I Tested 5 Viral Football Drills. Only One Of Them Was Actually Football.

Watch the full YouTube video here.

The internet is full of "drills." Most of them are not coaching.

I spent a day this week with the Joner Football lads testing the most viral drills on the internet. Box passing from Rain Soccer Training. The England team reaction drill with Trent and Jude. A TikTok thing with a girl taking nibbles out of the ball. PianoBaller97's helicopter scoop with five rebounders and 186 million views. And a 1v1 back to goal session from Coach by Mateo.

I ranked them at the end of the video, worst to best. The headline finding is simple, and I want every coach and parent reading this to take it onto the grass with you.

A drill being viral does not make it a drill. It makes it a clip.

That sounds harsh, so let me show you what I mean and give you the test you should run before you copy anything off your phone.

The one question that separates a drill from a clip

Here it is. Write it down if you have to.

Does it actually relate to the game?

That is the only test that matters. The clue is in the word training. We train to get better at the game. If the drill you've copied off Instagram doesn't translate to a Saturday morning, it doesn't belong in your session plan, no matter how many likes it has.

Apply it to the five drills I tested and the order writes itself.

The TikTok one was nonsense, so I didn't even try it. A young kid sees it and copies it because it is on their feed. That is on us as coaches and parents to call out.

The PianoBaller97 helicopter drill was fun. I had a GoPro on my head, my groin nearly went, and I laughed. But five rebounders and a hundred cones don't show up on a matchday. It is content, not coaching.

The Trent and Jude reaction drill is brilliant for international footballers. They need that fine edge of speed and reaction. A 12 year old who is still learning to receive on the half turn? They need touches of the ball, not isolated sprints. Speed and agility is the topping. Time on the ball is the meal. Don't flip the order.

The box passing drill from Rain Soccer? I love it. I'd run it tomorrow with a young group. Pass and move, scanning, both feet, body shape. Plus you can shorten the box for tight play or widen it for range. One drill, six weeks of progressions.

But the one that ranked number 1 was the Coach by Mateo drill. And I want to spend the rest of this on it because it is a masterclass in what real training looks like.

Why the 1v1 back to goal drill won

The setup is simple. A pass from the bottom of the line. The receiver gets first touch under pressure. The presser gets to the ball. Then it is 1v1, back to goal, beat the man and finish.

That little drill ticks every single box.

• •First touch under pressure. The bit your players actually fail on every Saturday.
• •Body shape. You can't take a turn if your shoulders are square to your defender.
• •Turning. Half turn, full turn, drop the shoulder, whatever the player has.
• •1v1 attacking. Beat your man.
• •1v1 defending. Don't let your man beat you.

If you think of the best players in the world, in any position, defensively or attacking, they dominate 1v1s. That is a straight fact. So that is the attribute we should be training. The Coach by Mateo drill trains it under pressure, in 30 seconds, on a tiny patch of grass.

Compare that to the helicopter drill. Lots of cones. Lots of touches. No defender. No decision. No relevance to the game.

Same time on your watch. Two completely different sessions.

The shift I made in my own coaching

I'll be honest with you. I have changed my method in the last three or four years. I used to spend a lot of time on technical isolated work, and there is still a place for that with very young or very technical players who need volume and repetition.

But the more I coach, the more I see this:

Whenever you can do drills under pressure, that is where the real stuff is happening.

The body shape problem you've been trying to coach for six months disappears when there's a defender on their shoulder. The scan they keep forgetting becomes automatic when there is a real consequence for not scanning. Pressure is the teacher. Cones can't replicate it.

The other shift is small group training. I run private 1-on-1s, and they have their place. But for most players, in most situations, small group training trumps anything else now. It even trumps the one-on-ones, by far. Two mates competing in a 2v2 with a rule will teach each other faster than I can in an hour of solo work.

If you are a coach reading this, here is your audit. Look at your last session plan. How many of those drills had a defender? How many were 1v1, 2v2, or small group? How many translated to a real game moment? If the honest answer is "not enough," you've already got your fix for next week.

If you are a parent reading this, here is your audit. The next time your kid sends you a drill they want to try from Instagram, ask the question. Does it relate to the game? If not, redirect them to the box drill from Rain Soccer or the 1v1 from Coach by Mateo. Their development will thank you.

Where to find the drills that actually work

Inside the Joner Football app we are stacking drills the same way I'd run a session in real life. First touch under pressure. 1v1s. Small group games. Body shape and scanning work. Coaches section with PDF session plans you can take onto the grass and print on the way out the door.

If you want to see what is in there before you sign up, the free section is open to everyone. Browse it, save what you like, run it on the weekend.

If you coach a team and you want the full coaches tier, that is here: coaches access.

And if you want to see the full ranking of all five drills, the video is on the Joner Football YouTube channel.

The bottom line

Don't believe everything you see on the internet. The drill with 186 million views is not the drill that wins your next game. The drill that wins your next game is the one that puts your players under pressure, in a 1v1 or small group, with a defender they can't ignore.

Train for the game, not the algorithm. Your players will see the difference on Saturday.

Coach Lee<br/>Joner Football