It’s a ball, not a Muskrat!

Here’s a question for you… If you are in a game and someone passes a soccer ball to you, what do you do? You trap it right? Most novice players and coaches would agree. I would like to suggest something else.

If you’re a kid in a game and someone passes you the ball, what are you going to do with it? Is it really smart to stop the ball at your feet? Probably not. Chances are that two or three kids from the other team are barreling down on you as fast as they can run, right? In soccer, if you have the ball, you don’t have much time. So what do you do instead?

At higher levels of coaching, the concept is called “first touch.” I like to refer to “first touch” as “preparing” the ball, as in preparing the ball for what you’re going to do with it next. Because a player doesn’t have very much time when she gets the ball, she needs to do something with it as soon as possible. If she stops the ball, looks around, and then does something with it, she’s wasted a step and probably a couple of valuable seconds. A good player will be trapping and moving the ball all in the same motion. There’s no need to stop the ball if she knows what she’s going to do with it before hand. The key to a good “first touch” is good “vision”. If she can “see” what’s going on around her on the field and can recognize the opportunities that exist before the ball ever arrives at her feet, then her first touch can be an effective one. If she has pressure on her right, her “first touch” on the ball should be to her left. If she has pressure on both her left and right, maybe she will decide to “one touch” pass the ball onto another teammate that has more space to work with.

So, if you’re looking for something to work on the next practice, you might want to talk to your kids about first touch. Some of your kids probably already have a great first touch without even realizing it. Others may need a great coach to help them along. That’s you!