How to Play Soccer: Ball Drops

QUICKNESS DRILL 5 BALL DROPS Ball Drops, here we're going to start from a good athletic position, balance stuff. When the athlete holding the ball drops, the other athlete has to explode into a sprint and get to the ball. Hey, good job! We don't want our athlete to take a false step, we want him to explode straight ahead, balance up, drop and explode. Now let's go laterally. Start from a lateral position, crossover, and sprint to go get the ball. This is just a simple first step explosion drill. We want to focus on responding to the ball, explode into a full sprint. You can tell, five yards is just about the right distance for our athletes. You may have to vary it up for your athletes and make the distance shorter or even longer, depending on their level of skill and speed. Balance up your athletes by making sure they work both right and left sides equally. We don't want weaknesses in our athletes, we want both sides to work, balance and explosively, so we have the greatest opportunity to get to the ball. Now let's go backwards. We're going to open the hip and take a drop step. She opens the hip, steps down and explodes into that first step explosion we want to get to the ball. Try to run straight lines and not arcs, push down to the ground, step down, down, down, driving those elbows back, so we can get there quickly. Again, work each side of the body equally. If you do five with the right leg, do five with the left leg. BALL DROPS DETAILS • Complete 3 sets of 3-5 repetitions for each drill. • Always work in both directions equally.