training:

• Be aware of your planted foot. Hop around on your foot that is not toughing the ball to train your balance.
• Stay on the balls of your feet and in a ready (athletic) position when about to control the ball.
• Use both feet so you can move the ball in any direction you choose.
• Practice ball control a lot. Train your control until you can't  get it wrong.

Dribbling

This can be used to beat opponents, get out of tight situations when you don’t have a passing option, keep possession of the ball, and build up towards goal scoring opportunities. 

Tips to improve in training:

• Use cone drills to master your movement, speed, change of direction.
• keep a ball at your feet, keep it really close. Gentle touches keeps the ball within reach.
• Watch pro videos and see how they weigh the ball while running with it. Look at how many steps between touches of the ball.

Tackling

This is a vital element of defending. This technique can be used by any player to disturb the opposing teams attack, to regain possession to transition with your team, and prevent goal scoring opportunities.

Tips to improve in training:

• Get Tough!! Be an aggressive player. Get in the mindset that you can & will win every tackle.
• Work on your Tackling Technique: Closing the gap, balancing, going through the ball, playing hard + clean.
• Make sure your timing is right. Get quicker to become an efficient tackling beast.
• Focus on the ball, not on the players jukes or side-steps.

Passing and Receiving

These are essential technical skills. The more you train these, the more able you can perform them at game speed with a variety of factors (different position, movement, direction, and speed of the ball) This also helps with other actions like creating goal scoring opportunities, avoiding tackles, and maintaining possession with your team.

Tips to improve in training:

• Start with small passes and work your way into longer range passing + hitting it in the air. 
• Pay attention to the ball spin when you hit it.
• Work on timing when passing to a moving target.
• Remember, the ball will not always be laid out nicely for you in a game. Practice dealing with receiving difficult balls

Shooting

This technical skill is another key one to master. Though it is difficult. The ability to know when to and how to accurately perform this action will give your team the edge to complete/finish goal scoring opportunities and increase the amount of games you win. 


Tips to improve in training:

• Work on proper body positioning; Keep your head down, eyes on the ball when striking + keep your body over the ball.
• Practice planting your non-kicking foot beside the ball (timing it properly when the ball is in motion)
• Make contact with the middle to top half of the ball.
• Work on maintaining composure while shooting by taking deep relaxing breaths.
• Pay attention to the goalkeeper's position to find out where to shoot

Now go out there and #getbetter.

-z

P.S. If you want specific drills to complete each of these skills, just let me know what you want to work on.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for Factor #2: Tactical Intelligence