Soccer practice can be divided into team and personal training. However, involving personal training during your team’s practices isn’t always easy.

These sessions are generally short (1 hour per session) which means very little time for personal exercises. So when should you actually involve personal training?

Well, the best way to increase your soccer skills is to have one or two practice sessions between your regular training days.

How Bad Do You Want This?

It might sound weird to add it in like this, but it’s all about how bad you want to be a good soccer player.

Some people are going to really want it, while others are going to prefer to do something else. It’s up to you to claim your place as a great soccer player through practice and determination.

During these days you should focus on small details like increasing your shooting or passing accuracy.

What you will practice on is up to you to decide. There are always things you can improve even if you are not aware of it.

If you feel that you can’t actually point out your weaknesses you may use following tip: Ask a friend to bring a digital cam (these are cheap) and ask them to record a game in which you are participating.

Things You Can Analyze

• The mistakes you’ve made!
• How many passes went wrong/right?
• How many times did you hit the goal?
• How many 1 vs. 1 did you won?
• How many times did you manage to dribble around your opponent?

However, you should not watch this tape earlier than 2 days after your soccer game as you will be personally too involved in the result of the game.

As you notice, there are many things you can analyze. Pick up 2 things that you want to improve and work on them on your next personal session.

Common Pitfall

One common mistake you should avoid is to stop practicing on a soccer skill once you have learned it properly.

You need to realize that maintaining and improving your skills requires more effort comparing to learning them from scratch. One good example on this is your receiving skill.

To learn how to receive a ball you will usually need one or two practice sessions. However, if you want to master it and maintain that level you will need to work much harder.

Ask Your Coach

Another method you can use in order to identify your weaknesses is to ask your coach to evaluate your overall skills and tell you what you need to work on.

My experience is that some coaches don’t want to tell the whole truth as they believe it will affect their players negatively.

If you believe that your coach don’t want to tell you the whole truth regarding your soccer skills then find someone else that could do it without being scared of hurting you emotionally.

It may even take you some time to realize that while the truth can hurt, it can also set you free. Don’t run from the truth – use it to become even better!