STEP UP

• To do this technique put the ball on the ground just in front of your feet.
• Start by slowly putting your left foot on the ball (you are aiming to get the front part of your foot to lightly touch the ball), then back on the ground.
• Repeat with the right foot. Then back to the left and so on.
• Once you've mastered doing this slowly increase your pace so that you maintain an easy rhythm of steps.
• Remember the ball should not be moving when you do this - if it is you are not quite getting the technique right.
• The aim of this exercise is to get you lighter on your feet and also as you increase the pace to warm up the muscles in the leg.
• A final progression for this exercise is to practise a 5-10 second high speed step on, step off. You might find this final progression difficult at first, but over time you should find this easier to achieve.
• The pictures below give you an idea of the progression of this warm-up exercise.
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KEEPY UPS / FLICK UPS

• There are many ways you can practise keepy ups.
• An easy way for younger players to try this is the bounce and keep up technique. To do this start by bouncing the ball just in front of you and then trying to flick it up with your foot and catching it again.
• Once you've mastered this try NOT catching the ball - instead let it bounce on the ground again and then try to flick it up in the air with your foot. Keep doing this until you can master 5-10 bounce and flick ups in a row.
• Next try doing this but without the bounce in between - remember to minimise your body movement and concentrate on getting the flick of the foot correct in order to keep the ball in the air.
• Ideally once you've mastered this you will be able to keep the ball in the air using flicks of alternate feet for 5-10 goes.

SQUEEZY PUSH

• To do this exercise put the ball on the ground in front of you.
• The idea is to push your foot onto the ball just to the side of centre - as you do try to squeeze the ball to the side of your foot and push down. The ball should almost squirt out sideways towards your other foot.
• Keep doing this squeezy-push motion moving the ball back and forth between your left and right feet alternately.
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SIDE TO SIDE

• To do this technique put the ball on the ground just in front of your feet .
• Start by passing the ball front foot to foot in front of you. You are aiming to just tap the ball with the instep of your foot..
• Progress by upping the frequency of the small passes between each foot.
• The aim of this exercise is to get you failry light on your feet and comfortable with controlling the ball.
• The pictures below give you an idea of the progression of this warm-up exercise.
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• A further easy progression is to start to move forward with the ball whilst maintaining the side to side drill and movement.

WALL PASS

• This is a simple technique you can practise anywhere you have a solid wall to kick the ball against.
• Start approximately 2 to 3 metres from the wall and pass the ball against the wall and back to yourself.
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• For the initial passes control the ball each time you receive it on the rebound from the wall - as seen in the next picture.
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• Remember to try passing the ball with both your left and right foot - don't just use your natural kicking foot.
• As a progression try kicking your passes a bit harder to ensure the rebound comes back to you a little bit quicker.
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• Another progression you can try is to move closer to the wall. This means you have to be quicker in your reactions to the ball bouncing back off the wall.
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• A final variant to this exercise is to miss out the control step and simply keep passing the ball 1st time to the wall and back.
• This overall set of wall-pass exercises is great for getting players used to weighting passes correctly. It also improves reactions and control.