Foot Skills
Physical Homework
Players should practice their "step over" abilities:
Each player has a ball & starts with the ball between his feet, with knees bent
Each player moves one foot around the back of the ball (toward the other foot) & then around the front of the ball & ends with the foot back where it started. Then do the other foot. Then the first foot, etc. (e.g., left, right, left, right). Keep practicing until the player can do the move for 3 minutes without stopping or tripping over the ball.
Keep your heads up!
Players should practice their "toe taps":
Each player has a ball & starts with the ball slightly in front of them, up on their toes and ready
Each player taps the front sole of one foot on the top of the ball & then back down to the ground. Then do the other foot, etc. (e.g., left, right, left, right). Keep practicing until the player can do 100 taps without stopping or losing control of the ball.
Keep your heads up!
Mental Homework
Players should study the following and come prepared to answer questions:
Long and Short Corner Kicks
Long Corner Kick - A corner kick that is kicked to the front of the goal in hopes an attacker will kick or head it in.
Long Corner Kicks should be kicked up in the air and be aimed at the near post or center of the goalbox.
Players should rush the net trying to score off the corner kick.
All corner kicks are taken from the corner arc and are awarded when the other team kicks the ball out of the back of their own endline.
Short Corner Kick - A corner kick where the ball is put into play with a short pass instead of a long kick. Once put into play, the "Offside Rule" applies.
Short Corner Kicks are really passes to players in space, who then shoot the ball. Think of it as two-touch corner kicking, like two-touch passing.
Short Corner Kicks should be ground passes.
Off sides only applies when the ball is passed in first, versus shooting it at the goal like a long corner kick.
All corner kicks are taken from the corner arc and are awarded when the other team kicks the ball out of the back of their own endline.