Control a ball from height with a soft, cushioned first touch. Get behind the flight, choose the surface, relax it on contact, and set the ball down into space to play.
A server lofts the ball so it drops to the receiver, who controls it out of the air with the chest, thigh, or a cushioned foot, sets it down, and plays it back. Get behind the flight early, relax the surface on contact to take the pace off, and cushion the ball into space in front of you. Vary the height and the surface, and rotate roles.
Aerial control is decided while the ball is still in the air. Two choices get made during the flight: where to be, and which surface to use. Players who wait until the ball is dropping to make either are then adjusting their feet late, reaching across their body, and choosing a surface because it is the only one still available rather than because it is the right one.
Getting behind the flight is the first of those and it is mostly a movement problem rather than a technical one. A player standing where the ball will land can use any surface. A player arriving from the side can only stretch, and a stretched control surface cannot be relaxed, which is why the ball bounces away from him.
Surface choice follows from height. Chest for anything arriving above the waist, thigh for the awkward middle band, cushioned foot for a ball dropping near the ground. What matters is that the choice is made early enough for the body to be organised around it.
Relaxing on contact is the mechanism that actually removes the pace, and it is counterintuitive under pressure. The instinct when a ball arrives quickly is to tense, and a firm surface returns energy to the ball. Withdrawing the surface slightly at the moment of contact absorbs it instead.
Set it down into space rather than straight down at the feet. A dead ball under the body still has to be moved before it can be played, and the extra touch is exactly what a closing defender is waiting for.
Save it to your private drills, then change the animation, adjust positions, swap equipment, or drop it into a session block. Or start from a blank pitch and build your own.