Turning session: improving turning techniques

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Sep 9, 2024

Session intentions

This is week two of the turning and dribbling to score session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session aims to support players to use turning techniques effectively. Players practise turning under pressure in controlled drills and game scenarios.

It will help players:

enhance their turning skills
grow in confidence to use turns in any situation
improve their awareness, ball control and decision-making skills.

If you like this idea, download the session plan and give it a go. And don’t forget to share your experience on the England Football Community. We’d love to know how you got on.

Session setup

In our example, this is what we’ve used to set up this session. But adapt it to suit your team and the space available to you.

Half a pitch

12 players

Flat cones

Bibs

Mini-goals

Improving turning techniques

Set up a small area with a safe zone at each end. Have one player as the tagger. The rest have to get from one end to the other without being tagged. Make it harder by splitting the area into thirds and adding a tagger in each one. This means players have to turn more often to avoid being tagged.
Create a 20x20-yard area and give everyone a ball. Introduce turning techniques and give players time to try them. When they’re ready, shout out a turn and challenge players to perform it. To progress this activity, add a mini-goal along each side of the area and make it an opposed drill.
Set up a square area for a small-sided drill. Put mini-goals in each corner. Start with a 1v1 in the middle. A feeder player passes the ball in to one of the players. They need to use a turn to beat their opponent and attack one of the goals. Progress this activity by making it a 2v1 or 3v2 game.
Round the session off with a game. Start it off with a goalkeeper playing out to a teammate. Then, observe how your players use the turning skills they’ve practised in the earlier drills.

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Tactics board

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out Zahid’s tactics board video for this session.

How to make it easier

Using the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002) can help keep things fun, engaging, and appropriate. For this session, you could make the areas bigger to give players more room to turn.

How to make it harder

To make this session harder, make the areas smaller to make turns tighter. To increase the challenge of the first activity, try giving everyone a ball to dribble and turn with – while trying to avoid being tagged. In the third drill, you could remove a mini-goal or two. This reduces the options for players to score and forces them to attack in a certain direction.

Coaching points

To help players turn more effectively, encourage them to scan for ‘BOTS’. This stands for ball, opponents, teammates and space. Scanning for these four things allows players to gather more information. And that helps them make better decisions when they turn.

Remember to give players a chance to practise the different turning techniques. Don’t just jump in to intervene the first time they don’t get it right.

Get players to think about their body positioning and ball control when turning. How do they need to position themselves to turn successfully? What does their first touch need to be like?