Coaching tools › Activities › Dribbling and 1v1

Body Brakes

By Gabe Ramos · U.S. Soccer Coach Educator · Updated October 2026

Everyone dribbles. Call a speed, then a body part, and players stop the ball with it: foot, knee, elbow, head. Call HANDS and they shout back, “No hands in soccer!” A stopping game disguised as a silly one.

Setup

Everyone dribbles. Call a speed, then a body part: foot, knee, elbow, head. Players stop the ball with it. Call HANDS and they shout back, “No hands in soccer!”

Make it easier or harder

• Easier: Foot brakes only; just turtle and cheetah.
• Harder: Call two body parts in a row.

Coach’s notes

• If It's Chaos: Balls rolling away on the stop? Back to turtle speed and foot brakes only.

Why it works

Stopping the ball is the second skill after moving it, and this is how a four-year-old practices it forty times in seven minutes without noticing. The body parts are the joke that keeps them playing.

Foot brakes only and turtle speed if the balls keep rolling away. Build up the speed over the weeks, not inside one game.

Where it sits

This activity is from Pre-K · Week 2 · Speeds & Brakes in the Full Season Intramural Curriculum for Pre-K to 2nd grade. Every session in the book has the same shape: arrival play, Soccer Island, two or three activities and the game, with two coaching points a day, an easier and a harder version of everything, and a fix for when it turns to chaos.

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