Football drills for kids at home: 8 drills on a metre of floor

Football drills for kids at home don't need a pitch. All you need is a ball, a patch of floor roughly a metre by sixty centimetres and 15 minutes three times a week. Drills without shooting work best: running the ball with the sole, changes of direction, work with the weaker foot and tasks done with the head up.

In this article: 10 sections

1. Should a child who trains at a club also practise at home?
2. How much space and what equipment do you need in a flat?
3. What football drills can a child do at home?
4. Why can a child do it at home but gets lost in a match?
5. How do you practise the weaker foot at home?
6. How many minutes a day should football training at home last?
7. How can you improve a young footballer's motor skills at home?
8. What should you do when your child doesn't want to practise at home?
9. When should you skip practice at home?
10. What to remember from this article
11. Questions

Should a child who trains at a club also practise at home?

Yes, as long as home doesn't become a second club. Football training for kids at a club gives them games, a team and a coach who leads the whole group. At home, they add individual training, which there is little time for at the club: lots of calm repetitions with the ball at their feet, with no queue and no pressure to perform.

One complements the other. Practice at home won't replace the pitch or the coach, and it isn't meant to. It is meant to make sure the ball at their feet stops taking up all of your child's attention, so they have more headspace for the game at training.

If the coach sets homework, start with that. The drills in this article are for days when there isn't any.

How much space and what equipment do you need in a flat?

Less than you'd think: every drill on the list fits in an area one metre by sixty centimetres. That's the patch of floor between the bed and the desk.

• A ball. The same one your child plays with at the club, in the size given in the Polish FA (PZPN) table for their age category, or a futsal ball. According to the futsal laws of the game, a futsal ball dropped from 2 metres bounces no higher than 65 cm, so it's easier to keep it close to the foot.
• Two markers. Training cones, water bottles, building blocks or rolled-up socks. Anything you can run round with a ball.
• Grip underfoot. On laminate flooring, an ordinary sock slips. Your child can do the drills barefoot, in indoor shoes or in non-slip socks.

None of the drills involve shooting, kicking the ball up or bouncing it off the wall, which is what neighbours in a block of flats hear most. The ball rolls along the floor the whole time.

You don't need a training mat for them. It helps with one thing: the numbers, coloured areas and paths give fixed spots for the foot and the ball to return to, so your child doesn't have to set out markers before every set. That's how the FOOTBALL MAT football mat works. If the equipment is going to be a gift, you'll find ideas by age and budget in the article A gift for a young footballer.

What football drills can a child do at home?

At home, your child can do eight drills without shooting, starting with the simplest. The first four build ball control, and the next ones add dribbling, changes of direction and keeping the head up. Each one is done in sets: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest. A younger child starts with the first four. They add the next ones once the previous ones go smoothly.

Drill	What it develops	When
1. Toe taps	a light touch and rhythmic footwork	from the start
2. Sole rolls to the side	stopping the ball with one touch	from the start
3. Tick-tock with the inside of the foot	feel for the ball with both feet	from the start
4. V-pull	changing direction and the weaker foot	from the start
5. Outside and inside with one foot	the feint in dribbling	once 1-4 go smoothly
6. Sole drag-back turn	turning with the ball	once 1-4 go smoothly
7. Figure of eight around two markers	dribbling in a tight space	once 1-4 go smoothly
8. Colours on call	playing with the head up	once 1-4 go smoothly

1. Toe taps

The ball is in front of your child. They touch the top of it with the right and left sole in turn, hopping lightly. The ball stays where it is.

What to look out for: the touch should be light, with the front of the foot. If the ball runs away forwards, your child is pressing too hard.

2. Sole rolls to the side

The right sole rolls the ball to the left, across the front of the body. The left foot stops it and rolls it back to the right. This drill teaches stopping the ball with one touch and shifting body weight from one leg to the other.

3. Tick-tock with the inside of the foot

The ball moves from foot to foot in short passes with the inside of the foot, like a pendulum. Your child stands on the balls of their feet with knees slightly bent. They start slowly and speed up once the ball stops running away.

4. V-pull

Your child pulls the ball back with the sole, then pushes it sideways and forwards with the inside of the same foot. The foot draws the letter V. First a set with one foot, then with the other.

This drill shows straight away which foot is the weaker one.

5. Outside and inside with one foot

The ball goes sideways with the outside of the foot and comes back with the inside of the same foot. The other leg hops on the spot. This movement is where the feint and the change of direction in dribbling come from.

6. Sole drag-back turn

Your child takes a step forwards with the ball, stops it with the sole, drags it back and makes a half turn. They return to the starting spot and repeat the other way, with the other foot.

7. Figure of eight around two markers

Two markers stand half a metre apart. Your child dribbles the ball around them in a figure of eight with small touches, now with the right foot, now with the left. This is dribbling in the smallest possible space. On the FOOTBALL MAT, this figure of eight is marked by a printed loop.

8. Colours on call

The parent stands two metres away and every few seconds holds up a number on their fingers. Your child does toe taps or tick-tock and calls out the number without stopping work with the ball. On a mat with coloured areas, the parent can call out a colour instead, and your child touches the area of that colour with the ball.

This is the only drill that needs an adult. It teaches what staring at the floor can't.

Why can a child do it at home but gets lost in a match?

At home, your child has time and calm, and in a match they have neither. At home they look at the ball, nobody runs at them and a mistake costs nothing. In a match they have a moment to decide, an opponent right next to them and the whole pitch to take in.

If they do every drill at home with their eyes fixed on the ball, that is exactly what they learn: to run with the ball without seeing the game. Parents call it looking at their feet.

That's why keeping the head up is brought into the drills gradually:

1. Your child does a new movement slowly and looks at the ball. That's how they learn every movement.
2. Once they can last 30 seconds without losing the ball, they raise their eyes to the level of yours.
3. Only then do colours on call come in, which means a decision made while working with the ball.

The point is for ball control to become automatic. Then, in a match, their attention can go to teammates, the opponent and open space.

Practice at home doesn't guarantee minutes in a match. The coach decides the line-up, and that's their job. At home, your child builds confidence on the ball, which makes it easier to get into the game.

How do you practise the weaker foot at home?

The weaker foot is easiest to bring up to speed with drills done on one foot. Almost every child has a foot they prefer, and there's no need to force them into anything. Three rules are enough.

• The weaker foot goes first. The first set of a one-footed drill is done with the weaker foot, while your child is fresh.
• Two sets for one. The weaker foot does two sets, the stronger foot one.
• A separate record for each foot. Your child counts how many times they touch the ball in 30 seconds with the left foot and how many with the right. When the number for the weaker foot goes up, they see their skills developing for themselves, without any comment from you.

The V-pull, outside and inside, and the drag-back turn work best for this, because each of them is done with one foot.

How many minutes a day should football training at home last?

Football training at home lasts 15-20 minutes, three times a week, on days without club training. Regular training gives more than the length of a single session. If the club trains on Tuesdays and Thursdays, home gets Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

A sample 15 minutes

1. 3 minutes: toe taps and tick-tock to warm up.
2. 8 minutes: four drills from the list, each as two 30-second sets with 30 seconds of rest.
3. 4 minutes: colours on call with the head up.

Football training at home for kids aged 7-8

Seven- and eight-year-olds do drills 1 to 4, more slowly and in shorter 20-second sets. A record turns each of them into a game. Ten-year-olds and older children link drills into sequences, speed up and work more with their head up.

A fixed time helps more than motivation. Fifteen minutes straight after school, on the same days, lasts longer than a burst of effort after a lost match. We write more about this in the article Why twenty minutes a day changes the game.

How can you improve a young footballer's motor skills at home?

Simple balance, coordination and strength exercises at home, with no ball and no equipment, improve a young footballer's motor skills. A young footballer makes a feint and a change of direction with the whole body. What matters is balance, motor coordination and the strength of the muscles around the hips and knees. All of it fits on the same metre of floor.

• Standing on one leg. 20 seconds on each leg. Harder: the other foot rests on the ball, or the eyes are closed.
• Squat. Feet hip-width apart, heels on the floor, 10 repetitions at a steady pace.
• Lunge on the spot. 6 repetitions on each leg, knee over the foot.
• Forearm plank. 20 seconds, back straight, without pushing the hips up.

Two or three minutes of these exercises at the end of a ball session are enough. Precise movement is what counts, and only then the number of repetitions.

What should you do when your child doesn't want to practise at home?

When your child doesn't want to practise, shorten the session, swap marks for a record and let them choose the drills. A child who loves playing football usually doesn't want a second training session. At home, three things help:

• Keep it short. You finish before they get bored, even after ten minutes.
• A record instead of a mark. How many toe taps in 30 seconds today, how many on Friday. Your child races against themselves, and you don't have to correct their technique.
• Your child chooses. You give the list, your child picks four drills for today.

The FOOTBALL MAT app can take on part of this work. It has drills on ready-made videos and suggests the next task, so your child knows what to do without asking you. It works without a mat, including with a mat from another brand.

If the ball still lies in the corner for several weeks, that tells you something too. Sometimes a child simply needs a break.

When should you skip practice at home?

You skip practice at home in three situations.

• When something hurts. Pain in the heel, knee or groin that keeps coming back after training is a reason to take a break and see a doctor or physiotherapist. Practice at home must not mask it.
• When the week is full. With several training sessions and a match in one week, home is for resting. The drills come back in a lighter week.
• When your child is tired after school. Five minutes of toe taps is enough to stay in the rhythm.