Teaching a 7 year old how to dribble

Great ideas.. appreciate it..

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I keep using the term "get after it"

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I try to get the concept across to my two year old but with marginal success. The only thing I've found that works at all is putting cones in various shapes (she likes shapes) and having her kick it from one cone to the other to make the shape. She will do it a couple of times pretty good but gets ready to go back to scoring goals pretty quickly.

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soccer development: MURICAN Style

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There was this horrible dude on one of my teams awhile back that we took sight unseen. Well he was fricking awful and would yell vague catch phrases like "COME ON GUYS PUSH!!!" (to be clear, he wasn't telling the back line to push up), "GET AFTER IT!". I just wanted to be like, "Dude, that doesn't MEAN anything!".

While we're at it how can I teach my 27 year old self to defend one on one.

Seriously though I started playing again after like 8 years off of anything but drills and shooting practice and am decent at everything else... but I get burned every damn time against anyone with a bit of skill.

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Use cones (or any small object) and have him dribble through them with both feet, then each foot separately.

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This.

If they can safely play with a tennis ball indoors, have them dribble around the house. I don't really remember if players are coordinated enough at 7 to do it, but it helps. It's fun. I still do it sometimes now.

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And yeah I think I naturally slip into a really wide stance like in tennis when you're about to receive a serve.. damn lessons!

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Learn, or relearn, how to jockey and give people a little bit of space. Err on the conservative side when looking to challenge the ball unless it's absolutely necessary.

The hips/belly button thing will work if people don't sell things well (and very few people do).

Figure out how to use your body to shield people from/move people off of the ball when they try to move by you. Use your arms and body to feel where people are. Just don't give the impression that you're trying to hold people back or push them off of the ball.

You'll probably be able to deal with most people playing on weekends if you encourage them to get rid of the ball and track them if they pass and move.

if you are actually serious about this, it's pretty easy. just set up a line of cones. get him to go through them in each kind of way using varying feet and surfaces. right foot only, left foot only, outside of foot only, inside of foot only, and any way he wants are the 5 different variations to use. the key to actually getting better is to GO AS FAST AS POSSIBLE but to make sure you actually get through each cone. if the ball gets away, that is totally fine, just get it back under control within the constraints of the drill and get back through whatever cone you were on. have a shot at the end of the line of cones to make it fun. if you go slowly through the cones without messing up, you are just wasting time and not getting any better. encourage quickness through the cones and recovery from the mistakes that should be happening.

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have a shot at the end of the line of cones to make it fun. i

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I don't want to tell the guy how to raise his kid - but seven is too young to drink, IMO.

when I was that age we had a competition that required different skill-sets and one was cone dribbling for time. I think there were 8-10 cones setup and it was a down and back weaving between the cones...time added for missing a cone or knocking one down. I remember it helping tremendously with controlling touch and not knocking the ball too far out etc.