Getting better at soccer is mostly about what you practice between team sessions and how often you do it. The nine areas below are the ones we'd put on any young player's list, from fitness and cone work to passing, first touch, defending and knowing your position, each with a simple way to set it up at home.
Every player develops at a different rate, so treat this as a practice menu rather than a timeline. At the end there's a sample week for a rec or travel schedule and the five rules worth knowing before the next game.
How do you get good at soccer? 9 things to practice
1. Work on conditioning
Conditioning means having enough running in your legs to keep making good decisions late in a game. An adult match is two 45-minute halves (IFAB Law 7), and youth games are shorter, but the running comes in bursts: sprint, jog, stop, turn, sprint again.
So practice the bursts. A simple interval: sprint hard from the goal line to the halfway point of your yard or field, jog the rest of the way, walk back, repeat six to eight times. Shuttle runs between two cones 10 and 20 yards apart work too. For kids, the CDC recommends at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a day for ages 6 to 17, and soccer practice and backyard play both count toward it. Our soccer conditioning drills have more ideas that use a ball.
2. Focus on cone dribbling
Cone dribbling is the easiest solo drill to set up and the easiest to measure. Put six cones in a line, about 2 to 3 feet apart for young players and a little farther for teens. Weave through with the inside and outside of one foot, then the other, then alternate feet.
Time each run with a phone and write it down, but only count runs where the ball stays close and you don't knock a cone over. Once that feels easy, look up every two cones as if checking for a teammate. Our dribbling drills cover more patterns.
3. Write down your goals
Write practice goals, not results. "Make the team" or "score more" depends on things you don't control. "100 left-foot passes against the wall this week" or "juggle 20 in a row by the end of the month" is something you can actually do and check off.
Keep it on one page: three goals for the season, one thing to work on this week and a simple log of what you did each day. Show it to your coach once in a while and ask what they'd add. A coach who watches you every week often spots the habit you can't see yourself. If you have a phone handy, a short clip of a practice or a game is a good way to check whether what it feels like matches what it looks like.
4. Practice and prioritize passing
Passing comes up in almost every phase of a game, so give it plenty of reps. Work on the inside-of-the-foot pass first: plant foot next to the ball, toes pointing where you want it to go, strike through the middle of the ball, follow through toward the target.
Start 10 yards from a wall or a partner and do 20 passes with each foot. Then move to 15 yards, then 20. Add one-touch passing once two-touch feels clean. The passing drills guide has partner and group versions.
5. Understand that mistakes are part of the process
Every new skill looks bad before it looks good, so a practice where nothing goes wrong probably wasn't hard enough. That's worth saying out loud to young players, because some will drop a new move after the first miss.
Two habits help. First, have a short reset after a mistake in a game: a breath, a quick look around, back into position. Second, keep a "try it" part of every backyard session where misses don't count, for a weak-foot shot, a new turn or a first-time pass. Time where touches don't count takes some pressure off the ones that do.
6. Master soccer trapping
Trapping, or receiving, is how you take the pace off the ball so your next touch is a pass, dribble or shot instead of a chase. The inside-of-the-foot trap is the one to learn first. Get in line with the ball, turn your foot so the inside faces it, and let your foot give a little as the ball arrives, like catching an egg.
Once the ball stops dead every time, practice receiving it into space instead: one touch out to the side, away from an imaginary defender. Our guides to soccer trapping and first-touch drills go through the other surfaces, including thigh and chest.
7. Find a wall to help
A wall gives you the ball back as fast as you can play it. Stand about 15 feet away, pass against one spot with your right foot, trap with your left, pass with your left, and keep switching. Then move back and try to hit a chalk mark or a piece of tape.
Not every yard has a wall you're allowed to kick a ball against. A rebounder does a similar job of returning the ball for the next repetition. The Open Goaaal® 3-in-1 Soccer Goal Trainer combines a goal, rebounder and backstop, so passes and missed shots come back toward you instead of over the fence. Its Standard size has a 9 x 5 ft inner goal, and the first setup takes about an hour and a half with two people on natural grass.
8. Train using 1v1 defending
Defending one-on-one is mostly footwork and patience. Get about two steps from the attacker, side-on rather than square, knees bent and weight on the balls of your feet. Show the attacker one way, usually toward the sideline or onto their weaker foot, and stay with them instead of lunging.
Set up a 10 x 15 yard box with a small goal or two cones at each end and play first to three. Swap roles every round. Lace cleats tight before you start. Our 1v1 soccer drills add variations.
9. Learn your position
Knowing your position means knowing where to be when your team has the ball and when it doesn't. Ask your coach two questions: where should I stand when we're attacking, and where when we're defending? Then watch one player in your position for ten minutes the next time you see a game on TV.
Positions also change as kids get older because the game format changes. U.S. Soccer sets the maximum as 4v4 for U7 to U8, 7v7 for U9 to U10, 9v9 for U11 to U12 and 11v11 from U13, so a "defender" at 7v7 has a very different job from one at 11v11. Our guide to youth soccer positions explains each format, and soccer IQ covers the decision-making side.
What does a week of practice look like?
Here's how we'd fit the nine areas around a typical week. These are our suggestions, not a league standard; adjust them to your player's age, schedule and energy.
| Day | Rec player (1 practice, 1 game) | Travel player (2 to 3 practices, 1 to 2 games) |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 20 min backyard: cone dribbling, wall passing | Rest or easy juggling |
| Tuesday | Team practice | Team practice |
| Wednesday | 20 min: trapping and first touch, then shooting | 20 min: weak-foot passing and trapping |
| Thursday | Rest or free play | Team practice |
| Friday | 15 min: 1v1 with a sibling or parent, intervals | Light touches only, 10 to 15 min |
| Saturday | Game | Game |
| Sunday | Rest | Rest or second game |
Leave at least one full day without soccer each week, especially in a busy travel season. If you're building the backyard sessions from scratch, our fundamentals of soccer lays out the basic skills in order.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest way to get better at soccer?
Touch the ball more often. Short sessions most days, 15 to 20 minutes of passing, trapping and dribbling with both feet, spread the work across the week instead of saving it for one long session.
What is the easiest position in soccer?
None of them, really. Each position asks for something different: keepers need courage and handling, defenders patience, midfielders awareness and fitness, forwards composure in front of goal. Many youth coaches rotate young players through positions so they learn what each one asks.
What can I do every day to get better at soccer?
Pick two of the nine areas each day: for example, wall passing and juggling on Monday, cone dribbling and trapping on Wednesday. Use both feet every session, and keep a short log so you can see what you've been working on.
What are the 5 most important rules to remember in soccer?
These five come up in nearly every youth game, all taken from the current IFAB Laws of the Game. For the full picture, see our quick overview of the rules.
- No handball. Only the goalkeeper may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area. For everyone else, the arm counts from the bottom of the armpit down, and not every touch is an offense: deliberate handling or making the body unnaturally bigger is (Law 12).
- Throw-ins have a technique. Face the field, keep part of each foot on or behind the sideline, and throw with both hands from behind and over your head (Law 15).
- Play the ball, not the player. Kicking, tripping, pushing, holding, charging or jumping at an opponent carelessly or recklessly is a foul and gives the other team a direct free kick (Law 12).
- The ball is out only when all of it is over the line. A ball on the line is still in play, and so is one that bounces back off the post or the referee and stays on the field (Law 9).
- Direct and indirect free kicks are different. You can score straight from a direct free kick. An indirect one has to touch another player first, and the referee shows it with an arm raised (Law 13).
Where should you start?
Start with the two areas your player avoids. For most kids that's the weaker foot and receiving the ball under a little pressure, and both can be worked on with a wall, a few cones and 20 minutes. The rest of the list can rotate through the week.
This article is general information, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. For a persistent or worsening symptom, or any concern about your health, speak to a qualified healthcare professional.
If backyard practice keeps stopping for lost balls, the Open Goaaal 3-in-1 Soccer Goal Trainer is built for uninterrupted practice: the ball comes back, so a 20-minute session is 20 minutes of touches.
