What Football Training Equipment Do I Need ?

During the career of a football coach, the most challenging part is planning training sessions that will get the most out of his/her players. Every coach tries to ensure high quality training sessions that are enjoyable for his/her players and safe at the same time.

In order to achieve this, you will need to provide adequate football training equipment. These items are considered essential for every training session and you should primarily focus on acquiring them.

After that, you should consider acquiring more advanced equipment. The right equipment in combination with the appropriate training methods ensures high intensity and safe training as well as a better stimulation of the players’ development. 

The key here is to know what equipment is essential and what your players’ requirements are. The right items ensures that the players are constantly developing their football skills. 

It is quite important to have a variety of items in your inventory, from the multi-purpose ones that you can use for many football drills, to the ones considered much more specific and focused on developing particular attributes. Key attributes to develop in football training sessions are: 

• Ball Control 
• Shooting 
• Fitness and Agility
• Passing 

Development of these skills will ensure “all around” development with the use of appropriate football training equipment. 

Improving Ball Control Skill Equipment

Ball control is a skill of turning your vision of ball movement into reality. It is one of the most important abilities in modern football and ball control was a key component of possession football. With the appropriate drills and consistent training, you will be able to take this skill to the next level and you will: 

• Keep the ball in your possession easier and won’t lose the ball that much. 
• Get faster control over the ball and increase the tempo of your play. 
• Increase your confidence with ball play. 

What football training equipment can help you improve your ball control? 

Training cones

Price Range £10.00 

The absolute must-have equipment are training classics. This is without doubt the most versatile and useful part of equipment you will have. What makes them a very practical piece of equipment is the fact they come in many different colours, styles and sizes, so they are very versatile and can be easily spotted by players from any angle or distance. 

They will help the players to improve their dribbling skills and close ball control. Players can practice on their own and drills with cones will raise their pitch awareness and also upgrade their possession game. 

Rebounder Net

Price Range £60.00-£120.00 

Rebounder Nets are useful pieces of equipment. They are adjustable, lightweight and easy to move around; so they are flexible to work with. The rebounder is designed to improve your overall ball control from your feet to your knees to your chest and head.

It is also perfect for solo volley practicing. Simply send the ball into the net, wait for the rebound, then return it back into the net. 

Solo Kick Trainer

Price Range £12.00 

This piece of football training equipment is ideal for individual practicing. The purpose of this device to improve ball control, coordination, reflexes, and to build up the confidence. Simply put the ball in the sleeve and wrap the band around your waist. Then kick away. The durable, adjustable rope is the best part of this football equipment as you don’t need to go chasing the ball all around, because it returns to you after the kick. 

Improving Shooting Practise Skill Equipment 

Not only the most fun drill for the players, but at the same time this practice is needed for the development of one of the most fundamental skills. But to be good at it, it takes a lot of practice. The purpose of shooting drills is to: 

• Become comfortable striking the ball. 
• Get more confidence to attempt shots on goal. 
• Improve your accuracy and score more goals. 
• Learn different shooting techniques and become more dangerous in the front of the goal. 

What equipment can help you improve your shooting? 

Free Kick Mannequins

Price range £30.00-£80.00 

Great to use for individual and group training. This useful piece of football training equipment is the ideal way to help your players practice for free kicks. They make the perfect obstacle to bend the ball around. This is obviously an important skill to have and requires a great deal of practice to get right.

Just set them up and have your player try to get the ball over the wall. Alternatively, you can set the mannequins up as defenders around the box and create a great drill to help your strikers. Have your striker move past the opponents and take their shot. 

Goal Target Net

Price range £80.00-£190.00 

This is a vital piece of football training equipment for offensive players. It is necessary for strikers as they are looking to improve the accuracy of their shots. It has target zones so your players can work on taking shots at crucial parts of the goal. Some advanced versions have colour coded goal systems that are quite helpful for drills. 

Training Targets

Price range £20.00 

Similar to previous football training equipment, but a much cheaper option. Each target is easy to attach to the goal post, either in the corners or on the side. When you hit the target, it will snap back giving you instant feedback.

This kind of training is useful for practicing shots that are by default difficult for goalkeepers to reach. It will not only help players improve their kick accuracy, but also build a muscle memory and improve consistency in shooting. 

Improving Fitness and Agility Skill Equipment

Fitness and agility training drills are essential in any training session. Fitness drills will help your players increase their stamina and strength to play 90 minutes of high intensity football. Agility drills are key for a player’s effectiveness, as they are vital for developing their movement speed and balance. 

The aim is to increase agility to the level that ensures ability to stop quickly, change directions and keep moving in one fluid movement. These are the reasons why developing the right program is extremely challenging and complex. Right football training equipment makes these drills much more effective. 

What football training equipment can help you improve your fitness and agility? 

Speed Agility Ladders

Price Range £10.00 

This speed and agility ladder will help players improve their athletic performance. It is a good tool to make players faster, better coordinated and agile. A simple and cheap piece of equipment, but very efficient in developing that much needed fitness. It can be used in several different ways and the adjustable rungs allow you to easily change the difficulty. 

Agility Training Poles

Price Range £30.00-£90.00 

These poles are designed to help players improve their foot work. Foot speed, agility and dribbling, are vital skills to develop. Use of agility poles in training sessions will help improve footwork and lateral movement.  

Some players are naturally gifted with these predispositions, while others have to work more to improve them at the required level. Nevertheless, whatever category you fall into, the use of agility poles will help you enhance these influential capabilities. They can even be used as a substitute for training cones to help with dribbling drills. 

Speed Training Hurdles

Price Range £20.00 

Football training hurdles are designed to improve the physical attributes of players, such as speed, agility, balance and movement coordination. Hurdles are an exceptional football training tool, especially when it comes to the development of many aspects of your game.

With a wide range of possible training drills, from basic to more complex and technical drills, hurdles can help create a more diversified training environment, allowing the inclusion of more complex and varied drills. 

Training Evasion Belt

Price Range £5.00 

An evasion belt is a piece of training equipment that sets two players against each other. They must be quick to try and break the connection between them. Strap both players, connect them with a rope and the attacker’s goal is to get far enough away from the defender in order to break a connection.

Besides improving agility and movement of players, this is a perfect piece of equipment to use when working on marking and mirroring. 

Improving Passing Skill Equipment

The football passing training sessions are aimed at developing a player’s passing ability and are suitable for players of all ages. The main goal of these exercises is to focus on the accuracy and power of the pass.

Also, a vital part of these drills is to improve environment awareness, so players can react in accordance with the situation and position of surrounding players. 

What equipment can help you improve your passing?

Passing Arc Set

Price Range £20.00 

Maybe the most common and basic part of football training equipment. The objective is to improve the players’ short and long range passing. It is considered a must-have training tool that helps players perfect their passing accuracy and speed. 

Once sated up, the arcs provide a challenging target for ground passes. With this simple piece of football training equipment, your entire team will be able to develop their passing and control. 

Which Equipment is Essential? 

Football training equipment that you must have for basic training drills should be affordable and available for use at various kind of training drills. 

For developing Ball control attributes, you must have Training cones. It is the most basic piece of equipment with multiple uses. You can use them for dribbling exercises, running drills and even as a border for marking the playing field. 

For the improvement of shooting skills, the essential training equipment are Training targets. This is necessary for developing shooting routine and mental memory of the goal sections. 

Agility Training Pools are great and versatile equipment tools. They can be used for fitness drills, for dribbling sessions, as well as a substitute or addition to training cones. 

When it comes to improving passing ability, the Passing Arc Set is the only and the most essential piece of equipment you need. They can be used for training short and long passing, and even as a replacement for hurdles in fitness drills. 

Here are Some of our Favourite Football (Soccer) Cleats

Here we will be giving more of an opinion, rather than facts. Are the cleats worth the price that they are being sold at? Should you upgrade from your current cleats, depending on what boots you own? What features stand out in these cleats? If any. Does it do the job? Speed, control, stability etc.

Depending on your needs/preferences. We can also mention its durability, if we have collected enough data on the specific cleats.

What did we expect vs. what we got. Is it maybe overrated/underrated?

Elite

Here’s our pick from the very best of the bunch.

Pro

On your way to the pro leagues? Here’s our pick.

Academy

Want something to start with? Have a look at our pick.