Why Now is the Time for Ball Mastery

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Why now is the time for Ball Mastery.

With social distancing required, ball mastery can be a huge part of your training.

Contents Page 3 - Welcome page 4 - Subscribe on YouTube Page 5 - Receive the Magazine page 6 - Why Ball Mastery is More important than ever Page 9 -Why use ball mastery in training now?

Page 13 - 50 Ball mastery Techniques Page 15 - Socially Distanced Sessions Page 17 - Follow us on Page 18 - 100 Individual Drills

Welcome The Premier League has returned and we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel for football. But, we’ve still got some way to go before we’re all back playing and coaching normally.

Social distancing are words that we’ve all become very familiar with and we need to make sure, even in training, that players keep two metres apart.

It’s a different time, but in this month’s player development magazine we’re taking a look at why now is the time to be focusing on ball mastery over anything else while in our small group and socially distanced training sessions.

Hopefully we can get back to playing football competitively soon.

In the meantime let’s enjoy the Premier League, help our young players develop their games and get the ball back at your feet again.

We hope you enjoy!

Elliott Everson Owner, OpportunityElite

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BALL MASTERY

WHY BALL MASTERY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

Ball Mastery is always important in player development.

But now it is more important than ever...

In the UK training has returned, but only in small groups with five players to one coach. Contact training isn’t allowed so coaches and players still need to ensure that they are two metres apart from each other.

With no matches going on, or even contact with team-mates, we now have a great time to focus on developing our players, or yourselves, technically.

Think of this time as actually a great opportunity. We have the chance to dedicate our time to improving players’ games. We don’t need to focus on the tactical, or even the physical.

What we can focus on is purely the player, and the ball.

For any young players who have ambitions within the game then it is really important to look at this time now as a great opportunity.

It is a great opportunity for players to devote their time to improving their technique on the ball. We can’t practise one v one situations, or opposed scenarios, so why not focus just on the technical?

Even 10 minutes a day of ball mastery training and practices will massively help each player during this time without competitive training or matches.

Players’ ability on the ball will improve, increasing the amount of touches that they take.

If we can use this time to help our young players develop then we will see some very technical footballers, when we return to training, once we get the go-ahead from the governing bodies and the Government.

If you as a player, or as a coach, want to help develop players’ technical ability on the ball then ball mastery is the place to start.

The main benefit of ball mastery is the fact that it increases the amount of touches a player takes on a ball. If a player takes hundreds or more touches than someone else, then they get a huge amount more practice, which is only going to benefit their game. Ball mastery will also significantly improve the use of both feet, confidence on the ball, change of direction, close control and the player’s co-ordination.

Help your young players to develop these areas by using ball mastery.

There is no better time than now.

Why use ball Mastery in Training Now? We have to make sure that all training sessions adhere to the FA and government guidelines. Players and coaches must keep two metres social distancing. Tackling is not allowed and we must ensure that good hand and equipment sanitisation is practised. Therefore the swapping of balls should be reduced as much as possible.

These rules can make it a bit tricky for players and coaches, leaving us a bit confused as to how we can put a session on.

The options for coaches are to create passing patterns, which are great for developing control, first touch, passing and movement off the ball. In addition to this we could also do fitness work but, in our opinion, this detracts from what the players want to be doing, which is having the ball at their feet again.

We don’t need to send players on lots of laps round the fields, or use some fitness testing to build up stamina at this point. There aren’t games to play, there’s no requirement to build up match fitness at this point and players have really missed being on the ball, in a social setting with their teammates.

This is where ball mastery is perfect for right now. We can make sure that players socially distance, all at the same time as improving their game.

Practising unopposed skills will help players develop technically. Using ball mastery will allow all players to keep two metres apart at all times.

All we need to do is set up a square and ask our players to stay within it, using that as their working area. You can set up the squares however you like, whether they are facing each other or side by side, just as long as they are two metres apart.

We also can only coach a group of five players at a time. It might be that in more regular times we have 15-20 players in our groups. It’s very difficult to focus on each individual and really help them with their technical skills on the ball. With only five players we can help demonstrate and guide the players, giving them some more focused and specific coaching, developing their game more so than we may previously have been able to.

We can’t play matches at the moment, so the final period of the session could be used for ball mastery challenges. These challenges could be tailored to the individual or to the whole group. Players love a challenge and very much enjoy trying something difficult while their team-mates also practise.

Quite regularly we hear young players asking you as the coach to watch them do this new skill. Now is the perfect time to do this.With much smaller groups we can really give the individuals much more attention.

Ball Mastery Great During Social distancing Gives players challenges to take on Allows players to keep 2m apart

Players get more touches on the ball

allows coaches to provide more individual attention

Provides training ideas for players when at home

As coaches we believe that we should help inspire players to practise on their own. If there are any players who are looking to go further within the game then we must help them realise that they need to practise and train on their own to become better. Team training isn’t enough.

These players will look to coaches for ideas of how to train and practise.

Giving them challenging ball mastery exercises will allow players to practise in ther own time. They don’t need a lot of space and can work on developing their technique from home. As coaches we can help teach players to be creative on the ball, giving them ideas of how they can develop their game within their own time.

Ball mastery does just that; providing players the opportunity to practise on their own with specific routines. You can also encourage them to be creative, allowing them to develop their own skills and combinations, demonstrating them at the next training session.

All young players love to see improvement in their game. Practising in ball mastery will allow them to see that during this socially distanced period.

10-15 minutes of this a day, in their own time, would really help the young player improve over this time. It’s difficult at this time, but we must see it as an opportunity to improve technically, before anything else.

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Focusing on the Technical USE BALL MASTERY DURING THIS SOCIALLY DISTANCED TIME TO TAKE YOUR GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL FOR WHEN YOU RETURN

Socially Distanced Sessions

Ball Mastery 10 minute session

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