By Matt Carroll

Constantine Drill

The Constantine Drill is excellent for use in a session where you are working on first-time clears or playing in a low block, or anywhere where you feel your team will absorb pressure from crosses.

The drill starts with the assigned number of defenders you want to have standing in the 18 with a goalkeeper. You may want just your back 3 or 4 here, or maybe you want some of the midfielders involved as well. Either way, try to line them up in positions they would be standing, either from a cross or a corner, depending on where you think your upcoming opponent will be most dangerous from. A kick taker, or several, should be set up in the spot(s) where the kicks will be taken. This can be set up by cone stations, or the spots can be randomly chosen to create situational variety.

The game starts with a ball being played into the box. The players in the box must clear the ball first time, with the ball leaving the designated area. The designated area can be the 18, but if you are looking for the players to clear to specific targets, or for bigger clears, the drill can be set up with players clearing the ball to target players or zones arranged with cones.

If the ball drops to the ground or is not cleared to the assigned area, players should do some sort of collective consequence, such as a push-up, or each drop is a portion of a lap. The tempo you want to set is determined by how fast the balls are played. For more game-like situations, have multiple kick takers at multiple stations, and vary the patterns to keep the players guessing, forcing them to communicate. To work more on set pieces, take fewer kicks, and give the players more time to communicate and arrange themselves.

To increase difficulty attacking players can be added, even just 1-2 players vying for the ball can be enough to dramatically increase the difficulty, but staying with 0 attackers allows players to focus simply on the technique of clearing a ball, as well as the communication from the other field players and their goalkeeper. The drill has a lot of variability that you can arrange in order to best set up for whatever your team needs. 

By Matt Carroll