First touch drills - how to improve your football game in a few easy steps

I often get asked by players and parents, “if there was one attribute to work on most, what would it be?”

For me, the answer is simple: first touch. Think about playing in a match, you never magically just end up with the ball - 90% of the time you have to receive it from your teammate, the other 10% is an interception or a knockdown, and even then you still have to actively receive the ball.

In this blog I’ll outline the best strategies for improving your first touch on the ball and give you a couple of ideas for drills that you can use to practice your first touch. They will improve your first touch and make you a better football player.

Getting the ball under control

Let’s start with the basics - how to get the ball under control. The biggest issue I see when coaching is the ball ‘bouncing’ off the player’s foot while trying to control the ball. This is because their foot is too ‘hard’. Think about passing a ball against a brick wall - the ball is going to bounce off the wall because the wall is hard. So, how can you make your foot ‘softer’? I use catching a tennis ball as an example… If you throw a tennis ball up in the air and attempt to catch it - you would cradle the ball as it meets your hands. So this is the kind of movement we want to encourage when receiving the football. 

The second most common thing I see with beginner players is them trying to use the sole of their foot to control it. In theory, with slow passes, I don’t have a problem with this. However, as soon as you start to receive stronger passes it can become really tough to control, not only that but if the ground is wet, the ball is way more likely to slip out from under the foot. The inside of the foot is the best place to start because it has the biggest surface area of any part of the foot and will give you the most control.

Best drills for practicing first touch

What’s the best drill to use to work on first touch I hear you say? Find a wall (or a friend) and stand about 10 yards apart. Pass firmly to the wall (I prefer using a wall because it takes out the human error of the second person) and as it comes back try to ‘kill’ (stop) the ball as close to you as possible using the inside of the foot. Repeat with both feet.
Okay, so we have the basics of being able to control the ball consistently. Now we move on to two areas: using different parts of the foot and pushing the ball in to different directions. We want to get to a point where regardless of whether the ball comes to our right or left foot, (on this point, let’s get away from using the term ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ foot) we can take the ball in any direction. It’s really important to practice first touch with your left and right foot, regardless from which is your naturally ‘strong’ foot to give yourself the best chance of being able to handle the ball effectively, in any given scenario.

Advanced drill for practising first touch

Using the drill above you can start to practise this. Once you get really good, set up ‘gates’ around you with different colours (shown below). As the ball comes to you, get someone to shout out a colour and you have to react and take your touch through that gate. The reactive element makes it a lot harder and is supposed to make it a little more realistic.

The final stage of this is to add a little bit of disguise prior to taking the touch in a direction - Thiago of Liverpool is the king of this. 

Can you add a drop of the shoulder and then take a large touch in the opposite direction to accelerate on to? If the answer is yes, then you’re all set!