The world of soccer training apps is a big one, and it’s filled with a lot of apps that aren’t worth the (virtual) paper they’re printed on. Our guide to the Top 5 Soccer Training Apps is here to help you navigate this minefield of questionable products and find the real gems.

We’ll cover a series of different apps ranging from libraries of drills to personalized soccer workouts to tactical play simulators. These apps are all free to use but bear in mind that most of them feature in-app purchases and paywalls as a way to make money. Don’t worry — we consider that when it comes to making our recommendations.

1. Soccer Training by CoachingApp

Summary

You know how they say that practice makes perfect? That’s close, but the reality is a little different — perfect practice makes perfect.

Sitting pretty in the fifth spot, CoachingApp’s Soccer Training app comes preloaded with an impressive array of training exercises. The drills include some of the following elements:

• Difficulty (one to three stars)
• Training content
• Duration
• Number of players needed
• Common Variations

How It Works

The way it works is simple. Simply select the category of training you want to work on from the menu, e.g. “Warm-up”, then choose what drill or activity you want to run. The app then gives you a quick overview of the exercise and an illustrated graphic to really bring it to life.

It’s not the best app in the world, but it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a reasonably lightweight library of basic drills.

Reviews

While the idea is sound, this app suffers from a few flaws. First, most of the content is locked behind paywalls. While there’s a good number of free exercises and drills included in the ‘lite’ version of the app, you’ll have to pony up some cash in order to really access the core content. Secondly, the app in its current state is rather prone to crashes. It’s not game-breaking, but it could use an update to improve functionality.

Michael Williamson says, “Good, but English instructions need help. Graphical animations are great. Could be larger, but good to help explain to players.”

2. Soccer Exercises for Kids

Summary

Grupo Campus’s Soccer Exercises for Kids has more than 300 different soccer training exercises divided into different age groups. The app categorizes the exercises into some of the following categories:

• Tactical
• Technical
• Physical
• Specific
• Psychological

How It Works

Easy to use is the name of the game here. Select the age group you’re working with and choose from a mishmash of different training exercises from the above categories.

For example, if you’re working with some kids under the age of 8, the “Stealing balls” exercise may be a good one. Break the team up into a set of pairs, and give one player from each pair a ball. The objective? Steal your partner’s ball!

Each exercise comes with an animated graphic that shows the exercise in motion. On top of that, the app lists the technical, tactical, psychological, and physical skills emphasized in each drill. Not too shabby!

Reviews

There’s a fair amount of information, but don’t expect a whole lot of functionality. There’s currently no way to bookmark your favorite exercises or create custom lists. The menu is a bit tedious as well — no easy way to sort the different drills.

On top of that, it’s pretty the app creators don’t speak English as a first language. There’s a fair number of spelling and grammar mistakes, but they don’t really detract from the core utility of the program.

User J. Johnson sums it up well with, “Great storehouse of soccer games and drills … Needs sorting, saving, and maybe planning ad on”.

3. My Goal: Your Soccer Trainer

Summary

Third on our list is My Goal: Your Soccer Trainer.

It’s pretty good. Really good, in fact. You get access to HD videos, clearly written instructions, and an app that doesn’t crash.

But it’s not good if you’re expecting free content.

How It Works

This app is definitely a step-up in terms of quality from the first two on our list. That said, you’re looking at a paywall, and a steep one at that. The default version of the app comes with a handful of free training exercises. Each exercise includes footage of an actual soccer player running the drill in real-time.

Videos are always great, but My Goal also includes a written breakdown of the procedure of each drill, important elements to keep in mind, and the overall difficulty of the exercise. There’s a lot of information packaged in a pretty clean format!

The downside? Paywalls, and lots of them. You get a set of exercises for “Speed”, “Tricks”, and “Warm Up” for free, but the others are going to cost you. It’s a clean method, though — you purchase the exercise you want to run (say, “Side-On Header”), pay the fee, and you’re instantly on your way.

However, it’s unclear whether or not the content is really worth paying for. The benefits of having each exercise in an app on your phone are clear, but you’ll get similar content elsewhere on the Internet for free.

Reviews

Reviews are quite positive. The app is clean, easy-to-use, and doesn’t come with excessive advertising or annoying pop-ups. The information is exactly what someone looking to improve their soccer games needs: simple, clear videos and text descriptions that show you exactly what to do.

The biggest flaw in this app seems to be the pricing model. Reviewers around the world agree: paying upwards of $20 to access all the videos seems unnecessary.

Kyle Beaulier maintains “It seems like a decent app, for the first 3 videos. After that, you would have to pay at least $25 to get the rest of the app for what should $2 at most. Kind of ridiculous for the pricing.”

4. Soccer Training

Summary

Fitivity’s Soccer Training app takes fitness training to another level, both in terms of quality and price. This is a comprehensive soccer training app that includes pretty much everything you could want—drills, workouts, stat tracking—but it’s not without its own set of downsides.

We know what you’re thinking. “Sweet! Free-to-download, plenty of content, performance tracking…what’s not to like?”

Well, it may be free to download, but every single bit of functionality is locked behind an (expensive) paywall. With a steep $72 a year fee ($9.99 if you go month-to-month), you’re paying a lot of money for a lot of locked content.

The app offers a 7-day free trial, but watch out for automatic subscription billing at the end of the trial period.

How It Works

The app divides soccer skills into weeks, which are then broken down into a set of workouts. For example, Week 1: Workout 1 has you working on exercises like “One Touch Passing” or “Thigh to Instep Left”. Each workout contains more than twenty different drills and exercises that come with a mix of video and audio cues. Once you finish a drill, feel free to move on to the next.

Reviews

Reviews are largely positive, but there’s some debate as to whether the content is worth the monthly premium. If you’ve got the cash, the app has a great collection of well-organized drills across all levels of play.

Frank Kotarski makes a salient point on the pricing model: “Why not just make it a paid app if you’re not gonna let me use it without paying…”

But Brett Hall thinks the app is well worth the money with his comprehensive review:

“A must have for any coach or player regardless of current level of play. The association of videos and drills is spot on. The monthly subscription for the Pro membership is well worth it. The benefits are endless. Entry level and advanced drills for individuals or team workouts, perfect. Tricks, wall work, volley, passing, shooting, footskills…you name it you got it. Fitivity nailed it.”

In the end, the best thing to do is try it out for yourself! Abuse that 7 day free trial period and see if the app is worth it to you.

5. Soccer Tactic Board

Summary

If you’re looking for an app that lets you create your own soccer tactics, this is the app for you. Soccer Tactic Board is an excellent little tool that lets you create your own tactics and plays without the hassle of a complicated program. It’s loaded with features and functionality, it’s lightweight, and it’s got a short learning curve. Best of all, it’s free.

Simply put, this app is a way to illustrate soccer plays on a virtual pitch.

How It Works

The app is completely no-frills: load it up and you’re immediately presented with a blank soccer pitch. The handful of tools are intuitive and easy-to-use:

• Simple Line
• Arrow
• Dotted Arrow
• Pen
• Text
• Area selection

You can also change the field from a standard field to half view, freekicks, or penalty.

What’s great about this app is the versatility. There’s no need to worry about cumbersome whiteboards or playbooks being misplaced — you can compile each and every soccer tactic you need into a single app.

Best of all, you’re not stuck with static images. The app is built around frame-by-frame animation, so you can illustrate your plays to make them even easier to understand.

Reviews

For a free app, Soccer Tactic Board is hard to beat. It sits pretty with a solid near-5 star rating on Google Play Store out of some 6,000 reviews.

Kamran Babar says that the app is “Great for setting a team and providing instructions. Still think it can improve especially with a quick tutorial.”

Christian Carranza agrees that “it is a great tactical board.”

The reviews are clear: if you need a virtualized soccer field to showcase tactical plays, this is the app for you.

Bringing it Home

The world of soccer training apps is filled with tools of questionable quality, but the Top 5 Soccer Training apps listed here will point you in the right direction.

To sum up:

CoachingApp’s Soccer Training is great as a (paywalled) library of short exercises and drills.

The “My Goal: Your Soccer Trainer” app is another solid choice if you want a library of soccer drills and exercises, but you’ll have to pay for the price of video content.

Fitivity’s Soccer Training tops the charts in terms of soccer training content and functionality but isn’t the cheapest app around.

Lastly, Soccer Tactic Board sits alone as a truly excellent free app that makes crafting static or animated versions of your soccer plays a breeze. If you’re going to download one app to improve your soccer game, make it this one—there’s a lot to be said for seeing soccer plays mapped out in front of you.

What We Recommend

It’s tough to recommend paying for soccer training apps when YouTube is a thing. There’s so much free content out there that paying for it can be a tough sell!

That said, there’s a lot of plusses for having quality paid content instantly accessible on your mobile device. If you want to pay for a soccer training app, we recommend trying out Fitivity’s Soccer Training 7 day free trial. Give it a go and see if the content is worth paying for. 

For a free app? It’s tough to beat Soccer Tactic Board. Equally useful when sitting bored in a doctor’s office as it is in the locker room, this is a seriously fun little tool.