Soccer is a sport that demands great ball-handling skills, endurance, speed, and power. But one vital component that is often overlooked is agility. Being agile means you can change directions quickly, and will enable you to move easily around defenders, or steal the ball from attackers and shift to offense effortlessly.
Weaving With the Ball
This drill improves your ball-handling skills, in addition to training you to be more agile. While the exact set-up is up to you, Soccer Xpert writer Chris Johnson suggests placing two parallel lines of six to eight cones about three yards apart from each other. Stagger the cones so that running from one to the next involves moving forward and diagonally. Begin at one end and weave in and out of the cones, taking care not to knock over the cones, while making crisp turns around each one.
Shadow Box
Another drill Johnson suggests involves a team of two partners. In a large, predefined area, have one partner run around randomly, while the other partner tries to shadow his or her every move, maintaining the same amount of distance at all times. This will train you to change direction on the fly, without knowing which way you'll be going ahead of time.
Simon Says
In this drill, have a coach or friend stand at the center line, while you stand at one end line. Follow the arm directions of your coach or friend. Run forward when he points behind him, backpedal when he points toward you, sidestep in either direction when he points laterally, and drop to the ground and get back up as quickly as you can when he points down.
Ladder Drill
In addition to pure sprinting, strength and conditioning expert Josh Hewitt recommends the ladder drill for soccer agility training. The ladder drill involves lying a rope ladder on the ground, and side-stepping as quickly as you can across it, without stepping on any of the rungs. This drill helps develop lateral quickness.
Reflexive Stair Jumps
This drill, recommended by athletic performance specialist Kelly Baggett, involves the use of a box about six inches high. Begin on top of the box and jump down to the ground, making sure to land with slightly bent knees so you can easily hop back up on the box. Baggett recommends performing about 20 repetitions once you have a good rhythm going.
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