How should you train when you're not playing small-sided games or having full sided matches? What should you do? How can you get the most out of your individual or partner training?

Individual training should be supplemental to your team and small-sided play. Supplemental means 2-3x per week and/or an extra 15 minutes before or after training. This means it is not the major portion of your football training. I don't support endless cone drills or rigidified repetition without thought to how it's developing your athleticism and football ability.

This could mean barefoot training with a ball and the wall.

Work on your juggling and ability to keep the ball in the air after it comes back to you off the wall.

Use both feet. Try your laces, inside and outside portion of your feet.

This could also mean going to the park with a partner.

You use your partner to pass the ball back and forth. As you develop, you can keep the ball in the air. Do 3 touch, 2 touch and even 1 touch.

Increase the distance between you and your partner and try hitting passes with your laces. First try passes on the ground and then transition to passes in the air.

All of these exercises, you can add game-like touches and body feints before hitting the ball back to your partner.

I like the partner drills because it adds a layer of unpredictability to where your partner might hit the ball. This increases the demands on your technique and reactions.

When you only use a wall or have someone toss the ball to you, it is more predictable where the ball is going, requiring less focus from you. This is the problem with so many cone drills and trainers. Everything is so structured and organized that nothing extraordinary is required of you. Your brain is not being demanded to think in real-time. Your athletic creativity is not being pushed.

With merely relying upon ball drills and cone training, your athletic and cognitive creativity is caged into artificial boundaries. When pushing yourself with maximal intent through free play and free training, you step outside these boundaries and push the limits of what was thought to be possible.

Learning how to push the limits of your ability in free play individually is a key concept that seems simple on the outside looking in, but requires huge intent from within.

We can learn from boxing and MMA, the concept of shadow-boxing. You imagine punches and kicks coming at you. You dodge and respond with punches of your own. You consciously push yourself at the speed of thought. You let go of constructs such as lines, cones, instructions, cues, etc. You let your mind think freely without constraint.

https://youtu.be/ISDFijsPGeQ

Francis Ngannou Heavyweight world champion

Applying this concept to football, this could be dribbling a ball, go past a few defenders and shooting onto goal. You use whatever tricks or feints you feel like doing and go 100%. You let your creativity and drive guide you in real time.

It doesn't have to be to goal either. You could have a wall. Pass the ball off the wall. Receive and turn for a short sprint, imagining turning past an opponent. Do a series of turns or feints and pass the ball off the wall again. The key here is pushing your ability, not merely doing it at half-tilt. Keep going until you tire. Rest a moment with some juggling, then go again when ready.

Go with full intent until tired. Rest. Go again. Simple as that.

It is also about having fun. Being relaxed and enjoying yourself is a key part of developing as an athlete, footballer, and a person. Being too tense and stressed won't allow you to reach your best performance. Trying to overthink things will only make it worse. Less is more.

6f36d90d-04ac-4e39-8226-724bdc30e1d1.mp4

Decent example from ConklinOfficial

Decent example from ConklinOfficial

Neymar using dogs to push the boundaries.

Neymar using dogs to push the boundaries.

Having fun unlocks higher levels of creativity and thus athleticism.

Having fun unlocks higher levels of creativity and thus athleticism.

Why is this so important?

This act of pushing the limits of your ability is how you level up. It is how you push what you thought you were capable of to a new level. It is okay to try and mess up. That's the only way you will grow. The confidence to try new moves, tricks, passes, runs, etc is what separates top players from average ones.

This filters down into how your athleticism, running, speed, power, and everything else all develops. Your mental resolve to push for the best is in your hands and yours alone. No one can take that away from you.

I'll have to film myself doing these concepts in future posts because I couldn't find anything that really highlights what I'm talking about. I'll leave below a video on what NOT to do.

Learning Points

• Individual training should be a supplement to small sided play and team training. It is how you sharpen your sword, not improve your sword-handling ability.

• Expand your movement vocabulary with freestyle juggling tricks and use all parts of the foot.

• Learn how to tap into your mind's creativity by removing the boundaries of drills and cones. Develop your maximal intent through consistent effort.

• Leave the cone and ball mastery drills for the kid who works hard all day but goes nowhere. Combine your individual football training with fascia work included inside The Way of the Natural Presentation and Private Community.