Pyramid of player development
When you master the ball, you master the game.
The opposite is equally true.
A player that doesn't master the ball has to focus more on the handling of the ball and is less aware of the opponents and team mates. The player has less time to judge the situation correctly and to act accordingly in order to successfully deal with the situation. No wonder that the chance of losing ball possession drastically increases.
The good news is that individual ball control skills can be learned and eventually mastered.
The Coerver Method
Wiel Coerver recognised this and laid the foundation to an academic and structured learning program to train young soccer players so that even less talented players can reach a high level of proficiency.
The Coerver Method has a pyramidal structure with individual ball mastery skills at the base.
Most players train only 2 or 3 times a week maximum. Because of this limited time, most clubs or coaches invest the major part of the available time in playing as a team. Although the development of individual skills is clearly the base of the Coerver pyramid, these get little attention, if any at all.
While young players from 8 to 12 years are considered to be in their golden years for picking up these skills, they are not doing anything with a ball for the major part of the training.
They listen to the coach explaining an exercise, run after a ball, wait to get the ball, standing still, ...
If players practise at home for only 15 minutes a day, they would get more ball touches on one single day than they would for the entire week while training at their club.
The saying goes that one has to do something 10.000 times before one will master it.
One can do at least 45 Scissors or Stepovers within 2 minutes by doing some ball control drills. How many 1v1 moves does a player normally do during his regular training at his club?
Conclusion:
A typical player can only reach his full potential when he/she has the self-discipline to practise at home.
The drills and moves on this site and on our Youtube Channel are a good source to start with. Make no mistake, some drills look too easy and dull, but it takes some effort to do them really well. And how well does it go with the less preferred foot?
Practise, practise, practise ... and the results are noticeable in very short time. Oh, and making mistakes is just part of the process.
Practise .. Learn .. FAIL .. Practise some more .. MASTER IT!