The Complete Idiots Guide to Soccer Basics

The ultimate resource for getting on the ball. From the rules of the game to playing techniques, this is a one-volume course for parents and children to score winning goals. Paperback , pages. Published February 3rd by Alpha first published March 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Jun 16, Brad rated it really liked it. My year-old asked me why I got this because he knows how to play soccer. My response was that I didn't get it for him, I got for me because I didn't grow up playing the game.

It's definitely basic information but if you're an American adult like me who never watched much soccer until your kids started playing, doesn't know how someone can be offsides when there's no line of scrimmage, and wants to have some clue what your kids are doing, this is a great book for you. The author does a good jo My year-old asked me why I got this because he knows how to play soccer. The author does a good job of explaining the game and even includes basics like what equipment to get, drills to do, and ways for players, coaches, and parents to behave at games.

Wanda rated it liked it Sep 15, Lexi rated it it was ok Mar 19, Matthew Bailey rated it it was ok Dec 25, Yinzadi marked it as to-read Aug 13, Kristen added it Jan 05, She immediately runs off and celebrates while the defending team looks to the referee hopefully. The thinking is basically the same as the previous situation. As soon as Larry kicks the ball, Jerry runs after it, goes in, and scores. Should he be called for offside? In each of the three situations, consider the circumstances and then decide whether the referee should call offside.

Answers are at the end. The forward takes one dribble and shoots the ball in the goal. Offside or not offside? The player with the ball hits a lofted pass to his teammate. Two fullbacks have been passing the ball back and forth to each other. On one of the passes, one of the fullbacks mis-hits the ball and it goes directly to a forward on the other team, who had been trailing behind the play and has no one between him and the goal but the goalie.

The forward turns around, runs in, and scores. This is the most basic offside situation. If Player F1 had seen F2 a little earlier, he might have been able to pass him the ball before he ran past the fullbacks. Offside is only enforced when the ball is played by a teammate, not an opponent. Did you get all three correct?

U The main reason for the offside rule is to discourage teams from goal-hanging.

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U If the ball goes to a player directly from a goal kick, corner kick, or throw-in, no offside can be called. Making everyone on both teams happy is a virtual pipe dream; in fact, the joke goes that referees consider it a good day if both teams are equally unhappy at the end of the game because it probably means they called a fair one. He calls fouls, keeps the time of the game, records goals, and signals when teams are allowed to make substitutions.

So what happens if the ball hits the referee? The goal of the referee is, literally, to stay out of the way and protect the players from hurting each other. The best days for a referee are the ones where the players are the focus and no one really notices him. In some states and leagues, especially as players get older, there may be three officials at each game. One of them is the referee, who runs on the field and has a whistle. Although you may still see some referees wearing black shirts, the new official uniform is a yellow shirt.

The United States Soccer Federation USSF has changed shirt designs a few times over the past decade or two, so now you might see yellow shirts, blue shirts, black shirts, red shirts, or even green shirts on referees, most of which will have some sort of pinstriped pattern. If it has the current year on it, it means that the referee passed a rules test and is certified by the USSF for that year.

One of the main reasons cited by young referees who give up their whistles is that dealing with abusive parents is so demoralizing. The assistants move up and down one half of each sideline on opposite sides of the field. They have prescribed duties and do not use a whistle, instead signaling to the referee with flags.

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An assistant primarily communicates with the referee by using her flag. She will raise it high to indicate offside and wait for the referee to blow the whistle and make the call; she will indicate which team gets to throw the ball in by pointing toward the goal that team is attacking; she will point toward the goal area to indicate a goal kick should be taken.

The referee is the final authority and sometimes he may overrule the assistant and make a different call. His call is the one that stands. Unlike football, where even the most rabid fans might not be able to identify the signal for, say, clipping, soccer refs keep it simple. That means that team has been awarded a free kick. No microphone, no drawn-out descriptions of the penalty. Just a whistle and a point in one direction, and the ball starts moving again.

This is the signal that a kick is indirect, and the referee will keep it there until two players have touched the ball. The rest of the soccer signals are self-evident: You get the idea. The only signal that deviates is the one for a goal. Some are chatty and friendly, others are gruff.

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Some may welcome questions about the rules or situations in the game, others may not want to talk at all. As I said before, the best advice for players, coaches, and fans is to ignore the referee—just focus on the game itself. But if you feel as though you absolutely have to talk to the ref for some reason, there are definitely some things to keep in mind before making your case. Throw-Ins One time I was refereeing a game and noticed one team was missing a player who had been suspended after receiving a red card the week before. I asked the coach what had happened, and he sighed. This means no jumping up and down, no screaming and yelling, no waving of the arms in all directions.

That just embarrasses the ref and makes it much, much harder for a player to get her point across. Keep the tone calm and use a question: Can you take a look for that the next time? Even so, the best thing parents can do is leave the referee out of their in-game yelling. Shout for your child or his teammates, but shrieking at the ref just makes you look like a whiner. As I said at the start of this chapter, most referees love soccer and are happy to talk about the rules with an interested fan or parent.

The first step is to sign up for an entry-level referee course. Typically given during the course of several days or nights, the course will have a classroom element as well as work on the field. It then culminates in a written test: Most assignors are always looking for more referees and will be happy to give you games to work. U The best way to approach referees is with common courtesy: There are chapters in this part for each skill: Chapter 9 deals with controlling the ball, Chapter 10 is about dribbling, Chapter 11 covers passing, Chapter 12 is everything you need to know about shooting, and Chapter 13 handles how to play goalie.

Each skill chapter has a variety of drills and games that will help players practice effectively. Some drills and games will be more effective than others, but the point to remember is that repetition matters. The key is just getting used to using everything but your hands to bring the ball under your command. When your body is comfortable with that concept, trapping really is a breeze. Whether the ball is rolling, bouncing, or flying at you, the option to trap it with your foot is always there.

To successfully control the ball, your foot must give as it makes contact; if you hold your foot stiff, the ball will ricochet away from you instead of falling softly in front of you. This technique is most often used to receive passes that are rolling toward you, and is the simplest trapping technique. You can also use the inside of the foot for controlling skipping or bouncing balls. This is important—you always want to aim for the center of the ball because if you are off the mark, the ball will either go under your foot too high , pop up in the air too low , or spin away off to either side.

Sometimes, you may find it more convenient to use the outside of your foot to trap the ball if you are standing sideways and the ball is coming from that direction, for example. If that happens, the principles are basically the same; you want a little give to your foot so the ball bounces off the outside of it softly, and then you can make a decision on what to do next. This is the best way to trap balls that are coming from above you and are dropping fast. Figuring out exactly the right place for your toes can be an issue; if you turn them up, the basket your foot makes looks a little deeper and wider, but you run the risk of the ball deflecting off the point and shooting away.

Yellow Card The instep trap can be effective, particularly for balls coming at you on a shallow arc—say, from a popped-up header. There is a little danger in using the instep trap too often, though, because it leaves your foot exposed to an opponent trying to aggressively steal the ball.

The best approach is to keep your toes—and your whole foot—loose, with the toes pointed naturally probably just slightly descending , and then pretend your foot is a baseball glove that will catch the ball, making sure to use plenty of give with your knee and ankle. The ball should land right in front of you. How is that possible? If the ball is moving at a comfortable speed and you can just put your foot on it, go for it.

Judging when to stamp down on a harder-moving ball takes more practice, and it can have some embarrassing—and painful—results if you misstep or trip over the ball. These can be short chips, punts from the goalkeeper, or long passes from a player all the way across the field. Basically, if the ball is in the air and a foot trap would be too difficult to pull off, a thigh trap might be your best bet. The general idea with a thigh trap is similar to the instep trap; you want to give the ball a soft landing and cradle it briefly before it falls at your feet.

This is helped by the fact that thighs are fleshier than feet: SUa Raise your right foot up high enough that your leg is parallel to the ground. If you contact the ball much closer to your knee, it will probably shoot away from you; if you do it much closer to your stomach, it may catch your hip and also bounce away or your groin less bouncing, more pain. In other words, the middle of your leg is ideal.

Try to imagine your leg as a baseball glove that is catching a soft fly ball. The same principles apply here: Smoothness is important and herky-jerky motions almost always result in the ball bouncing away. With thigh trapping, I try to think of a Slinky. Throw-Ins The best chest-trappers are the ones who seem to literally catch the ball on their torso and then drop it at their feet. In fact, the standard chest trap should be targeted in the middle of your chest.

Wherever you have the ball hit you, make sure to keep your arms extended away from your body for better balance and watch the ball all the way into your chest. This time, the two-step process goes like this: You just want a slight arch; enough to open up your chest to the ball, but not so much that you feel a strain in your lower back. The ball should drop right at your feet. You do your upand-down technique, but this time, instead of just having the ball drop to the ground, you use your instep to flick it to the side where you then run over and start dribbling.

Throw-Ins The world record for juggling is held by Martinho Eduardo Orige, a Brazilian who juggled a regulation soccer ball for 19 hours, 30 minutes in This is a similar game. Each player has a partner who is standing a few yards away from him. One player tosses the ball to the other player, who has to trap it with a particular part of the body.

If the player traps it, he gets to go on to the next part of the body; if the ball bounces away, that part of the body has to be used on the next toss. In the beginning, keep it simple: Again, have each player with a partner, but this time have them start just a few feet from each other. One player tosses the ball to the other softly and the other must control it. If he does, each player takes one step backward. Then the second player tosses the ball back to the first, and he traps it. If he does, another step back. Winners are the first group to successfully make it 10 steps back from where they started.

The key is to keep the game going quickly and vary where the balls go—some at the chest, some at the feet. As the kids improve, keep increasing the pace. The goal is for the four players to keep possession of the ball by passing it quickly around the square with this stipulation: Remember to stress communication skills in this drill. Even though the passing options are limited for each player, you still want everyone to get into the habit of calling out their location to the player with the ball.

The more that kind of talking is practiced, the more it will show up in games. That player must control the ball first, and then dribble past the other player. The winning team is the first to Two other players A and B go in the middle. Give the ball to one of the players on the outside. Player A runs away from the player with the ball, before quickly checking back toward him so he can receive a pass; Player B should quickly close Player A down defensively, and Player A responds by passing the ball to another one of the players on the outside.

He then repeats the check-out, check-in routine so he can receive another pass. Do this four times each, and then change players in the middle. After a few turns in the middle, each player will have improved their ability to receive a pass at their feet while on the move, and also be better at trapping under pressure. First pass X 15 yd Notice this player starts with the ball! Set up two goals about 30 yards apart and put two players in front of each, with three other players in the middle of the field.

The three players in the middle take the ball and pass it back and forth as they go toward one goal while the defenders try to steal the ball. If the attackers get a shot off, the player that shoots it turns around and goes with the two defenders in the other direction, and they try to score on the pair of defenders in front of the other goal.

If a defender succeeds in taking the ball, he and his defensive partner join the player who lost the ball when going on the attack. The 3 on 2s continue in this way—back and forth—for 10 minutes. The only catch is that each player is allowed no more than three touches on the ball at any one time. As soon as a shot is taken or the ball is stolen, the next group of three should start passing the ball and moving toward the opposite goal.

Then try to see the ball landing softly in that glove as you make your next trap. U A trap always comes before something else—a pass, a shot, or a dribble. A clean trap makes it easier for you to make your next move. In soccer, possession is fluid, changing all the time as the ball goes from one team to the other. Keeping control is hard, so the best teams— and the best players—are the ones that are comfortable with the ball at their feet.

Start by just rolling the ball around on your foot. Touch it with each part of both feet. Push it a few feet away, and then roll it back with your sole. Before you even get into moving with the ball, just get used to touching it while standing still. You can even try some juggling if you want—anything to make you feel a little more familiar with the ball at your feet. Confidence is critical to keeping control. How do you do that? Then you can decide which way you want to go next.

Toe it too high and you might roll over it. Is there a secret to doing it well? I did, and I always loved trying to make it across the balance beam. If you stayed centered, you could probably make your way across the beam; if you shifted your weight to the side, you probably were seconds away from proving—yet again—just how gravity really works.

Another similarity to the balance beam in dribbling is the value of keeping your arms out. The same principles of balance apply to dribbling. Keeping control of the ball is nearly impossible with stiff legs and an uneven posture. You want to be in an athletic position, with your chest over your feet— centered. Sometimes you push or pull hard, other times you push or pull soft. A cut-back is a dribbling move where a player suddenly stops his motion and quickly turns back in a different direction.

The key with the cut-back is to make the move quickly and change direction sharply. Being fast is what makes the cut-back work. The key with dribbling is to have a goal in mind—and not necessarily the one at the end of the field. Dribbling means keeping control, and keeping control is a big part of how a team wins. What do you do? Space on a soccer field is always changing, so a yard gap can quickly shrink to half that if one defender changes direction. If the space is still there, do the same with your left foot on the next stride or two.

Beyond becoming more comfortable with the ball, there are several other keys to keep in mind that can help turn an average dribbler into an expert one. Learning how to dribble and pass and shoot is no different. A player who can dribble or pass or shoot with just one foot is the easiest kind of player to defend. Do your best to get over that and keep touching the ball with your weaker foot. We all know that. Keeping your head up is something all players struggle with but the best are able to conquer their natural instinct. Being able to turn left and right smoothly is a must. To turn, plant your nondribbling foot hard with the toe pointing in the direction you want to go.

Then get your other foot on the opposite side of the ball and either drag it with the inside of your foot or push it with the outside in the new direction. A wellexecuted fake can open up a passing or shooting lane for you, or just give you more room to keep dribbling. Here are a few of the more common ball fakes, though you should experiment with what works for you. After a quick pause, push the ball back to the left with the outside of your left foot.

When the defender starts to follow, tap the ball through his legs and rush past him to pick up the ball on the other side. Being able to stop quickly—while maintaining control—is a valuable tool to keeping possession. Those few seconds of breathing room will give you an opportunity to change direction or find the appropriate pass or shot.

Sometimes you can go farther by stopping. As they become more confident, you can increase the amount of defensive presence but do so slowly. When he turns or cuts, they turn or cut. When he does a move, they do a move. A coach stands near midfield. If they keep moving or lose control of the ball, they go back to the goal line and start again. This helps teach finding a balance between moving fast and keeping the ball close. The players each have a ball and dribble freely in the middle of the square, cutting and moving with the ball at their own pace.

The players will quickly learn about making cuts and listening to calls from their teammates. If a player has his ball kicked away, he comes and sits out. Last player left is the Champion Bull. This is the age when they should start working on harder fakes and cuts, and should practice with a little more defensive pressure to better simulate game action. Dribbling well and keeping control of the ball after making a move is an exhilarating feeling for a player.

The best way to keep kids interested is to have them feel that exhilaration as often as possible, so it becomes natural.

Complete Idiot's Guide to Soccer Basics by Sam Borden (2009, Paperback)

Make a square with 20yard sides, and have players dribble along the edges of it doing a different move on each side. Change up what each side calls for and send players after each other no more than 10 seconds apart to encourage quick movement. The players will become more comfortable using both feet that way. To make this drill a little harder or more advanced, introduce a defender on one or more sides of the square. It might seem hard at first, but it gets easier the more you do it. Set up mini-goals a few yards wide in a diamond about 40 feet apart. Designate one player to be the pitcher and put him in the middle.

Everyone else is a hitter. The pitcher passes the ball to the hitter at home plate, who receives it and then tries to dribble the ball toward the first base mini-goal while the pitcher tries to knock the ball away. If the hitter gets to first base, he then tries to go to second as the pitcher tries to stop him there. For each mini-goal the hitter gets through, he gets one point with an extra point if he hits a home run. This is a game where you want the players to feel comfortable trying out a variety of moves.

U Stopping at the right time is just as effective a dribbling weapon as running fast. Passing is the essence of soccer, and a player who knows where and when to make the best pass will always be important to a team. A big part of passing is common sense: But there are subtleties to soccer passing that separate the good from the great. It can be 2 feet or 20 yards, it can be in the air or on the ground.

U Know what you want to do: Make sure each pass has a purpose. Use soft passes very, very sparingly. Quick passes get to their targets; slow passes get intercepted. The best pass is typically the one to the player who has the most open space around him. You want to pass him the ball. That means your left foot is going to be your plant foot, or the foot that stabilizes the rest of your body as you deliver the pass. Okay, so back to our situation. Now, you just … The plant foot is the nonkicking foot and it provides stability for the player making the pass.

The inside-of-the-foot pass can be used just about anywhere on the field. Note how the plant foot is a comfortable distance from the ball but right alongside it. Just as in golf or baseball, the follow-through on this swing is very important. Swing it all the way through, past the point of contact. A good follow-through will make for a crisp pass. Flicking the ball means making a quick pass with either your foot or head, when the ball only barely makes contact with your body as you change its direction.

Lifting the ball just requires a few modifications to the basic, allpurpose pass. Point your toe and swing your foot through so your instep goes through the bottom half of the ball, then follow through and watch the ball soar. The two keys to getting the ball airborne for a lofted pass are plant foot location a little farther from the ball and a bit behind it and proper contact with the instep of the foot. So when do you use this pass? If all goes well, one of his teammates is there to either head the ball into the goal or trap it, and then pass or shoot.

Yellow Card None of the passes we talk about involve using the toe. The keys to a good cross are simple: U Have a strong plant foot: A cross is a pass from the side of the field into the middle.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Soccer Basics

Otherwise, your momentum will carry your cross in the wrong direction. U Pick out the best target: U Vary your height: Not every cross needs to be a high, soft floater. To do a chip pass, you want to put your plant foot back closer to the ball and really strike down on the bottom half of the ball with your kicking foot.

When do you use the chip? In those situations, you want two things: The first is obvious: If you kick a hard ball on the ground, it might be intercepted; up in the air, no one can get it. Throw-Ins As a goalie, I always appreciated defenders who kept it simple and just kicked the ball out—out of bounds, out of the penalty area, out of danger. Particularly for younger players, the best approach to defending is a simple one: No one will ever blame a defender for giving up a throw-in to the other team.

Think of a one-touch pass as a redirection. Not hard, of course, but there are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to heading: Go in the backyard and start just 2 or 3 feet apart. Toss the ball softly to him and he lets it bounce off his forehead right back to you. As he gets more comfortable, you move farther back. Keep track of how many balls in a row he can head back to you, and try to set a new record each night. U So what is the right way? Not the top of your head. Definitely not the bridge of your nose. Good solid contact on the forehead will give you the best control, best power, and least amount of discomfort.

U Keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open, watch the ball come to your head, and then make contact. U Neck stiff, back loose. That means locking your neck before you head the ball, and keeping your back loose so you can arch it and then snap forward to give your header power. The proper way to head the ball is to keep your eyes open, mouth closed, and watch the ball make contact with your forehead. You provide force to the header by arching and snapping your back—not your neck. Heading for goal and heading on defense are covered in those chapters, but these fundamentals apply to them, too.

You know that using your head is a big weapon in passing because there are so many different ways you can do it: U The set header: The ball is coming toward you in the air. You see a teammate nearby. You set your feet flat, stiffen your neck, and deliver a short snap of your back as the ball hits your forehead, moving it right to your teammate. U The side flick: If you want to pass the ball to the side with your head, the flick is your best tool. You still want to use your forehead, but this time you let the ball deflect off to one side instead of right in the middle.

You can loosen your neck just a little and snap it in the direction you want the ball to go. U The back flick: Basically, you want to lean your head back as the ball approaches and let it glance off you as it goes on its way. This is particularly helpful near the goal as you can flick the ball into a crowded area where teammates can then kick it in. Some of the calls are universal and easy to understand.

Other calls may vary from team to team, but the important thing to remember is to talk—a lot. The more information you give or get , the easier it will be to make the right passes. Remember earlier when we said every pass should have a purpose? Some passes are designed to simply move the ball from one player to another, but others have more behind them.

There are so many different possible passing sequences, but there are a few common passing tactics that crop up all the time in soccer games. In other words, if you want to pass to someone running down the wing, kick the ball out in front of him, so it rolls into his path. In soccer, this is called running on to the ball. A lead pass is one played ahead of its intended target so that the player can run on to the ball, or receive it in stride.

At the youngest ages, you just want players to begin to feel comfortable with the idea that they are able to move the ball quickly and accurately from one teammate to another. Set up 10 cones at varying distances from you—three within 5 to 10 feet, three around 15 to 20 feet, and four even farther, for example. First lane to knock down all 10 cones wins. Have fun with the course setup and, if it gets too easy, have the kids try playing a hole with their weaker foot. Two players keep passing the ball back and forth, while the third player—the monkey—has to try and steal it. If he does, he gets to go to the outside and the player who last touched the ball becomes the monkey.

Give each player a different number. Then gather all the players around in a circle, and toss the ball up in the air. Then he gets to take four steps—S, P, U, D—in any direction, before trying to hit one of the other players with an on the ground, all-purpose pass. If he hits, the player he hits gets a letter. Anyone who gets all four letters is out! A crisp, accurate pass becomes the norm, as opposed to the rarity, and players need to be more confident with their communication, as well as their decisionmaking. These games and drills should help with both. The object of the game is for three players moving on the perimeter of the grid to pass the ball around to each other while a defender—who must stay inside the grid—tries to steal it.

The players on the outside score points if they are able to successfully knock the cone in the middle over; the defender is only able to become one of the perimeter players by stealing the ball. The players on the outside will need to move the ball quickly to get a clear shot at the cone in the middle, and communication is key. The first group of two passes the ball into the grid, then steps in and begins trying to steal the ball from the five attackers, who must keep the ball moving. This drill reinforces the skills needed to pass in a confined space— something that often happens in the midfield of a tight game.

Put one player at three corners with the rest of the players in a line at the fourth. This is where the drill starts. The first player in line at corner A see figure passes to the player at corner B, then follows his pass. Path of ball XX A: By the end of it, everyone will be more comfortable with the idea of passing and moving. The drill begins with one player sprinting toward one goal while the other sprints to the opposite one. If the plant is off, the pass probably will be, too. U Choosing the right target is as important as the pass itself. Give the ball to a player who can do something with it, not just the player who is closest or most-skilled.

U Passes can go in any direction. Sometimes the best way to get for- ward is to pass back. U Talk and listen. Communication between teammates is the only way to know which pass will best help the team. Do you need any other reasons to make clear how important shooting is? The most powerful, most accurate shots are the ones that come from clean strikes of the ball. Instead, the instep—also known as the part of your foot where the laces on your cleats are located—is the primary shooting surface.

As you approach the ball, you want to point your toe down so that the instep can hit the ball flush not at an angle , giving you maximum power and accuracy. As you approach the ball, you want your left foot to be alongside the ball, about 6 inches away from it and with the toe pointed where you want the shot to go. For the basic shot, you want your plant foot alongside the ball and the knee on your shooting leg over the ball. This will help keep the shot down and give you the most power.

Another way to think of it is to picture your right knee being directly above the ball as your right foot makes contact with it. If it is, you know your weight is properly positioned. The motion of the shot comes from your entire body, not just your leg. After your plant foot is set, swing your shooting foot through with your toe pointed down and the laces square, striking the middle of the ball. The ball should fly on a low line, with good speed, in the direction your plant foot is pointing. Follow-through is just as important in soccer. Suddenly, the ball was rolling toward one of my teammates who was standing inside the goal area—less than 6 yards from the net!

It soared over the top, the other team got a goal kick, and we lost by one. Moral of the story? Keep your weight forward on every shot. Your teammates will thank you. This is particularly important if the ball is rolling toward you. Stay forward and the ball will stay down. Where are the best places to shoot? U Low is better than high. Goalies have better reach with their hands than their feet, so high shots are more easily swatted away. U Go for the fat part of the net.

U Follow your shot. Above all else, you need to trust yourself. Glance up, pick an area to shoot at, and then look back at the ball while you swing your leg through. Trusting your own ability might be the hardest part of successful shooting. As cool as it might be to shoot for the upper corners, those are the ones that I could leap for and deflect or, more likely, watch sail over the crossbar.

A finisher is another name for an attacker who is particularly good at converting scoring chances. Is it worth practicing these techniques? So how do you bend or swerve the ball to your advantage? Imagine a clock face. The key to both is to make a glancing blow. Trust me, it takes practice. Take a few balls out and just start kicking. After a few shots, I promise your shots will be curving. In these situations, there may not be time to trap the ball and then shoot it. A volley is a one-touch shot and the basics are the same as they are for a regular shot: Landing on your shooting leg is even more important because the already elevated ball will soar high and over the goal if you lean back.

A half-volley is a volley struck when the ball has just bounced A volley is a shot played off the ground. In other words, directly out of the air. These shots take precise timing and can be tricky; stubbed toes are a common side affect of half-volley practice. We already went over the basics of heading, and there are only a few modifications to make when it comes to heading for goal. The first is the target. Although you might think you should just head the ball on a line into the net, the best way to score is to head the ball down.

Remember what we said about the hardest shots to stop? They should then shoot forward and head the ball, landing softly on their stomachs.

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The next key is getting power. This comes from a strong arch and snap in your back, not by flopping your neck. If a cross is floating in the goal area, by all means jump up and try to head it. But whether you jump or not, bend your back and then snap forward so your forehead hits the ball. Lastly, focus on placement. Just as a regular shot, it matters less how hard you head the ball and more where you head it. Keep your eyes on the ball as it hits your forehead, and then watch the net ripple. A scissors kick is a volley done while the player has turned sideways, his legs moving like a scissors to shoot the ball out of the air.

Basically, the player jumping so that the player jumps up and turns sidetheir body is sideways, and ways while moving his legs to volley then kicking their legs in a the ball, then lands on the ground. A bicycle kick is an exciting and dangerA bicycle kick, or overhead kick, is ous play where a player falls used when a player has her back to backward and kicks the ball the goal and literally falls backward over his head.

Scoring from only 12 yards away seems easy, but it takes a strong nerve to convert consistently. How can you become a go-to penalty taker? U Pick a side: Just keep your head down and make solid contact. Goalies will try anything to rattle shoot- ers. Even if the goalie does happen to dive to the same side you pick, a strong shot to the strut will be impossible for him to stop anyway. When that concept has settled in, working on accuracy and precision with shooting follows naturally. Have the players form a circle around you, say, 10 yards away, each with a ball.

On your signal, everyone tries to hit you with a shot. As your welts grow, move the players back. Put another disc-cone upside down on top of each one. Players are in groups of two, with one player shooting and the other player retrieving the off-target shots. Each group tries to knock over all five disc-cones in the shortest amount of time possible. This game stresses the importance of shooting accuracy over power. Then tie them to each post on the goal, and have the players take turns trying to bust the bag with a shot from 15 to 20 yards away.

The next player has to volley the rebound into the goal, with the player behind him doing the same, and so on.

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If a player misses, he gets an out. Three outs and you step out of line. Have a line of players about 35 yards from the goal and another line of players at the top of the penalty area. The first player in line one passes the ball to the first player in line two. She just wants to make the first player take a dribble or two and then shoot on the run. The receiving team can let the ball bounce one time, and can pass it amongst themselves with no more than one bounce up to three times before volleying it back. If the ball goes out or bounces more than once, the other team gets a point.

Play to 7 or Go from this to a game that involves volleying on net and watch how much more consistent the shooting is. Players 1 and 2 are stationed on either side of the penalty spot, about 8 yards apart. The object of the game is for Player A to hit one of the struts at the back of the goal. Have each player start just outside the penalty area with a ball. First, they must take a basic shot into one of the corners of the goal. Then they run to the penalty spot, where they must take a one-touch shot of a ball passed to them. Next they run to one side of the goal box and head a ball tossed to them into the net, then quickly to the other side for the same thing.

Finish the drill by running back toward the penalty spot, receiving one last pass, and then spinning and shooting. U Accuracy is more important than power. U The hardest shots to stop are the ones that are low and to the cor- ners. U Confidence comes with repetition. Trust yourself to keep your head down when you shoot. As the last line of defense, any big mistake the goalie makes results in the other team scoring.

How many other players on the field can say that? But everyone is looking at you, which makes it kind of exciting, too! Their job is simple: Yellow Card I knew I wanted to be a goalie early on, but I still spent some time playing in the field until I was closer to middle-school or highschool age. A well-rounded player is always a valuable one. So how do they do it? Proper positioning is important, as is the right attitude. The best goalies look at the ball as a possession. It belongs to them. And anytime it comes near them, they are going to go out and take it, no matter what they have to do.

For a goalie, it means putting yourself in a place where the goal looks smallest to the attacker. Always be thinking about where the shooter is and how you can step up to narrow his angle on goal. Knees bent, feet and ankles loose, hands out at your sides with palms open and facing forward.

One of my first goalkeeping coaches taught me a small detail that many goalies miss: A lot of goalies have their default position with their hands above their hips, their fingers facing up instead of down. The proper way is the reverse. You might as well be in the best position possible to try and handle them. In anticipation of a shot, most goalies will do something called a split-step. Athletes in many other sports use this move, too, including fielders in baseball and tennis players.

The weight should be on the balls of your feet the entire time. This puts your body in motion and makes it easy to shift left or right, up or down depending on where the shot is going. Your hands look like a W, right? In these instances a goalie wants to palm or tip the ball away from the goal—oftentimes out of bounds—instead of risking a difficult catch that ends up being dropped right in front of the goal.

To palm a ball away from the goal, remember to use as much of your hand as you can get on the ball. If you can, push the ball to the side, perhaps even past the post so it goes out of bounds for a corner kick. On high shots that are coming in fast, it may be best to tip the ball over the crossbar. To do this move you just need to angle your hand slightly pointing the palm up a bit and the ball should hit it and ricochet high over the bar. A goalie also has to take control of the area near the goal by dealing with crosses and passes that are floating in the air.

Obviously the first choice is to simply come and catch these balls, keeping the opponents from heading the ball on goal. But there are also times when a big crowd of people may make it hard to catch a cross. The best alternative in these situations is to punch the ball away. The best punches soar out the sides of the penalty area—away from danger and, hopefully, into the path of a teammate who can start an attack. A great save is something people remember and it can also change the feel of an entire game. These are situations where you need to cover some ground quickly.

The key is something called a power step, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. Throw-Ins High-flying dives are definitely an advanced move, but the process is basically the same: I went to a goalie camp once where one of the counselors was a national team goalie who could literally get his body parallel to the crossbar with his dives. It was absolutely amazing and it all started with a power step. This will give you the force you need to dive toward the post, while keeping your body facing the field so you can see the shot and reach your hand out as far as possible to try and stop it.

My coach used to tell me to try to visualize getting my body to the ground as quickly possible. That is, instead of diving through the air and falling to the ground near the post where the shot is headed, I should try to get my arms out and almost hydroplane over there. One tip many goalies forget about is the direction of their dives. I know, it sounds dumb.

I dive toward the ball, duh! Keep going in that direction. Both positions require the players playing them to be a vocal leader. Former Manchester United goalie Peter Schmeichel was notorious for his screams of rage at his defenders. Sometimes it looked as though he was angrier at them than he was at the other team and maybe he was! If you call for the ball, the other players are supposed to get out of the way and let you take it, no questions asked. When it comes to anything in your half of the field, you should be yelling, screaming, waving, and doing whatever else it takes to get your teammates to understand what they need to do to help protect the goal.

Are all the attackers being covered right now? And who should be on whom? If you see one of the opposing forwards moving freely, you should quickly be calling out his number and location and demanding that one of your teammates get on him right away. Pick up number 14 at the back post! This is basically a row of your teammates who stand next to each other 10 yards away from the kick in an effort to block an area of the goal from the shooter. The idea is that the goalie will have the wall set up to obstruct one half of the goal while she takes care of the other half.

To set up the wall, first call out the number of players you want in it Three! Three in the wall! With your face up against the post, motion with your hand left and right until the outside player in the wall appears to be covering the post. The rest of the players then go next to that player, and you move to the other side of the goal so you can see the shot. U Make yourself big: Keep your arms out wide and stand tall. The bigger you look, the smaller the goal looks, and the tighter the shooter may get as he prepares to kick. As the kicker is getting read to shoot, shimmy sideways a little with your arms up and down.

U Make a decision: Others like to stay in the middle and react, hoping the shot is close enough to them that they can save it. You never know when you at one corner of the goal. This is often called distribution, and there are a few common ways to do it: This is just like bowling the ball. You can either wing the ball side-arm or, for better distance and accuracy, throw it over-arm. Cup the ball in your hand and wrist, and then swing your arm over the top hard. The ball should fly straight. A punt is when you drop the ball from your hand and boot it before it hits the ground, just as in football.

In soccer, though, you can drop the ball with one or two hands. Much of it is just repetition, getting comfortable with both positioning and reacting to shots. Here are some drills and games that cover the gamut, from the basics to the more advanced. Each goalie is trying to score in the opposing goal by using any manner of distribution: If scoring is too easy, push the goals farther back.

You never know when they might need to play the field in a game. Line up 5 to 10 balls and do all the shots in a row, with the keeper going up and down each time. Line up five balls near the top of the penalty area. On a signal, the goalie must spin around and make a save immediately. Then he flips around and waits for the next signal. Have a line of players start about 30 yards from the goal and, one at a time, dribble in on the goalie one on one.

The rule is that the player must shoot the ball within five seconds or else the attempt is over. Goalies will quickly learn how important it is to narrow the angle in these situations. In addition to narrowing the angle, a goalie should be prepared to slide out and grab the ball if a player dribbles too far in front of himself.

U What you do before the shot is as important as what you do after it. Proper positioning makes being a goalie a lot easier.