Micheal Minthorne:Hi! I am Micheal Minthorne and I am showing you how to properly perform different soccer movements. Right now we're going to discuss how to change directions properly. We're going to go over to two different ways to change directions. Being able to cut and being able to crossover is very important for soccer player. I have Den to help me demonstrate each of these movements. We are first going to talk about how to cut.

The cone is in Dan's reference point. As he comes up to the cone, nice and slow, he is going to cut with his right and go to his left. What he wants to keep in mind as he is cutting is to make sure he doesn't spend too much time on ground. It's a quick turn and once he is out of the cut, he is increasing his speed to accelerate out. So he comes up to the cone, cuts right and goes left.

Now the difference between a cut and a crossover step, if you noticed, is that Dan kept his hips open. He cut with his right, opened up with his left, his hips were open. So this change of direction is not for sharp angles. It's a quick cut to change direction.

Now we're going to work on a change of direction that's called a crossover step. He is going to pass the cone this time. As he approaches he slows down almost to a complete stop and then punches that outside knee across his body and then sprints out of the drill. So once again as you approach the cone you want to make sure you want to make sure you come to a stop and then punch that knee across the body. Sprint, stop, punch knee across. Good. The difference obviously again, is that he's turning his hips on the first step here. So he turns his hips where as opposed to opening his hips. The reason why he crossover step for a sharper angle, is because it takes less time to turn those hips. Once you get those hips turn you can sprint quicker. You can get out of you change of direction a lot faster.

Now for soccer players being able to change direction on defense is very important. Normally on defense in a lateral stance. So being able to stop and start in a lateral stance is very important.

Now Dan is going to show us how to do a hockey stop. He approaches the cone, he stops, turns his body sideways. If you noticed, when he stopped, he was in a defensive stance. So he will come again. Nice and slow stop there. Here is the defensive stance. This is a stance you want a defendant Now the person who will try to sprint by him, he will just perform a crossover step and sprint out of the hockey stop. This gives him the best chance to either stay with the defender or change direction quicker and steal the ball from him.

And those are two different ways to change direction. Next we're going to talk about how to do an active cool down.