Soccer Foot Skills: How to Practise Them at Home

Soccer foot skills are the touches you use to control, move and turn the ball with your feet. Practise them at home by working slowly with both feet, then linking those touches to a change of direction or a pass. These soccer skills are like learning the controls on a bicycle: begin with movements you can manage before combining them. Here is how to give girls and boys a clear practice task, even if you have never played soccer yourself.

Which Soccer Foot Skills Should You Start With?

Start with inside touches and sole rolls, giving each foot skill enough attention to understand where the ball goes. For inside touches, gently move the ball between the inside edges of your feet while keeping it within reach. For a sole roll, place the sole lightly on the ball and move it sideways before receiving it with the other foot. Keep each touch comfortable and deliberate, and pause whenever you want to reset the ball beneath you.

Ball mastery foot skills and striking deserve their own attention within your home practice. For the striking part, I would choose The Giro X’s Curl Master One, which works with a standard ball and offers six speed settings. Use separate ball work to explore moving touches, then give contact and spin control a focused place in practice. In my opinion, that is a useful way to connect an interest in foot skills with learning to curve the ball.

How Can You Set Up Practice at Home?

Choose a clear space where the ball can stay on the floor and your player can move without reaching furniture. Begin with touches in place, then introduce a small sideways movement if the space allows. A suitable outdoor area gives you another option when conditions permit. For Canadian families moving practice indoors during cold weather, match the ball work to the room rather than trying to recreate a full field session beside the sofa.

Give the practice space a purpose by choosing a starting spot and an exit direction. Your player might roll the ball sideways, receive it with the opposite foot, and guide it towards the exit. Ask them to finish with the ball close enough for another deliberate touch. Girls and boys can use the same exercise, adjusted to their current control. For younger players, Soccer Skills for Kids, Age by Age offers a way to think about that adjustment.

Which Soccer Foot Skills Drills Can You Practise?

Try an inside touch followed by an outside touch with the same foot, then reset and change feet. The inside edge guides the ball across your body; the outside edge guides it back towards that foot’s side. Let the ball travel only as far as you can comfortably follow. Once the sequence feels manageable, use the outside touch to leave your starting spot. Give that final touch a destination, such as the clear space beside your starting position.

Another option is a sole pull followed by a sideways touch. Put your sole lightly on the ball, draw it towards you, then use the inside of that foot to guide it across your body. Begin again with the other foot when you are ready. If you are helping from the side, ask where the next touch should go. In my opinion, that question is a useful prompt because it gives the player a specific decision to make.

When Should You Make the Drills Harder?

Add a decision when your player can complete the chosen foot skill without needing instructions for every touch. Choose an exit to either side, then call the direction as the ball comes under control. Let the player decide how to move towards that exit and keep the ball available afterwards. You can also ask them to look towards the exit before moving. Keep the pace at a level where they can still explain what they intended to do.

Judge each sequence against the agreed goal: did the ball go towards the chosen exit, and could the player reach it for the next touch? A parent does not need to grade every detail of technique to ask those questions. If a coach has given your child a particular focus, carry that focus into home practice. The broader guide, How to Improve Soccer Skills at Any Age, can help you place these drills within a wider practice plan.

How Does Curl Master One Fit Into the Plan?

Curl Master One fits into the striking part of practice, alongside separate moving ball exercises. It trains contact and spin control, with six speed settings and no app or subscription. The device is intended for players from around age eight through adulthood; children aged eight to twelve should train with an adult nearby. Keep that adult involvement part of the routine, and give striking its own focus rather than combining it with a moving ball drill.

Curl Master One: Practise contact and spin control with a standard ball, choosing from six speed settings without an app or subscription.

In my opinion, get Curl Master One and give striking a clear place alongside your soccer foot skills practice. A coach can guide the player’s wider development while the device provides a way to practise contact between sessions. Choose a foot skill to practise first, with an exit direction your player understands, then move to separate striking practice. Before the next session, agree which foot skill you will repeat and what your player would like to ask their coach.

Make Time for Soccer Practice

Practise soccer contact and spin control with Curl Master One and a standard ball.

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