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Home/Training Drills/Dribbling Drills/The Chop
DribblingIntermediate

The Chop

Beat a defender by cutting sharply away at speed. Sell one direction, plant, chop the ball firmly across your body, stay low, and burst into the space, chopping with either foot to stay unpredictable.

Create your own drill
Live animationDRI
Duration
8 min
Total drill time
Players
1
Recommended
Pitch
24 × 14 m
Setup space
Level
Intermediate
Skill required
Intensity
Medium
Physical demand
Age band
U9-U10
Any format

Setup & instructions

From a start cone, dribble at a defender (a mannequin or cone) at speed. Just before you reach it, plant your standing foot beside the ball and chop it back across your body with the outside of the foot, then accelerate away into the space to a finish cone. Stay low, chop firmly, and go fast out of the move. Work both feet, and add a live defender once it is smooth.

Setup time: 1 min

Tactical breakdown

Among the ways to change direction with a ball, the chop produces the sharpest angle available, close to ninety degrees and sometimes more. That is its value and also its price: cutting that hard scrubs off essentially all of your speed. A player who chops with a defender goal-side and no space to cut into has performed the move perfectly and gained nothing.

So the decision comes before the technique. The chop is for cutting into space that exists somewhere other than where you are running, which is why it belongs to wingers coming inside onto their stronger foot, or to a player forced towards the touchline who needs to get back into the pitch. Used as a general-purpose beat-your-man move it disappoints, because it trades speed for angle and speed is usually what beats people.

The technical detail that decides it is the standing foot. It has to plant beside the ball and take the body weight just before contact, because that is what allows the sharp pivot. Planted too far away, the player cuts the ball but keeps travelling in the original direction and ends up chasing it.

The other thing worth insisting on is chopping with both feet. A player who can only chop one way is entirely predictable in wide areas, where defenders already know which side they are trying to show you. Being able to cut either way is what makes the threat real.

How to run this drill

  1. Attack at pace so the cut has value. Run at the defender with real speed. The chop takes his momentum and uses it, and a defender who is not moving has no momentum to punish.
  2. Check the space you intend to cut into. Decide before you move. The chop trades all your speed for a sharp angle, which is only a good trade if there is somewhere worth cutting to.
  3. Plant the standing foot beside the ball. The standing foot lands close and takes the weight just before contact. Planted too far away, you cut the ball but keep travelling and end up chasing it.
  4. Chop firmly across your body. Use the outside or inside of the foot to cut the ball back across at a sharp angle. A soft chop leaves the ball in front of the recovering defender.
  5. Stay low through the turn. Dropping the hips keeps the balance available for the acceleration out. Staying upright means a wide, slow turn that a defender can simply run around.
  6. Practise it off both feet. A player who can only chop one way is predictable in wide areas, where the defender already knows which side he is trying to show you.

Coaching focus

FROM SESSION PLAN

Coaching points

  • Run at the defender with pace to make the move believable
  • Plant the standing foot beside the ball just before contact
  • Chop firmly with the outside of the foot, back across the body
  • Stay low and balanced to change direction sharply
  • Explode out of the move, the change of pace beats the defender

Common mistakes

  • Chopping too softly, a weak cut the defender reads
  • Standing too upright, so the move is slow and unbalanced
  • No change of pace after the chop, letting the defender recover
  • Doing it from a standstill, which is easy to defend

Progressions & regressions

VARIATIONS

Progressions

  • Chop on the run against a live defender
  • Chain it: chop, then a second touch to finish or cross
  • Chop with either foot off the same approach

Regressions

  • Walk through the plant and chop from a slow dribble
  • Chop past a stationary cone before adding a defender
  • Bigger angle so the cut is easier to control
Equipment
Cones×2
Mannequins×1
Tactical principles
the chopchop turncut insidehow to beat a defender1v1 dribbling movechange of directionfootball skillsdribbling drillyouth dribbling drillu12 skill move
Audience
U9-U10

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