Key Takeaways
Table of Contents
THE BEST INDIVIDUAL FOOTBALL TRAINING EXERCISES
HOW TO TRAIN ALONE WITH INDIVIDUAL FOOTBALL DRILLS
Learn how to do an individual football training session.
Included, the best soccer drills to do by yourself.
How do I train for individually?
There are many factors that will determine whether you become a football player.
In our opinion, the number 1 is:
- How hard do you train football individually?
Have you heard of the 10.000 hour saying? You have to put this amount of time into becoming an expert at something.
When you train in football alone, you get to know and understand yourself as a soccer player.
You will also improve much faster than the other players!
HOW TO DO AN INDIVIDUAL FOOTBALL TRAINING SESSION
To do an individual football training session, you need to be clear about what parts of your game you want to practise and what exercises you’re going to perform for each part.
When you train for soccer alone, you have to do it with a clear goal in mind, focusing on what you want to improve in the session. If you have this clear from the start, you will do the training exercises and drills with purpose and therefore improve faster!
You also need to train the different aspects of your game:
- Technique individual training
- Speed individual training
- Finishing individual training
- Tactics individual exercises
- Defence individual exercises
- Weak foot individual exercises
It is also crucial that you understand your strengths and weaknesses as a soccer player, and prioritise your individual football training session by practising the weaker parts of your game.
After you’ve identified these, you need to know the different individual drills you have at your disposal to improve each part of your game, which is what this article is all about!
THE BEST FOOTBALL INDIVIDUAL TRAINING EXERCISES AND DRILLS
We have spoken with a few of the players in the Alicante Football Academy, and they have said that the best individual football training drills are:
- The speed M exercise: A simple individual soccer drill where you add cones in a figure M shape and sprint with the ball around them with high intensity. We explain this exercise more in depth in the speed section.
- Free kicks: A classic exercise that can be done even without a keeper or a wall. When you train by yourself, the focus should be on making the perfect contact with the ball. Knowing how to kick the ball correctly when you’re not under pressure will create a natural connection in your brain that will make it easier to do a good shot when you’re under pressure.
- One-touch control training: Kicking the ball in any direction and trying to get it completely under control with one touch should be practiced by yourself, so that when a real-life game situation comes up, your touch will be flawless!
These are the individual soccer drills we encourage the players at the Alicante Football Academy to do most, designed to improve a specific part of your game as quickly as possible, so you can improve and join a football club or academy as quickly as possible.
The list is divided into exercises you can do by yourself and those you can do with your team, and even though the latter is with your team, it’s still focused on improving yourself individually.
INDIVIDUAL TECHNIQUE SOCCER EXERCISES
Technique is crucial for improving your touch, passing, ball control, crosses, and more. Basically, anything that requires you to deal with the ball in some kind of way.
Technique soccer drills by yourself
If you want to play in Europe, you need good technique, so the first exercise focuses on your touch and technique. It’s so simple to do that you can do it completely by yourself and with no gear.
Bounce the ball on the floor as hard as possible, and as it comes down, try to take it in its stride with an oriented control. To do it as fast as possible, it’s better if you let the ball bounce slightly and then take it in your stride. Similar to the small bounce you do with a half volley. Practise this control going forward, to the left, to the right, and backwards. Also, don’t forget to do it with your weak foot!
The objective of this exercise is to master your control of the ball when it comes in an unwanted way. You won’t always get the perfect pass on the floor. Sometimes, the ball might come in the air, knee level, bouncing, and more, so the more prepared you are to do this in a game, the better!
INDIVIDUAL SPEED FOOTBALL EXERCISES
Speed is crucial in modern football, and nowadays, it’s focused on sprints, quick feet, and agility.
The more fluid and sharp you can be, the harder you will be to defend (or get attacked if you’re a defender) and the higher chance you will have of getting spotted and signed by a club.
Speed soccer exercises by yourself
This exercise is to make you faster and more explosive, and it’s a killer! Add 4 cones in a square, and make sure that each one is 10 meters apart from the other. Finally, add a cone in the middle of the square. To do the exercise, you have to run from one cone to another, then sprint to the cone in the middle and perform a faint from left to right as quickly as possible, as if you are trying to get away from an opponent in a corner with a left-right faint. After that, run to the other cone and turn for a final sprint to the end cone. The complete sprint should be like the figure of the letter ‘M’. Perform this 5 times in a row and rest.
With this drill, you have to focus on getting your body low every time you change direction and to do it as explosively as possible. On the longer sprints from cone to cone, make fast, long strides to cover the distance quickly.
“We always teach the player to be composed in front of goal”
Academy Senior Head Coach Javier Rojo
INDIVIDUAL FINISHING SOCCER TRAINING
Finishing refers to scoring goals. If you’re able to improve your scoring percentage, which means every time you shoot, try to score and as many times as possible, the more effective and reliable you will be to be given chances or get signed for a pro contract.
Finishing exercises by yourself
It can be a bit tricky to work on finishing alone and trying to mimic the pressure you will get in a 1v1 with a keeper.
The way some of our academy players do it is to sprint as fast as possible with the ball from the center of the field to the goal, then try to compose themselves once they’re inside the goal and score by bouncing the ball off one of the posts.
Doing it this way, you mimic the intensity with the long sprint, then the composure to regain control of your body and the ball after the long run, and then the accuracy needed to score by trying to aim for a ‘post-in’ goal. This can be done even without a keeper!
INDIVIDUAL TACTICAL SOCCER DRILLS
The tactical side of the game is often overlooked, and, quite honestly, if you want to play in Europe, this is one of the first things football scouts will look at.
A big part of being good tactically is understanding the game and knowing your role in it to try to win.
The 11 players in the field should work in sync to try to score and prevent the opponent from scoring, as simple as that! These easy exercises will open your mind a bit and let you think while you’re doing an exercise.
Tactical soccer exercises by yourself
This is an awareness exercise that improves your vision in the field, so you know who is around you at all times. This is crucial to be a successful player in Spain. Knowing where the ball, opponents, and your teammates are on the field will improve your tactical knowledge and football IQ, enabling you to make better decisions.
This one is simple but very effective if you get used to it. Dribble around the field with the ball without looking at it at all. Keep looking in every direction, including behind you. You might get dizzy at first, but keep trying, and you will see that you start to control the ball without looking at it.
Try to change direction a lot and make it ‘difficult for yourself’, and keep trying to look less and less at the ball and more behind your shoulders and in front of you.
“Defending is crucial in modern football, when we take players to trials, the clubs always look at how the kid defends”
Head of Academy Lauri Nakstrom
INDIVIDUAL DEFENDING SOCCER DRILLS
Everyone has to know how to defend. This is one of the most common areas for improvement we see at the Alicante Football Academy, and we always include exercises that require some form of defensive skill.
The defensive part of the game is 1-on-1s, aerial challenges, positioning, and blocking.
Defensive exercises by yourself
One simple defensive exercise is to kick the ball high and, in sync with the ball, jump to hit it at the highest point.
Practising this will improve your coordination and help you win more aerial challenges.
INDIVIDUAL WEAK FOOT SOCCER DRILLS
Your weak foot is so important in football, and it’s one of the easiest parts of your game to improve.
There’s no secret to improving it; you just have to keep repeating it until you get rid of that uncomfortable feeling every time you use it.
Whether you’re by yourself or with your club, we’ve got you covered!
Individual weak foot soccer drills
This exercise improves the technique of your weak foot because you have to do lots of small touches with the ball under control.
Place 4 cones in a square and dribble from cone to cone, making very short, quick inside and outside touches with your weak foot. Once you have gone around the square 1 time, go around again, sprinting with the ball as fast as possible while dribbling with your weak foot only.
This exercise mimics both types of situations you will be exposed to in a game: short, sharp ball control and fast, explosive sprints.
Try planting your strong foot firmly in the ground and pushing off it explosively, while keeping the ball under control with every part of your weak foot.
HOW TO TRAIN SOCCER BY YOURSELF
When you do individual soccer training, make sure you’re working on at least 3 parts of your game (we’ve explained 6 in this article).
Then you have to set some small goals for your training and check whether you’ve completed them after each individual soccer training session.
Added to this, when you train by yourself is important to acknowledge the limitations of the training. By this, we mean you need to make sure you can adapt the skills and abilities you’ve developed on your own to use them effectively when you train with other players or play in a soccer game. This is crucial to impress the football scouts when they come to find players!
You might think football scouts are looking for players in games, but it’s very common for them to also come to training sessions, especially with the younger ages.
Have you ever thought, how do I get scouted in football?
Well, they are looking for you to have good technique, speed, defence, physical attributes, tactical awareness, and competitive hunger. These are the parts of your game you should be looking to improve by yourself!
If you can show a high level across all parts of your game in all training drills, you will impress them.
Also, going back to adapting your individual training to group training, football scouts and coaches need to see that you understand the specific exercise you’re working on. For example, if you do a scrimmage game with your team that is focused on movement on the field and tactics, from the outside, they have to see that you are trying to understand and perform the right movements, rather than perhaps trying skills or making lots of touches when the ball comes to you.
Showing that you can listen to the coach, understand the drill instructions and the objective, and try your best to do it, and that you do it better every time, will show that you have the ability to improve. This is crucial because scouts are looking for players with the potential to become even better under their club.
The image below shows some of the Academy players who have signed with teams in Spain:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL TRAINING SESSIONS
What is the best individual football drill?
There’s so many exercises out there, but we think the M speed exercise is one of the most complete because it works your speed, endurance, dribbling, touch and physicality. We’ve explain this individual exercise in the speed exercises section of the page.
How long should I train football by myself?
A complete individual soccer session should be around 2 hours long. The session could be split into warm up, physical exercises, technical exercises, game situations, competitive games, and goal scoring and creative exercises.
How many times a week should I train football individually?
A good number of times to train by yourself is 3 times a week, and if is possible, 5 times a week is optimal.
The important part is to make the most out of the session with the tips we’ve given you in the article.
What would be the perfect individual football training session?
The perfect individual soccer session could be split into warm up, physical exercises, technical exercises, game situations, competitive games, and goal scoring and creative exercises.
FOOTBALL ACADEMY GUIDES
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to get into a football team?
Do you want to join a football academy?
In this guide we explain the most common ways to get into a team in Spain fast and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Have you ever been in a football trial?
Do you want to attend one and get signed for a football academy?
In this guide we explain all there is to know about about this and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Do you know what you have to do to get scouted?
How can you make scouts come to watch you play?
In this guide we explain how you can get scouted and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Have you ever felt you need to train better to become a good footballer?
Do you want to bring your training sessions to another level?
In this guide we explain the best exercises, used by the best academies in the world, that we do in our morning trainings.
Have you ever wanted to get even faster?
Do you want to be the difference in every game and go past all your opponents?
In this guide we explain how we train speed in the academy and how you can score more football goals every game!
Have you ever wanted to become a better defender?
Do you want to be a strong, imposing defender that can lead a game?
In this guide we explain how we train defending in the academy and the best defending soccer drills to do alone and with your team!
Have you ever felt you need learn hot to train better by yourself?
Do you want to bring your individual training sessions to another level?
In this guide we explain the best individual exercises to do by yourself, used by the best academies in the world, that we encourage our players to do in their trainings.
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to become a footballer?
Do you want to become a footballer fast?
In this guide we explain the most common ways to get into a team in fast and how we help you become a pro footballer.
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to train a possession?
The possession exercise is undoubtedly one of the most efficient football exercises to become good in the modern game. Why?
