By Matt Carroll -
Soccer is a dynamic sport that requires a variety of different elements to be aligned to perform our best. Mentality, technical ability, tactical understanding, physical condition, agility, and countless other factors influence player performance. With that being said it can be difficult as coaches to cover all those elements individually in the 3-4.5 hours a week we may have to instruct our players. That is where conditioning with the ball comes in, by implementing your conditioning with your technical/tactical work coaches are able to tackle 2-3 massive elements in a singular drill. In the continuous overlap drill we are hitting conditioning, finishing, and overlapping runs into one drill that can be worked on and completed in 15-20 minutes. The drill itself works best for smaller groups so if you have the field space set up a number of the grids shown below, but if not and you have an assistant this may be a good time to take a few players at a time and have your other coach run a small sided game or drill at the same time.
As shown above we have two goals set up with a goalie and two goalkeepers set up in each. Range will vary based on age group, but you are going to want there to be enough distance for the players on the outside to be able to take 2-3 big touches and a shot, with the shot being just inside the 18. You should also have a cluster of balls at the feet of a passing player on opposite sides of each goal. In addition you should have coaching sticks or cones set up to guide the runners to run through.
The drill starts with the runners starting behind the net and running around in a way that simulates an overlap run. As they do so the passer plays a ball that should cross over their near shoulder and meet their back foot, the runner should receive the ball in stride taking a large touch in towards the goal and find a shot. You will want to have a shooting line set up so the runners cannot simply just walk the ball into the goal. After they shoot the runner then runs around the goal they shot at and repeats the action on the other side.
To make the drill more competitive you can create each action worth a point value. In order to increase the pace you can award one point for each shot. To further this part of the competition you can create points, or penalties for the other runner, if they are able to overlap their opponent (i.e. 5 points or the opposition needs to stop and do 10 pushups before they can continue, etc.). To ensure quality you should have point values for scoring, and then you can even go further by creating specific point values for near post, far post, side netting, goals scored in a row, etc.
In closing, the Continuous Overlap Drill is a great value shooting and overlap drill that also implements conditioning in your session.
By Matt Carroll
