3 Backyard Drills to Improve First Touch for Kids

It's a Sunday afternoon and your nine-year-old is in the backyard with a ball. You've got fifteen minutes before dinner. You toss it to them. They try to control it and it bounces two metres away, every time. You say "cushion it" or "softer" - words you've heard somewhere - and they nod, but nothing changes. Because "softer" doesn't tell them what to actually do with their foot, their knee, or their body.

Here's what I learned the hard way: the touch itself is the symptom. The work that decides whether the ball dies at the foot or skids away happens before the ball arrives. Get the platform right - body shape, the surface you've chosen to receive with, the cushioning action - and the touch mostly takes care of itself. Get the platform wrong and no amount of "softer" from the sideline will save it.

Even at the World Cup, the players who look like they have all the time in the world aren't doing anything magical. They just have a clean first touch. And clean first touches come from the same boring backyard reps every kid can do - the kind of thing you can set up in ten seconds with a ball and a fence.

If you're after the comprehensive version, I wrote up twelve first-touch drills for parents here. That one goes deep on why the platform matters and how to fix each layer. But if you've got fifteen minutes and a patch of grass behind the house, these three will do the job. Each one targets a different layer of the platform: one for body shape and reaction, one for cushioning a ball out of the air, and one for receiving into space. Run them in order. You'll see the difference by the end of the week.

The wall rebound drill (body shape and reaction)

Objective: Train your child to set their body before the ball arrives, and control a ball coming back at pace.

Setup: Find a wall. Brick, concrete, fence paling - anything that returns the ball. Stand your child about three metres back. All they need is a ball and their boots. No cones, no markers, no equipment.

Execution: They pass the ball firmly against the wall and control the return with one touch. Start with the inside of the foot. After ten clean controls, switch to the outside. After ten more, alternate - inside one rep, outside the next. Five minutes total.

Coaching Points:

• Watch their feet before the ball comes back. If they're flat-footed and facing the wall dead-on, the touch will run away every time. They need to be on the balls of their feet, slightly side-on, so they can receive and play in one motion.
• The receiving foot shouldn't be rigid. It pulls back slightly on contact - like catching an egg. If the foot is a brick wall, the ball is a brick.
• If the ball keeps popping up, they're striking the bottom of the ball on the pass. Tell them to keep their pass along the ground: ankle locked, foot slightly above the centre of the ball.

This drill alone, done for five minutes a day, builds the one habit that separates clean receivers from heavy ones: the body is ready before the ball arrives.

Toss and cushion (aerial control)

Objective: Develop the cushioning action that brings a ball out of the air and into your child's path.

Setup: You and your child stand about four metres apart. You're the server. You need a ball - that's it. A tennis ball for the last five reps if you have one (smaller ball, cleaner touch required).

Execution: Toss the ball underarm to your child. Vary the height and pace - chest-high, then knee-high, then slightly to their left or right. They control it to the ground with one touch (thigh, chest, or foot) and pass it back. The goal isn't to stop the ball dead. It's to bring it down into their own path so their next touch is a pass, not a chase.

Coaching Points:

• The surface they receive with should give on contact. A thigh that doesn't withdraw sends the ball flying. Same with the chest. The body part meets the ball, then pulls away slightly. That's the cushion.
• Watch their eyes. If they're watching the ball all the way into their foot, good. If they've already looked up at you before they've controlled it, the touch will run - because they stopped tracking.
• A common mistake here: trying to kill the ball completely dead. A good first touch doesn't stop the ball; it sets it up for the next action. Coach them to touch it into space, not trap it like a museum exhibit.

This is the drill my kid hated at first. The ball kept getting away from him and he felt like he was failing. But it's also where I saw the fastest improvement - three sessions and the aerial balls stopped bouncing off him and started sitting up. The discomfort is the point. If the drill is easy, the touch isn't being tested.

The gate drill (first touch into space)

Objective: Train your child to receive and play forward, not just stop the ball.

Setup: Place two markers on the ground about a metre apart - shoes, cones, jumpers, anything you've got. This is "the gate." Stand your child a few metres behind it. You serve from the other side.

Execution: Pass the ball to your child. They must take their first touch through the gate - not stop it, not touch it sideways. The touch should send the ball forward through the markers so they can run onto it in two strides. Serve from different angles. Move the gate. Make it harder as they improve.

Coaching Points:

• The touch should take them somewhere. A first touch that stops the ball dead is fine for a goalkeeper. For an outfield player, the touch should set up the next move - and at youth level, that usually means forward.
• Their first look should be over their shoulder before they receive. Where's the space? Where's the gate? The touch follows the scan, not the other way around.
• If they keep playing the touch straight through but it's too heavy, tell them to soften the contact slightly. The right touch is one they can run onto in two strides, not one they have to chase for ten.

How do you know if the drills are working?

You'll see it on the weekend. The ball that used to skid three metres off their foot starts sitting up. They have an extra second before a defender closes. They look less rushed on the ball and more composed.

But if you want to actually measure it - and this is where it gets useful - film a clip of your child doing one of these drills before you start, and another two weeks later. Then upload it for a free analysis. The feedback doesn't just tell you "work on first touch." It breaks down what's happening in their technique frame by frame: the strengths (what they're already doing right - and parents are usually so focused on what's broken they miss what isn't), the areas for improvement with the root cause explained for each one, specific drills to fix each issue, tactical insights, and metrics to track so you can measure improvement across future clips rather than guessing.

There's usually more than one thing to work on in a single clip. A good analysis surfaces two or three fixable areas, each with its own drill. That's the point: you're not guessing what to coach next week. You know.

Your child's video is processed via Google Enterprise API - not used for AI training, not shared, and deletable with one click. Privacy matters more here than anywhere, because it's your kid.

Common questions about first touch training at home

What age should kids start practising first touch?

As soon as they're comfortable passing a ball - usually around six or seven. You don't need to call it "first touch training." Just play wall-ball. The skill develops through repetition, not drill names.

How often should my child do these drills?

Fifteen minutes, three times a week. More than that at the U8-U12 level and they'll lose focus before they get quality reps. Consistency beats volume. Ten minutes every day beats an hour once a week.

My kid keeps looking at the ground when they receive. Is that wrong?

It's the most common habit I see. They look down to check the ball is there, then look up to find a pass - and that split-second with their head down is when a defender closes. The gate drill fixes it: it trains them to scan before they receive, not after.

If you want to capture a clean clip for analysis, here's how to film technique without your phone shaking. Good footage means better feedback.

Want plain-English feedback on your child's first touch? Film a short clip of them doing one of these drills - a wall rebound or a toss-and-cushion works well - and upload it to the Assistant Coach for a free analysis. You'll get the strengths, the root causes, and the next drill to run. All in terms you can coach on the backyard pitch this afternoon.