A first touch flick is a directional first touch: instead of stopping the pass dead, you take it in one touch into the space you picked before it arrived, so your second touch can be a pass, a shot or a dribble. Most of the work happens before the ball gets to you: a scan, an open body and moving onto the pass. We read that body shape (open, side-on, turned toward the space), not the ball contact.
Set up
Before the ball arrives, check over your shoulder for the ball, opponents, teammates and space, and pick where your touch will go.
Know the space before the ball comes.
Open your body half side-on so you can see the passer and the space at the same time. Face the direction you want to move next, not square to the passer.
Body points where you're going.
Get on your toes and move onto the pass instead of waiting for it standing still.
On your toes, step to the ball.
Touch
Plan to take the ball on your back foot (the foot farther from the passer). This keeps your body open toward the next option.
Keep both knees a little bent and your arms slightly out for balance, and watch the ball onto your foot.
Meet the ball with the surface turned toward your space: the inside of the foot to take it forward or across, the outside of the foot (toes turned in) to take it away from a defender.
Redirect, don't stop.
As the ball arrives, give slightly with the foot to take some pace off, but keep it rolling into the space. Away from pressure, and toward goal when you can.
Soft, but moving.
Go with the ball on your next step, so your second touch is the pass, shot or dribble.
Touch and go.
Feel it
The ball never really stops. You saw the space before it arrived, your body was already facing that way, and the touch carries you after it. If you have to turn after the touch, your body shape was usually set too late.
Fix-its
- The ball gets stuck under you You were square to the passer. Open up half side-on before the ball arrives and take it on the back foot.
- Your touch runs into a defender You didn't scan. Check your shoulder before the pass arrives and touch away from the pressure you saw.
- Heavy touch: the ball runs away from you Your foot is stiff. Give slightly as the ball hits it to take some pace off, then follow it.
- Flat-footed: you get closed down while you wait Get on your toes and move onto the pass. Turning from a standstill is where you lose the ball.
- You touch one way, then have to turn your body Set your body to face the direction you want to go next before the ball arrives.
Drill
- Partner passes along the ground. First take it stationary, then redirect it with one touch to a cone on your left or right. Alternate sides and both feet.
- Circle receive: inside a 10 m circle, pass out to a player on the edge when you are within 5 m, take the return on the turn and move away into space.
- Control and shoot: curve your run around a cone to receive, first touch toward goal, shoot with the second touch.
- Around the clock: 10x10 yd diamond, three players per cone. Receive while a player from the next cone presses you; touch away from them and pass on.
- Small-sided game, 2v2 or 3v3: start unopposed, then add defenders. Goal: first touch into space every time you receive.
Sources
- FIFA Training Centre, Jacqueline Dünker — Directing the ball with the first touch (2023)
- England Football Learning, Emily Senior — Passing and receiving session: around the clock (2025)
- England Football Learning — How to coach players on receiving in football (2021)
- US Youth Soccer Coaching Education Department — Skills School Manual: Receiving, inside and outside of foot (2017)
Last checked 2026-10-26.