This is the lesson where a player learns the pattern they will use for years. The figure 8 is the backbone of at-home dribbling practice: two cones, no space required, and enough variations to keep it useful from age six to sixteen.
Start here, get it right, and everything else in the dribbling programme has somewhere to build from.
Setting it up
Two cones, five yards apart, on any flat surface. Dribble around one cone, cut back through the middle, around the second, and back. That loop is a figure 8.
The middle is the important bit. Most players arc wide and turn the 8 into a circle, which removes the direction change that makes the drill worth doing.
If the pattern looks like a circle rather than an 8, the player is not crossing the middle. Put a third cone in the centre as a marker until the shape is right.
The first four sessions
1. Session one — walk it
The whole pattern at walking pace, inside foot only. Getting the shape right matters more than anything else this week.
- How to set it up: Two cones, five yards. A third in the middle if the shape is wrong.
- How long: 10 minutes.
- What good looks like: A clear 8, crossing the middle every time.
- The usual mistake: Rushing to jog before the shape is right.
2. Session two — jog it
Same pattern, same foot surface, at a jog.
- How to set it up: Same cones.
- How long: 10 minutes.
- What good looks like: The shape holds at the higher speed.
- The usual mistake: The 8 collapsing into a circle as pace goes up.
3. Session three — add the outside foot
Outside of the foot on the way round each cone, inside through the middle.
- How to set it up: Same cones.
- How long: 12 minutes.
- What good looks like: Both surfaces used deliberately, not accidentally.
- The usual mistake: Defaulting to inside foot for everything.
4. Session four — count them
How many complete loops in sixty seconds. Write the number down.
- How to set it up: Same cones, a timer.
- How long: 3 rounds, keep the best.
- What good looks like: A number to beat next week.
- The usual mistake: Sacrificing the shape for the score.
Where it goes next
Once the pattern is automatic, the figure 8 becomes a container for everything else — sole rolls, moves at the cone, explosive exits, single-foot challenges. The pattern never changes; what happens inside it does.
That is why it is worth spending a full week on the shape alone. Everything built on top of a sloppy 8 is sloppy too.
- Two cones, five yards apart
- Ten minutes a day, four days a week
- Shape before speed, always
- Write down the sixty-second score once a week
Train it, do not just read about it.
Every drill on this page is a follow-along video inside Anytime Soccer Training. Your player presses play, copies what they see, and the app keeps track of what they have done.
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