The drag-back turn is a sole turn: you pull the ball back toward you with the sole of your foot, open your body to the same side, and take the ball away the other way with your other foot. Coaching sessions use the name for the same move as the drag back. This lesson is the game version: picking the moment, disguising it and getting out fast.
Set up
Dribble on the balls of your feet with your knees slightly bent, arms a little out, and glance up. You need to see the defender before you decide to turn.
Light feet, eyes flicking up.
Read the cue to turn. If the defender is between you and where you want to go, the drag-back turn is an option. With a teammate free, a pass may be the better choice.
Decide before you arrive.
Take smaller touches as you get close to the pressure, and slow down a step early. Shorter steps let you stop without lunging. A small move of the body one way can help disguise the turn.
Ball close, brakes on early.
Drag it back
Put the sole of your foot on top of the ball and pull it back toward you. Your weight stays on your standing leg, knee slightly bent, so you stay balanced after the drag.
Sole on, pull, still balanced.
Turn & open up
Open your body to the same side as the foot you dragged with (right foot, turn right). Turn with the ball and don't turn your back to it.
Hips and ball turn together.
Keep your body between the defender and the ball as you come round. Use the arm nearest the defender for balance and to hold your space, without pushing.
You are the wall.
Accelerate
Take your second touch with the opposite foot and make it bigger, pushing the ball into the space you are turning into.
Small touches in, big touch out.
Accelerate as soon as you have turned and lift your head to find the goal, a teammate or open space.
Turn and burn.
Feel it
Think of three parts: the entrance (small touches, brakes on), the execution (sole pull and open up to the same side) and the exit (big touch with the other foot and a burst). Done well, it is one smooth movement. You stay balanced, the ball stays in view next to you, and you are already speeding up while the defender is still adjusting.
Fix-its
- You turn your back to the ball and lose it Open your body to the same side as the dragging foot and keep the ball in view through the turn.
- You are off balance after the drag Brake earlier with shorter steps and smaller touches, and keep your weight on a slightly bent standing leg as the sole pulls the ball.
- The exit touch is too small, so the defender recovers Take the second touch with the opposite foot and push it into the space, then sprint after it.
- You turn, then stop Plan the exit before you drag. Accelerate as soon as the turn is done and get your head up.
- The defender sees it coming Disguise it. Sell the dribble or a pass with your body first, and turn only when the defender is between you and your target.
Drill
- Corner turns: players line up at the corners of a 20 x 20 yard grid. Dribble to the centre cone, drag back, turn and dribble back to your line. Switch feet each round.
- Close the gate: in a 24 x 24 yard grid with six gates, dribble through a gate, drag back and come back through the same gate. Turn with the ball, lift your head and accelerate after each turn. Make the gates or the area smaller as you improve.
- Laser wall: dribble toward a line of cones with small touches without hitting it, drag back through a small gate about 5 yards from the wall, then take big touches out to the far line. Repeat with your weaker foot.
- 1v1 semi-opposed: in a 24 x 24 yard grid with two goals, the coach serves the ball and the attacker must drag back and turn before dribbling to goal. Then let the defender try to win it.
- Turn and burn game: 4v4 on a 30 x 20 m pitch with two mini-goals at each end, two games of 2 minutes. Look for moments when a turn and a burst forward is the right choice.
By position
Any player on the ball can use it. The cue is the same everywhere: when a defender is between you and where you want to go and no pass is on, drag back, turn away and play the other way.
Sources
- Premier Users' Club (Myron Tkachuk) — Drag back turn session (Sport Session Planner)
- Premier Users' Club (Tasha Flynn) — Hotshots Week 2: Turning (drag back) (Sport Session Planner)
- Premier Users' Club (Ryan Bjelland) — Drag back technique: Turning, Edgemont Clinics U8 (2017)
- England Football Learning — How using the sole of the foot can benefit players (2023)
- US Youth Soccer — Skills School Manual (2017), Dribbling and Shielding
- FIFA Training Centre — Newcastle U-9s: Finding a way forward
- Dos'Santos, Thomas, Comfort & Jones — Training interventions on change of direction biomechanics, Sports Medicine (2019)
Last checked 2026-10-31.