Dribbling & Running With The Ball - Key Points & Consideration
Each session within these pages contains individual coaching points relevant to that specific session. The below are general, dribbling related coaching points, presented in line with the FA's 4 Corner model.
We've grouped "dribbling" and "running with the ball" together as they both involve a player advancing across the pitch by themselves, but they're very different skills. Below the information is split out for each topic.
Dribbling - Key Coaching Points (FA's 4 Corners)
| Technical | Psychological |
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- Keep the ball close to your feet
- Practise with the inside, outside of the foot and with rolling the foot over the ball, using the sole.
- Use both the left and right foot
- Shift your body weight to throw the defender off balance, use fakes to create space for yourself.
- Tricks and skills can add great variety to your dribbling and be effective in tight spaces
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- Decision making - when to dribble (not always the right decision) and where to dribble.
- Awareness of what's around you? Where are your team mates / opponents / the space?
- Confidence - try things without fear of failure. Be positive and back yourself to take players on.
- Determination - if things don't go right, try to understand why and have the confidence to have another try.
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| Physical | Social |
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- Strength and technique to hold off defenders and shield the ball when dribbling when required. Use an arm to shield yourself from the defender.
- Change of pace and direction to beat a player
- Agility, speed of footwork & balance - general work on these will aid a player's ability to dribble effectively.
- Fitness - dribbling is hard work!
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- Encouraging team mates to be positive and try things.
- Players who always dribble or run with the ball can be seen as being selfish and team mates can get frustrated - keep an eye on this whilst also encouraging positivity and creativity.
- Have fun!
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Running With The Ball - Key Coaching Points (FA's 4 Corners)
| Technical | Psychological |
|---|
- Use your laces to knock the ball out of your feet so you can keep running without slowing down.
- Distance between you and the ball depends on how much space you have to run into and where the opposition is. Don't knock it too far or you risk losing it.
- Head up so you can see where you're going, glancing down to check where the ball is when necessary.
- First touch when receiving to knock the ball into space and start running.
- Accelerate into the run and keep your speed up.
- Cut in front of recovering defenders to stop them tackling you.
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- Decision making - when do we run with the ball in a match? Ask the players - why and when do we do this?
- Awareness of what's around you? Defenders / your team mates to pass to?
- Confidence - try things without fear of failure. Be positive and back yourself.
- Determination - if things don't go right, try to understand why and have the confidence to have another try.
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| Physical | Social |
|---|
- Speed - when running with the ball we want to keep our speed up.
- Strength to hold off the recovering defender.
- Change of pace and direction to beat a player
- Fitness - this is hard work!
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- Encouraging team mates to be positive and try things.
- Players who always run with the ball or dribble can be seen as being selfish and team mates can get frustrated - keep an eye on this whilst also encouraging positivity and creativity.
- Have fun!
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Considerations for Dribbling / Running With The Ball Sessions
A few things to think about for any dribbling session...
- Size and shape of area - if you want players to become comfortable dribbling in tight spaces, then your area needs to be tight enough to challenge them, whilst allowing them success to build confidence. Experiment with the size of the area and don't be afraid to change this mid-session if it isn't working. If the session is based on running with the ball, then a longer area that allows them to practise the skill of knocking the ball into space and running onto it would be much better.
- Avoiding queues and lines - this goes for virtually any kind of session, especially anything you're running in the winter when it's cold, but try to avoid too much standing around. Practices that are designed to keep everyone engaged, mentally and physically are generally going to mean more touches, more involvement and more fun. With dribbling, you often see coaches of younger players running practices where players have to dribble one by one, either round some kind of circuit or past a defender. If you are doing these kind of "one by one" practices, set up several circuits next to each other and have several players dribbling on each circuit at once - waiting for one person to do the entire circuit, especially with young players, who may be struggling, could mean a lot of waiting around.
- Developing everyone - at younger ages especially, all players should be given the opportunity to develop all their skills. The temptation might be only to run dribbling or running with the ball practices for the players who tend to play in forward positions, whilst the others work on something else, but everyone should be encouraged to practise and improve their individual skills with the ball - it's a fundamental skill of football. So make sure roles are rotated, nobody is always the defender or the server or whatever, as those players would never get a chance to improve their dribbling / running with the ball skills.
- Make things game realistic - once your players have a good grasp of the basic technique, look to move into more game realistic practices... dribbling or running with the ball after receiving a moving ball from a pass, rather than starting with a static ball for example is much more reflective of what might happen in a game. Introduce defenders, team mates whose role it is to make runs to drag defenders away, a goal so they can dribble / run and follow up with a shot etc. All these sorts of things will give your players a much better chance of coping with what they will face in a match than just dribbling round cones or running up and down the pitch unchallenged.
- The surface - of course it's preferable to practice on a decent surface the majority of the time, but the reality is that on match days, your players will have to cope with all manner of surfaces. Some pitches are fantastic to play on and others are horrible, bobbly things covered in mole hills. Whilst a 3G surface or nice grass pitch is great for working on dribbling exercises, building muscle memory and allows a much higher chance of success for less confident or younger players, it won't hurt your team to get used to using different training surfaces when possible. Having to cope with keeping the ball under control in longer grass, on muddy pitches or on harder, summer surfaces will benefit them in the long term. Success rates may go down on these types of surfaces initially, but your players ability to adapt and cope with any situation will be improved.