An often hotly debated topic on Matt and I’s Coaching Soccer Weekly Podcast is how do we go beyond the traditional line drills and get players more touches and scanning more as a part of their warmup. In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day I posted this drill I got from the Irish FA that introduces the chaos of the game and the need to scan and see your surroundings while still getting touches on the ball and mastering various concepts of the game.
The activity is simple, have a 10X10 box inside of a bigger 25X25 grid. You can start with 8 players inside of the smaller 10X10 box with a ball and then have 8 players stationed at various parts of the bigger 25X25 grid without a ball. In my video I had 9 players and purposely created an extra to add in that concept of scanning and add a little bit more chaos to the drill.
The Irish Box is a simple pass and replace drill where at the first stage, players will find a player on the outside box and will pass to them. They will simply exchange places as the player who passed the ball takes that spot on the outside grid while the player who receives the pass will dribble into the smaller 10X10 box and then finds a new player to pass to. They cannot go back to the same player.
The second step of the progression is to add a defensive aspect. When the pass is played, the player receiving the pass will pull a skill move on the player who passed them the ball. The player who passed them the ball will break down in a defensive stance and then will allow the player pulling the move to go by them before they replace their spot on the outside grid. It is imperative that you teach your players that even though they are letting the offensive player go by, the close down and effort to get into their defensive stance is a 100% effort move. Do not let your players get lazy with their close downs and defensive stances because they know they are getting beat.
The last progression adds a give and go “1,2” move. The player who passes the ball to the player on the outside should open up and create a proper angle to play a 1,2 with the player who is receiving the pass. Players will tend to run straight at the player they are playing a pass too which is poor technique and will not work in a real game when you are connecting in your midfield. Make sure whoever is playing the 1,2 pass back creates an angle to receive the pass, lets the ball roll across their body then play the ball into the path of their partner before replacing them. These passes should all be one touch.
