Minds On
Shoot and aim for your goal
Scoring a goal!
Goal setting is a good strategy to challenge yourself and improve on a skill. You will be using the SMART goals method to make a goal of your own. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely.
Press the following tabs to access the prompts to consider when creating a SMART goal.
Being specific and detailed will make it easier to focus and stay motivated. You can use the five Ws to help you be more specific about your goal. The following are some examples of questions you may ask yourself:
- What do I want to achieve?
- Why is this goal important?
The goal should have clear measurable objectives that help you determine if you have reached your goal. The following are some examples of questions you may ask yourself:
- When and how will I know this goal is achieved?
- How do I measure the success of the goal?
In setting the goal, you need to be concrete and actionable. It should include how you can fulfill the goal. The following are some examples of questions you may ask yourself:
- How can I concretely work towards achieving the goals?
- How do others work towards achieving this kind of goal?
When making a goal, you need to find a balance where you are setting a goal just outside of your ability to develop the technique. Don’t set something that is too hard or too easy. The following are some examples of questions you may ask yourself:
- Is this goal realistic for me? Is it too hard? Is it too easy?
- Is it something I can achieve?
Having a specific deadline allows you to focus and work effectively towards your goal. The following are some examples of questions you may ask yourself:
- When do I hope to achieve this goal?
- What can I do in a specific timeframe? A day? A week? A month?
Now that you’ve explored the components of a SMART goal, brainstorm what you may want your goal to be. You can adjust your SMART goal once you have learned more about these various soccer techniques: dribbling, shooting, passing, and trapping.
Complete the SMART Goal Planner in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document. If you would like, you can use speech-to-text or audio recording tools to record your thoughts.
Press the ‘Activity’ button to access SMART Goal Planner.
Action
Soccer skills and drills
Soccer strategies
The world’s most popular sport is soccer and millions of people across the world play soccer. Soccer is a territory activity. This involves controlling a soccer ball, keeping it away from opponents, and moving in position to score a goal which require a wide range of skills.
Before you begin to develop these soccer skills by going through some drills, check out the following safety checks, warm up, and equipment information.
Safety
Before you begin, consider these safety precautions:
Warm Up
Warm up
Let’s do a warm up before we get into our main activities! Warm ups will help you better perform a movement/activity while also greatly reducing your chance of injury.
Depending on what activities you are performing, choose one of the following warm ups, or you may do a combination of them.
Press the following tabs to access the warm ups.
- Jogging: Let’s start off with a relaxed jog for 5 minutes. You can jog in one place or back and forth in your space.
- Jumping jacks: Now do 10 jumping jacks! To perform a jumping jack, position your body straight up with hands to your sides. Then jump and spread legs apart and bring arms above the head. After jump back into starting position.
- Toe touch: Time to touch our toes! Have your body straight up. Then lean and bend forward and try your best to touch your toes. Hold the position for 10-20 seconds, return to straight upward position and repeat 10 times.
- Sit-up: Now do 10 sit-ups! To set-up a sit-up, lay on your back and bend your knees to form a ‘V’ shape with your legs. Bend your upper body towards your knees to perform the sit-up.
- Mountain climber: Finally do the mountain climber for 60 seconds. To perform the mountain climber set yourself up in the push up position, then bring each knee forward as if you were climbing.
- Neck Tilts and Rotations: Slowly tilt your head side to side 10 times and then slowly and carefully rotate your neck 10 times in each direction.
- Arm Circles: Straighten your body and put your arms straight out to the sides. Then start forming circles in one direction, start with small circles and work your way up to large circles. Do this 10 times and then repeat with the opposite direction.
- Chest Expansions: Straighten your body and put your harms out straight to the sides with palms of hand facing forward. Bring your hands together in a clapping motion slowly, then return to the starting position. Do this 10 times.
- Wrist Circles: Clasp your wrists together and start to circle your wrists in one direction. Do this 10 times and then repeat with the opposite direction.
- Shoulder Rolls: Put your arms to the side keeping your posture straight. Rotate your shoulders forward to make a circle. Do this 10 times and then repeat with the opposite direction.
- High Knee Jog: Standing straight with shoulder-width apart perform a jog but raise your knees to about waist level. Do this for two minutes.
- Side-to-Side Hops: Standing straight with hands to side and feet hip-width apart hop side to side quickly. Do this for two minutes.
- Lunges: Stand straight with feet hip-width apart and arms grabbing the side of your hips. Take a step forward and bend your knees so that you form two 90-degree angles with your legs with one leg forward and one leg behind. Hold the position for 20-30 seconds then switch legs and repeat. Do this three times.
- Squat Side Kick: Go into a squat position so that your feet are shoulder-width apart and your hips are back. Then gradually get up and shift your weight towards one leg so that you can lift your other leg out to the side in a slow kick motion. Then return to the squatting position. Do this 10 times for each leg.
- Lateral Leg Swing: Stand upright, holding onto a wall with one hand for support and the other hand placed on the side of your hip. Swing one leg in front carefully across your body from side to side for 10 times. Then repeat with other leg.
Equipment
The following list is the equipment you may need for the drills you will be performing:
- Soccer ball or any other ball you have at home. You may also use a round plush toy, balloon, or roll up a sock into a ball.
- 5-10 pylons/disc cones. If you don’t have these items, you could also use bottles, cans, or cups.
- Timer/stopwatch.
- Soccer net (optional). You could use two chairs and string to make a makeshift net or pylons.
Soccer skills
Now let’s explore the various skills in soccer. Press the following tabs to access the description of the various soccer skills.
Dribbling is a skill where you are retaining the ball. Retaining is a skill where you sustain possession of an object (a soccer ball) while stationary or moving. This requires the ability to switch direction and maintain control of the soccer ball with your foot.
Dribbling
How to dribble a soccer ball:
- Be aware of the ball and your surroundings. Focus on where you want to go with the ball.
- Adjust your body to keep a weighted balance by bending your knees, having arms out and toes on the ready.
- You can move the ball either with the inside or the outside of your foot.
- Have the ball within two metres of you to sustain control of it.
Shooting is a skill where you are sending the ball into the goal. Sending is a skill where you are moving the object (a soccer ball). This requires ability to balance in preparation for the sending, transfer the body weight as the object is being sent and following through.
Shooting
How to shoot a soccer ball:
- Preparation: With knees slightly bent, plant your anchoring (non-kicking) foot to step towards the target to ensure stability. You should be stepping so that the ball will be just right under you during the execution phase.
- Execution: Flex your knees of the kicking foot and extend knee towards direction of the target. Strike the soccer ball at the centre. You may use the inside or outside of the foot.
- Follow-through: Allow your body to follow through in the direction of the target and return yourself to maintaining a balance.
Passing is a skill where you are sending the ball to another player. There are several different ways you can pass a ball, but the following how-to will focus on the push pass.
Push pass
How to pass a soccer ball:
- Preparation: With knees slightly bent, plant your anchoring (non-kicking) foot to step towards the target to ensure stability. You should be stepping so that the ball will be just right under you during the execution phase.
- Execution: Flex your knees of the kicking foot and extend knee towards direction of the target. Strike the soccer ball at the centre using the inside of your foot.
- Follow-through: Allow your body to follow through in the direction of the target and return yourself to maintaining a balance.
Trapping is a skill where you are receiving a ball. Receiving is a skill where you are attempting to catch an incoming object. This requires the ability to keep your eye focused on the ball, anticipate the object’s location, move into position, and prepare the body in the ready position to receive the ball.
Two kinds of trapping
On the left, a foot is brought down on top of a ball to stop it. On the right, the foot is on the ground stopping the ball by blocking it's movement.
How to trap a soccer ball:
- Preparation: Keep your eyes focused on the ball, move to where you expect the ball to be and put your body in a ready position where you have a strong base of support.
- Execution: Motion your body to meet with the ball with the inside of your foot/leg or with your chest. Receive the ball, absorbing the force by moving your trapping foot/leg or chest slightly backwards.
- Follow-Through: Re-establish balance and stability of the body.
The following is a list of options you can make to the following skills:
Dribbling/Shooting/Passing
- When using a wheelchair, you may use your footrests to help you maneuver the ball around.
- You could also use your hands. You can modify dribbling by throwing and catching the ball back and forth between each hand like in handball.
Trapping
- When using a wheelchair, you may use it to assist you in trapping the ball or any part of your body to trap the ball.
Did You Know?
Handball
Did you know that handball is a hand equivalent to soccer? Although there are some differences in rules, equipment, and set-up, the general objective of the game is the same in which teams try to win points by getting a goal. Versions of this game were played in Ancient Greece and all over Europe. In recent decades, wheelchair handball has emerged and will hopefully be included as an official event in the 2028 Paralympic Games.
Soccer drills
Now that you’ve learned about the diverse types of soccer skills, let’s explore some soccer drills to practise these skills. Remember, you can use your feet like in soccer or your hands like in handball to perform the drills.
Press the following tabs to access the description of each soccer drill.
Dribbling diagram
In this drill, you are focused on developing your dribbling skills.
Set up your cones in a line so that they are approximately equal distant from one another (try around 5 steps apart). They can be in a straight line, or you can get creative and make a pattern such as a zigzag.
The objective of this drill is to dribble the ball in and out of the cones. Start at one end of the cones and once you get to the last cone, turn back and dribble the ball around the cones in the opposite direction.
To measure improvements in performance for this drill, you may want to time yourself with a stopwatch and add penalty time (for example 10 seconds) for when you bump into a cone.
In this drill, you will be focused on your shooting skills.
Set up the soccer net. You may use cones, chairs, or some other marker to indicate the boundaries of the net.
If you wish to work with a partner, you can just practise taking turns shooting the ball and guarding.
If you are on your own, you may use cones, cans, or plastic bottles to mark locations of where you specifically want to aim and practise shooting the ball in the net. To develop greater accuracy, you may want to limit the size of the target.
To improve, you may want to focus on practising a method of shooting and a specific distance to shoot from consistently.
Shooting drills
To measure improvements in performance of these skills, you can try these two ways:
- Time yourself with a stopwatch to see how long it takes for you to perform a skill for a set number of times.
- Set a timer and see how many times you accurately performed the skill given a timeframe.
In this drill, you will be focused on developing your passing and trapping. Find a wall that is safe to pass the ball at or a partner.
Stand about 2-5 metres apart from the wall/your partner. If using the wall, you may want to have some sort of marker to indicate your target.
Pass and trap the ball continuously with the wall/your partner. You may choose to do this stationary where your target is always in the same place or constantly move and jog around.
Passing and trapping drill
- Time yourself with a stopwatch to see how long it takes for you to perform a skill a set number of times.
- Set a timer and see how many times you accurately performed the skill given a timeframe.
Try It
Practice makes perfect
If you can, try all or some of these soccer skills and drills.
As you try them out, consider some game situations and what skill you can practice to help improve your performance.
You may use the drills provided in this learning activity or come up with your own drills to work towards your SMART goal.
Complete the Soccer Goal Progress in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document. If you would like, you can use speech-to-text or audio recording tools to record your thoughts.
Game situation
Consider the following game scenarios and select what you think the best answer may be for the situation based on what you have learned from trying out the different skills.
Cool Down
Cool down
Now it’s time for a cool down! It’s important to allow your body to gradually return to a resting state after intense physical activity.
Remember to perform your safety check before you begin.
Depending on what activities you are performing, choose one of the following cool downs, or you may do a combination of them.
Press the following tabs to access the cool downs.
- Jogging: Begin with a jog and transition to a walk. Do this for 2-5 minutes.
- Wide Toe Touch: Now do wide toe touches for 60 seconds. To perform a wide toe touch, position your body in the shape of a star, then bend forward and reach with one arm to touch the opposite foot. The other arm which is on the same side as the foot is pointed upwards. Hold this position for 10-15 seconds, then return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite side.
- Quad Stretch: Stand up straight and shift your weight to one leg. Then lift your other leg backwards towards your butt and grab it with the arm on the same side. Hold it for 20-30 seconds and repeat with the other leg. Do this 5 times for each leg.
- Child’s Pose: Do the child pose for 30 seconds. To perform the child pose, get down on your knees and bend your body forwards stretching your arms out. Your forehead should be resting on the floor.
- Abdominal Stretch: Now, do an abdominal stretch for 30 seconds. To perform the abdominal stretch, lie face down with legs straight up and place your arms in a push up position. Push upwards and slowly lift your torso holding the position.
- Shoulder Stretch: Bring one arm across your chest bend your other arm to help support it into position. Hold the position for 30 seconds and then do the opposite side. Repeat three times.
- Triceps Stretch: Bend one arm up and behind towards your shoulder blade. Use the other arm to help support it into position. Hold the position for 30 seconds and then do the opposite side. Repeat three times.
- Overhead Stretch: With your body straight interlock your fingers and bring your arms above your head. Have your palms facing away from you. Hold the position for 60 seconds.
- Torso Stretch: With your body straight fold one arm behind your back and use the other arm to help support it into position. Then bend your torso towards one side. Hold the position for 30 seconds and then do the opposite side. Repeat three times.
- Chest-Cross Arm Swing: With your body straight put your hands horizontally straight out to the sides and then swing your arms to make an ‘X’ shape back and forth for 60 seconds.
Flutter Kick: Lie on your back with your hands to the
side. Lift
your
legs and perform a kicking motion, alternating the legs back and forth.
Do this for
one
minute.
- Side-Lying Leg Lifts: Lie on your side with one arm supporting your head and one arm bend in front supporting your body in position pushing against the ground. Lift your leg slowly and gradually return it back. Do this five times and then switch to the other leg.
- Single Leg Hug: You can do this lying on your back or standing straight up. With your arms hug your thigh to bring one knee towards your chest. Hold the position for 20-30 seconds then gradually release and switch sides. Repeat three times.
- Butterfly Stretch: Sitting on the floor bring both feet together so they are touching. Use your arms to safely move your knees towards the floor. Hold the position for 20-30 seconds and then release gradually. Repeat three times.
- Hip Flexor Stretch: Kneel on one of your knees and bend your other leg in front of your body at approximately a 90-degree angle. Shift your weight forward until you feel a stretch. Hold the position for 20-30 seconds and switch sides. Repeat three times.
Consolidation
It’s a goal?!
At the end of your set timeframe that you developed for your SMART goal, it is always important to reflect on how it went. Pause and reflect with the following questions:
- Did I succeed in my goal? What steps did I take that helped me succeed?
- What would I like to continue working on?
- Is there anything that I would do differently if I were to do it again?
- What are the next steps for me? If I were to set another goal, what would it be?
Record your thoughts using a method of your choice.
Demonstration
Demonstrate your skills!
Now it’s time to demonstrate your skills! You will explain how to send, receive, and retain a ball in soccer, or if you wish, you may also do handball. You will also be providing tips on how developing the skill can improve their performance in a game situation (think about other players, equipment, and boundaries).
Choose one of the following or a method of your choice to demonstrate your skills:
- video/audio clips
- slideshow
- poster
- brochure
- comic strip
- webpage
Use the following checklist to help ensure that you have covered all that you need in your demonstration.
Demonstration success criteria
After you create your demonstration, use it to perform the skills and have a peer observe you, if possible. Make adjustments to your demonstration if you or your peer think that there were any improvements that could be made.
Reflection
As you read the following descriptions, select the one that best describes your current understanding of the learning in this activity. Press the corresponding button once you have made your choice.
