Dribbling Passing Shooting Weekly Drill Plan for Parents

Dribbling, Passing, Shooting: A Complete Weekly Drill Plan for Parents

You want to help your child train at home, but you have no idea how to organize a week of training. What skills do you work on which days? How do you make sure everything gets covered without making sessions too long? And how do you do all this if you are not a soccer coach yourself?

I have been there, and after a lot of trial and error, I developed a simple weekly framework that covers the three core skills of soccer: dribbling, passing, and shooting. It is designed for parents who want to help their kids improve but do not have coaching backgrounds. The sessions are 20 minutes each, three days a week, and they require minimal equipment.

The Weekly Framework

The idea is simple. Each training day focuses on one primary skill:

• Day 1: Dribbling
• Day 2: Passing
• Day 3: Shooting

Within each session, we follow a consistent structure: warm-up, main activity, progression, and fun finisher. This gives your child predictability while keeping the content fresh.

Day 1: Dribbling Day

Warm-Up (3 Minutes)

Free Dribble: Mark out a 10x10 yard square using cones, shoes, or whatever you have. Your child dribbles freely within the square, using all surfaces of both feet. Encourage them to keep their head up, change direction frequently, and vary their speed. This activates the feet and establishes ball connection.

Main Activity (8 Minutes)

Cone Weave: Set up 6-8 cones in a line about 3 feet apart. Your child dribbles through them and back, focusing on close control.

• Round 1: Inside of the foot only, alternating feet at each cone
• Round 2: Outside of the foot only
• Round 3: Alternating inside and outside
• Round 4: Free choice but faster

Do 3 runs per round with a brief rest between rounds. Focus on clean touches and keeping the ball close to the feet. The ball should never get more than one step away.

Progression (5 Minutes)

Move and Accelerate: Place a single cone about 10 yards ahead. Your child dribbles toward the cone, performs a specific move when they arrive (Cruyff turn, step-over, pull-back, or body feint), and then accelerates away in a new direction. Walk back and repeat.

• Do 4 reps with a Cruyff turn
• 4 reps with a step-over
• 4 reps with a pull-back
• 4 reps with player's choice of move

Encourage your child to start slow and get the technique right before adding speed. The acceleration after the move is critical as this is what creates separation from a defender in a real game.

Fun Finisher (4 Minutes)

Timed Cone Challenge: Time your child going through the cone weave course. Three attempts, trying to beat their best time with each run. Track the record and try to beat it next week. If you have a second person, race each other through parallel courses.

Day 2: Passing Day

Warm-Up (3 Minutes)

Wall Taps: Standing about 6 feet from a wall, your child passes the ball gently against the wall with the inside of each foot, alternating left and right. The rhythm should be steady and relaxed. This warms up the passing muscles and establishes the wall-passing feel.

Main Activity (8 Minutes)

Wall Passing Patterns:

• Pattern 1 (2 min): Right foot only. Pass firmly, control the return, pass again. Count consecutive clean passes without the ball getting away.
• Pattern 2 (2 min): Left foot only. Same drill. This is where the real development happens for most kids.
• Pattern 3 (2 min): Alternating feet. Pass with right, control with left, pass with left, control with right.
• Pattern 4 (2 min): One-touch. Right foot pass, right foot first-time return. Then left foot. This builds passing speed and touch under pressure.

Progression (5 Minutes)

Target Practice: Mark two spots on the wall about 4 feet apart using tape or chalk. Stand 10-15 feet back. Alternate passing to each target, controlling the ball between passes. Count how many targets you hit out of 20 attempts with each foot.

This adds an accuracy dimension to the passing work. In games, passes need to go to specific spots, not just in the general direction of a teammate. Training accuracy at home translates directly to game performance.

Fun Finisher (4 Minutes)

Passing Streak: How many consecutive one-touch wall passes can your child make without the ball getting away? Set a record and try to beat it. Make it competitive by taking turns with a parent or sibling. Alternatively, play a passing game where you pass back and forth and earn points for hitting specific targets.

Day 3: Shooting Day

Warm-Up (3 Minutes)

Touch and Strike: Place the ball on the ground. Take a short approach and strike it at 50 percent power toward a target, focusing purely on clean contact with the laces. Retrieve and repeat. Alternate feet. This warms up the striking motion without going full power, which reduces injury risk and reinforces technique.

Main Activity (8 Minutes)

Shooting Technique Series:

• Station 1 - Laces Strike (2 min): Stationary ball, 12-15 yards from goal or target. Strike with the laces focusing on proper form: plant foot next to the ball, toe pointed down, contact through the center, follow through. 5 shots with each foot.
• Station 2 - Placed Shot (2 min): Same distance but aim for specific corners using the inside of the foot. Focus on accuracy over power. Pick a target and try to hit it. 5 shots with each foot.
• Station 3 - Dribble and Shoot (2 min): Start 20 yards from the target. Dribble at speed and shoot from 12-15 yards. Focus on the transition from dribble to shot, getting the body set and the plant foot placed correctly. 5 shots.
• Station 4 - One-Touch Finish (2 min): Have a parent or sibling roll the ball across the player from the side. One-touch finish into the target. This simulates the most common scoring situation in youth soccer: a pass across the face of goal. 5 shots from each side.

Progression (5 Minutes)

Shooting Under Fatigue: Set up a short sprint course of about 15 yards. Sprint to the end, receive a pass or approach a pre-placed ball, and shoot. Jog back and repeat 8 times. Shooting quality degrades when tired, so training under fatigue builds the muscle memory needed to finish when it matters most, in the late stages of a game.

Fun Finisher (4 Minutes)

Shooting Competition: Take turns with a parent or sibling trying to hit specific targets. Assign point values to different targets: the upper corners are worth 3 points, the lower corners are worth 2 points, and the middle is worth 1 point. First to 10 points wins. Keep it fun and slightly silly. Celebrate big shots.

Putting the Week Together

A sample week might look like this:

• Monday: Dribbling Day (20 minutes)
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Passing Day (20 minutes)
• Thursday: Rest or team practice
• Friday: Shooting Day (20 minutes)
• Saturday: Game or free play
• Sunday: Rest

This schedule ensures your child works on all three core skills every week while maintaining adequate rest. The sessions complement team practice without creating overload.

Week-to-Week Progression

To prevent stagnation and keep your child improving, progress the drills slightly each week:

• Increase speed: Once technique is solid at slow speed, push for faster execution
• Add complexity: Combine skills, such as dribble-to-pass or receive-and-shoot
• Increase weak foot work: Shift from 70-30 dominant to non-dominant toward 60-40
• Reduce rest time: Build endurance by shortening breaks between reps
• Track metrics: Compare cone weave times, passing accuracy percentages, and shooting stats to previous weeks

For families who want even more variety and structured progressions, Anytime Soccer Training offers complete training programs that follow this same philosophy of organized, skill-specific sessions with built-in progression. The video format makes it easy to follow along without any coaching knowledge required.

Three days, twenty minutes each, one skill per day. Simple, effective, and sustainable. Give this weekly plan four to six weeks and the improvement will speak for itself.