 If you feel like you're not improving fast enough, or you're frustrated because you practice all the time but don't seem to improve, this video is for you. In this video I'll show you how to practice soccer by yourself and master the art of training on your own so you can improve faster than your teammates, constantly impress your coaches, and start to dominate your competition. It can be frustrating to practice every day and never see any improvements. You feel like you're wasting your time and you even ask what's the point of all this practice? You put in the time and it drives you crazy because it seems like other players who aren't even practicing are performing better than you. For the longest time this is what I did. I was basically the same player for five years. It wasn't until I changed my approach to training that I started seeing some great results. Now I can say I honestly feel like I'm a better player every time I step on the field and I can't stop improving. It's an amazing feeling and it's one I want you to have. Looking back I was making some common mistakes that you may be making yourself. Let's start with some of the most common questions about training on your own and then I'll move into some more advanced ideas to guarantee you're getting the results that you want. What tools do you need to get this job done? Well a big bag of balls will help the more the better. Some cones, maybe a speed ladder, your boots, some comfortable socks, and don't forget your water. But at the end of the day all you really need is yourself and the desire to improve. The first part of your workout should be the warm-up and I want you to start taking your warm-up more seriously. Obviously the warm-up is here to prepare yourself for physical activity, it's there to reduce the chance of injury, but this is also an incredible opportunity to improve your athleticism, to improve your mobility, your sharpness, your quickness of feet, to improve your flexibility and your strength. So while other players are taking their warm-up for granted, you are getting the most out of these exercises. This is also a great opportunity for you to mentally prepare. Think about what you want to achieve in this session. A great warm-up will produce a great workout. The next part of your individual practice should be physical training. Personally I like to get the hard stuff done first, so then you can get the ball at your feet. You want to think about constantly improving your fitness, becoming a physically dominant player, a better athlete. If you do that the game will become easier to you. There are many different disciplines of fitness that you can practice. As far as plyometrics, agility, change of direction, stamina, speed, think about progressing a little bit in these areas every single day. If you need ideas for fitness drills, check out the video I just released called Soccer Conditioning Drills. I'll put a link in the description below. Next you want to move into technical training. Now this should be the biggest component of your individual practice. Obviously you want to improve your fitness, but you want to develop football specific skills, soccer specific skills, and for that you need the ball at your feet. So again there are many different disciplines you can practice. Fast footwork, dribbling, one of the one skills, changes of direction with the ball, and obviously shooting and finishing. It's difficult to practice passing and first touch by yourself at the field, but I'll make a video in the future to show you how to do that with a wall or even at home. For me, shooting practice is the most important component of technical training, but while I'm shooting I'm actually incorporating dribbling ball control into the mix to make it more realistic. When it is finally time to slow down and hit a dead ball, don't just hit balls. Really focus and treat each shot like it's the 90th minute and you only have one opportunity. You want to train consistently. That's how you get results, but you can't do that if you're sore all the time. So put a priority on your cooldown. It doesn't have to be long, but take a little bit of time to relieve the tension in your body. You can do some light shaking out, even some light movement like light jogging or walking helps, but some static stretching, trying to focus on your tight areas. So you feel better like you could almost play another game right away. That's the mentality I have and that's the one I want you to have when you're cooling down. There is so much power in consistency. There is so much power in momentum. It's more valuable. You will improve faster if you do a little bit every day as opposed to doing a lot one day and then taking a rest and doing a lot in a few more days. You want to train every single day. Now you have to learn to listen to your body. And if you're doing a three hour marathon session, burning yourself out, you're not going to be able to train every day. So you want to be efficient with your training. You want to be consistent with your training. That's how you build repetition. So your training session should be focused. It should be intense, but it shouldn't be too long and it shouldn't leave you dead sore and unable to train the next day. You want to challenge yourself. You want to push your limits a little bit, but you want to be able to recover so you can come back tomorrow and keep that momentum going. Personally, I train every day. Now is every training session the same? No. Does every training session have the same intensity? No. I listen to my body. I have to see what my body is telling me. If I'm tired or a little fatigued, a little sore, I might take it easier that day. If I'm feeling fresh, I'll push my limits. If I have a team session or a game later that night, I'll just go really light. If it's off season and I have nothing on the menu, then we can go a little bit harder. So I like to train every day, but yes, you have to vary your intensity, your duration, but you want to be consistent. Now I'd like to explain some positive training habits you can use to get more out of your session. So number one is making your training match realistic. What do most players do? They juggle the ball, do some freestyle tricks, hit some free kicks, walk around and call that a session. Think they're improving. What you want to do is make your training realistic. So the way you move with the ball, you have to replicate game situations. That means your quality, your speed, your focus, and your intensity. Do the things you do not want to do. So what do you find yourself shying away from? The things that mentally you don't want to do. Everyone wants to play with the ball, but no one really wants to put in the hard work. The things that scare you are the things that you need to do. The things that you're not good at are the things that you need to do. The things that make you uncomfortable are the things you want to do. So usually for people, it's fitness. Run towards those things. Instead of running away from them, it will make you a better player. This is just a simple example of someone shooting and how they respond after the shot. All your balls are gone. What do you do? You walk to the ball. You waste your time. Instead, you want to look for opportunities to gain fitness, to challenge yourself, to push yourself. So instead of walking for the ball, run for the ball. Remember, the game doesn't stop when you get tired. So even if you're tired, you need to learn to keep going. Recently, I've become fascinated with breathing and it's making a massive impact on my stamina. What you want to think about is learning to control your breath. So instead of panting and just letting your lungs fill up with air, huffing and puffing, think about trying to calm your breath down. Breathing through your nose, focusing on recovery, calming your breath, calming your heart so you can recover faster and perform better. When most players make a mistake in training, let's say for an example, a bad shot with your weaker foot. They'll quickly go back to what they're good at shooting with their stronger foot. What you want to do is slow down, analyze what you did wrong, and try to fix it. So that means getting more repetitions, but also think about what you need to change about your technique and practicing it until you get the result that you want. The more you focus, the more you practice, the better it will become. This is all on you. Your development in this game, your success, this is all your responsibility. So if you're not happy with the player that you are, your skills, your fitness, your mentality, your tactical understanding, then you need to do something about it. You need to take responsibility for your game. And when you do, you start taking responsibility, good things happen. So stop waiting for a coach to come and change you. Stop waiting for your team practice on the weekend. The time is right now. What are you going to do to improve your game? Now, obviously you need those things. You need team practices. You need to play with other players. Having a great coach can really help your game. But those things aren't always going to be there. You are going to be there 100% of the time. So you need to take responsibility for your game. What is something that is going to motivate you? Something that's going to pull you to the field when you're feeling a little lazy, to make you do one more set when you're feeling a little tired. We need reasons. Something to push us or something to pull us. That's why I like to set short-term goals. So I set a bunch of short-term goals for myself. I put them on my phone. I put them on the home screen. I put them on my wall, on my fridge. I put them on my computer. So every time I see these things, it reminds me that, hey, you have this coming up. You need to be consistent with your training. So I want you to think, what are some things that you can set, some goals that you can set for yourself? Maybe you have a tournament coming up. Maybe you have a trial with a new team. Maybe you have a big game. Maybe you're playing against a coach who cut you in the past, someone who taught trash to you, or you just really want to play well for a specific match. You need to find these goals, these short-term goals, set them. So when you have something on the weekend, something in a few days, a week, a month, it's going to make you more consistent with your training. So you need to get motivated and you need to use motivation to your advantage. You will not find time unless you make time. So when you wake up and you go about your day, you go to school, maybe you have a job, you have some family time, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever, guess what? All these things happen and you say to yourself, yeah, it would be nice to train. But if you don't schedule that time in between all those other commitments, it's not going to happen. Days are going to slip by. You said you were going to train. You said you were going to work hard, but you didn't do it. So if you don't schedule, make a specific time every day that you're going to train, it's not going to happen. So don't try to find the time and hope it appears some magical time because out of nowhere and you'll have the time to train. No, you make the time. You set it as a priority and you find that time in your schedule every single day to make that part of your daily routine. When you get to the field, it is business. You're not messing around. You're not texting on your phone between sets and reps. Every time you get a water break, you are there for a reason to become a better player and so you can get closer to achieving those goals, that motivation that you set for yourself. So when you are there to train, it is business. It is serious. Yeah, you can have fun. You can enjoy the experience, but focus and concentrate on getting the most out of every single drill. The more efficient you are with your time, the faster you're going to improve. Everyone else is going to spend two hours at the field. You'll spend 30 minutes and you'll get more out of it because you're more focused. You're training with a purpose. Everyone wants to be a superstar overnight. They want to be the best player in the league without having to work for it. Good things take time and you will improve quickly. You can improve a lot in a short period of time, but I want you to have a long-term mindset. Play to the long game. This isn't a sprint. Your development is a marathon. You're in this for the long run. So instead of getting frustrated because you're not where you're at, you're not clearly going to be right now, realize this is a long-term game. And if you make those tiny improvements every single day, you're going to look back in a couple of months, in a year, and you're going to be amazed at the improvements that we made.