By Matt Carroll -
Asking players to go 1v1 requires them to utilize, pace, agility, skill, awareness, and when shielding or warding, and physicality. Asking players to go 1v1 for an extended time is a fantastic “bang for your buck” way to condition players on their ball. The Continuous 1v1 is designed to do just that while working in built-in physical breaks via bumper players, although they still must participate mentally.
To start create a large box with plenty of room for all players. Size will vary but you want plenty of space to a. Increase the physical demands b. Avoid players cutting into each other if possible. Next, you need to break your players into three different teams. One team will be placed on the outside of the box on the lines, spread out evenly. One team will partner up with a player from the other team. Give one ball to each pair of players.
On the coaches signal the player in the pair attempts to dribble towards one of the bumper player. They score by being able to complete a pass to the bumper and receive a pass back. If they complete the interaction they get a point. If the pass to the bumper, or back to the player is interrupted then they do not score a point. If the errant pass goes out of bounds the bumper player passes back to the player that had been defending when the ball went out and now the former defender attempts to dribble to a bumper player and score. If at anypoint the defender is able to take the ball from their opponent they then become the attacking player. Resets from balls that are deflected or dribbled out of bounds start with a dribble-in and defenders must give a 5 step berth to allow the attacking player into the grid.
To make the game more competitive add gates in which players need to dribble to score additional points. In addition, you can have players who have passed to a bumper player need to find another bumper to receive from.
By Matt Carroll
