Let Players Touch the Ball

As a coach and spectator of many games, there is very few things less settling than seeing players who receive a ball in a game, and their automatic reaction is to kick the ball away! This is very frustrating to watch because the majority of times these players have many different options to either dribble or to make a pass to help maintain possession of the ball, yet this doesn't seem to happen as often because often time players are afraid to make a mistake or even worse they lack the confidence to control, dribble, and take players on because they weren't taught these fundamentals from a young age.

A way to avoid this in players and helping them build their confidence on the ball can start at a young (u4-u12) and it comes down to coaching. At the younger ages it is very important that players are doing things that constantly involve them having a ball at their feet, or leaning to control a ball in many different passions, so that when it comes to games they are comfortable to deal with that situations. From the ages of u4-u7 every player should have a ball at their feet during training sessions with the focus being on using different surfaces of the foot, different movements of the feet such as turning, step-overs, stopping and accelerating, throwing the ball up in the air and having them control it with other parts of their body (bringing it down with their chest, feet, thighs, or head) will help build their confidence of getting the ball when they face such situations during games. As the players get a bit older (u8-u12) drills that focus on players dribbling at defenders and then taking them on trying to beat them should be encouraged. Things such as receiving the ball with their back to goal and a defender on them, which then you encourage the player to try to turn and beat that defender, receiving the ball  going directly at the defender trying to beat them, and even teaching players how to dribble out of the back because for defenders that is a great asset to have if they have the confidence to join in the attack or start the attack in a manner other than just punting a hail-marry up the pitch.  Even as the kids get older (depending on how many training sessions they have a week) one should be completely focused on ball mastery.

With that being said one of the most important things I've observed as a coach to help change this attitude of fear players may have is during different types of games at the younger ages is instead of putting a maximum amount of touches a player may take, coaches should set a minimum amount of touches. With me I often like to set the minimum amount of touches for players at 3. The reasoning behind this is so that the player can receive the pass, take a touch with their head up, and then make a decision by seeing the field as to whether they should dribble, make a pass or have a shot. I find this to be very successful as players tend to become more comfortable with the ball, and as mentioned before (and most importantly) they observe the field in front of them to make their decision. If they realize they have space to take the ball no matter their position (including keepers) should be utilizing that space to go forward. If they have been taught there is nothing wrong with taking a player on and they have had a lot of practice of doing  so you will see the confidence build in them.