By Jebreel Bubtana, BRASA, Brazilian Soccer Academy
I use this regularly during my warm up not only to work on my player’s fitness but also to get them passing and moving, getting them in the right frame of mind at the start of a practice. Sprinting over short distances is seen constantly during a game of soccer and this exercise works on this as well as the passing technique of your team.
Set up and directions:
Set up an area 15 x 15 yards with 4 cones in the corners. You will need 4 players per square with 1 ball (figure 1). You can set this up multiple times depending on your squad size.
The exercise is a simple passing and moving exercise in the square but after every pass, the player who passes the ball must sprint to and around the furthest cone away before they can touch the ball again (figure 2).
Coaching Points:
This exercise is meant to be performed at a high intensity so it is important to ensure that the players are sprinting after every pass.
Ensure that the players are using the correct passing technique (inside of the foot).
It is important that the players keep possession of the ball in the square throughout. Looking up is crucial in order to see who is available to pass to and who is coming back into the square after they go around a cone. Verbal communication is also important to be able to achieve this.
Progressions:
To progress this exercise, rather than sprinting around the furthest cone away, after the player passes the ball they must sprint for 5 yards into any space in the square. With this you can start to encourage the give and go, making the exercise more realistic (figure 3).
You can now add a defender making a 3v1 in the square. Again after every pass the player must sprint for 5 yards into space. This movement can cause some confusion for the defender as they will not know whether to follow the sprinting attacker who will be looking for the give and go or to go to the ball (figure 4).
By Jebreel Bubtana, BRASA, Brazilian Soccer Academy, NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and the NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma
