OBGC House Soccer Player Clinic
1. When your team has the ball you are on offense, when the other team has it, you are on defense –
no matter what your position
2. The ball must go completely over any of the lines to be out – if any part touches the line, it’s still in.
The ball can go out in the air or on the ground…it crosses the “plane” starting from the ground. Play
until the whistle though.
DEFENSE
1. Keep the middle CLOSED – slow the attacker down, push them outside
2. Your body position on defense is knees bent and soft, feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart,
hips slightly angled to dictate where the offense should go
3. Closest defender to the ball applies the pressure…remember FAST, SLOW, GET DOWN LOW
4. When helping your teammate, don’t line up straight behind them or directly to the side of them…be
diagonally behind them
5. “Marking” a player means that you are defending a specific person on the other team…stay with
them and deny them getting the ball
OFFENSE
1. There are two kinds of passes – passing to a player and passing to space – passing to space means
kicking the ball in front of the player so that they can run and get it; passes have direction and
weight (how fast it goes)
2. If you have the ball, use cues to decide what to do – if there’s no one around you, dribble forward
and go towards the goal…If you are close to the goal (in the box and not way off to the side) and you
have an opening, you should shoot! If you are too far to shoot, and you have one defender, you can
try and beat them or you can pass…If you have multiple defenders, definitely pass!
3. Learn to pass with all parts of your foot…the outside, the inside and the instep
4. You shoot with your instep…lock your ankle and drive through with your whole body…Aim for the
corner of the goal….shoot low more often than high…your plant foot heavily influences where you
kick the ball
5. All free kicks are indirect; which means you can’t score without the ball touching someone else first.
6. Free throws require both feet be on the ground and with both hands you take the ball straight back
behind your head and straight forward to throw…you can’t spin it. Keep your feet on the ground!
You cannot be offside directly from a throw-in.
7. Speaking about offside…Being in an offside position is objective…Being called for the foul offside is
subjective. To stay onside, look to stay even with the 2nd to last defender (the last one is usually the
goal keeper).
Drills you can do at home
Preparation: Get yourself some of those orange discs that you can buy at any sports store.
1. Try to make it a goal to touch the ball every day – even if all you do is kick it around for 5 minutes
2. Put your discs out, spacing them about 10 feet apart. Dribble the ball and weave your way around
the discs, making sure to turn quickly at the last one and come back to the beginning.
a. Variation 1 – Have someone time you….See how fast you can do it…Challenge a friend.
b. Variation 2 – Force yourself to use only one side of your foot….one time use only the
outside…another try only the inside
c. Variation 3 – Get some friends over and have relay races with dribbling
3. You need to develop at least two moves that you can perform in multiple directions in order to
avoid being predictable….actually you don’t need any moves, just accelerate and decelerate so the
ball can’t be taken
a. First, learn the scissors move
b. Then, learn the “L” turn
c. Practice “cutting” or “chopping” the ball
d. Google up whatever player moves you’d like 
4. Take two of your discs and put them about 5 feet apart to make a small goal. Start 10 feet away and
put the ball through the goal. Once you can do that consistently, make the goal smaller….getting
down to about the width of a ball and a half. Then, try the challenge of moving further away from
your mini goal. This is great game to play with any number of friends. If you practice this drill a lot,
the real goal will seem huge to you. 
5. Try to see how many times you can keep the ball in the air with any part of your body (that is not
your arms or hands)….use your feet, your thighs, your head….it will be a small number at first, but
you can work up with practice every day. Once you can do 20, increase the challenge by forcing only
one body part….for example, 20 with your feet only.
6. Practice receiving the ball from the air and putting the ball into play in front of you, but not stopped
dead on the ground…you want the ball to go into position for your next move. Toss the ball up in
the air and use your foot or your thigh to control the ball. You don’t want it to bounce away from
you…you want it to feel like you are placing it where you’d like it.
7. Get a friend and start directly in front of each other about 5 feet apart. Pass to your friend. As long
as they can receive it without having to take steps first, you get to move back one giant step. Then
your friend tries. If you have to move to get it, then the passing player stays put. See how far apart
you can get – set a new record!
8. Get a friend and have a throw-in contest. Use your discs to make a fake sideline and then keep one
disc to mark the longest throw. It must be a legal throw-in (both feet on the ground; no spin) to
count.
9. Get a friend (who also has a ball) and try a knock-out contest. Stand 20 feet (or more) away from
your friend and have each of you put a disc at your feet. Put your ball on your disc. Your friend
must put his ball next to the disc (not on it) and they get one shot to hit your ball. If they hit it, you
have one chance to hit theirs. Keep going until someone hits and the other misses.