Tag Archives for " Passing "

11 Five Goal Warm-Up Game

Lately I've begun many of my training sessions with a game. Not necessarily as a Whole - Part - Whole practice progression but just as a way to engage the players from the start and get them energized and excited to at training.

This is a game that I've used as a warm-up and in the main part of the session. I like it because of how many different things you can coach depending on your focus. As with most small-sided games, the kids really enjoy playing it so they get a lot out of it.

Here is how the field is set up:

The size of the field and goals can vary based on the

2 Building from the Defensive to Middle Third of the Field

Building from the Defensive to Middle Third of the Field By Chris Kouns These activities are designed to help your players understand “some” of the options that will be available to build from the back and get your team into positive attacking positions heading into the final third of the field. Activity 1: 3 v

1 Train Midfielders and Defenders to Pass to Feet or Space

With only two practices per week with my teams I've found that it works best to focus on a technical topic (Running with the Ball, Dribbling, Control, Shooting) during our first practice of the week and then Passing and Possession progressing to a small-sided game during the second session. We also do one shooting exercise toward the end of practice just to keep a focus on that before the weekend.

I'm always looking for variations on possessions games to focus on different aspects of possession and to keep the practice fresh. I was reminded of one recently when I was looking through one of our best selling books, 'Players' Roles and Responsibilities in Systems of Play'. By creating target areas in each corner

0 Passing Combinations in Threes

By Alex Trukan

This continuous passing pattern exercise is an engaging way to develop anaerobic endurance along with technical skills of passing. It is especially suitable for medium and advanced level players as in order to achieve physical objectives, it requires constant concentration and high intensity technical work. Once the players learned the rhythm of the practice, it is highly effective method of achieving specific fitness goals.

Set-Up and Directions

Set up four cones 10-15 yards apart and one in the middle. Organise three players as shown on the diagram below. One player on a bottom left cone has a ball. For a larger groups of players, organise separate squares to work in.

The exercise starts with a bottom left player passing the

2 Receiving that Ball Under Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on hard passes, applying high pressure and receiving a ball under pressure and beating a defender.

Start with a 40 x 20 grid with a line 15 yards from one of the end line. There is a player on each end line and the one closest to the line in the middle has a ball.

The player with the ball drives a

0 Improving Possession Play

Getting our players to make runs off the ball is difficult if they don't know where or how to run. Giving the players options to choose from will take some of the decision making out of the process.

I've started to teach my young players three different runs that create the foundation of our player movement. They are also somewhat progressive so that if one doesn't create an option then they can move to the next one or the one after that before coming back to the first one again.

This concept is from David Goldstein's Improving Your Team's Possession Play.

The three runs that this session focuses on are checking, drifting and

1 #002 Training Session to Teach Turning

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0 Warm-Up for Combination Play

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a warm up for combination play with a little bit of pressure.

There are two groups of four in a 20 x 20 grid with two balls. To start I’ll show this with only one group. Two players are on end lines and the other two are in the middle. The ball starts with one of the outside players.

The player on the outside starts by

0 4 v 4 + 3 Transition Game

By Alex Trukan

The 4 v 4 + 3 transition game can be used as a tool to develop not only technical aspects but also tactical and physical ones. From the fitness perspective, it focuses on improving Anaerobic Endurance which is responsible for maintaining high quantity of actions throughout the whole match due to quicker recovery between high intensity efforts. In addition to that, from a tactical point of view, this exercise places high demands on players to make quick transitions from attack to defence and vice versa.

Set-Up and Directions
Organise an area of approximately 20x30 yards. Divide the team into two groups of 4 players and additional group of 3 neutrals. One team of 4 players stays outside the square, second group of 4 is defending inside the

0 Passing and Movement off the Ball

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing and movement off the ball.

This is a simple diamond passing activity. One player starts by himself, 3 players are opposite him, 15 yards away and there are cones on each side, 10 yards apart.. The first player in the line of 3 has a ball.

The player with the ball passes to the

0 Using a Tag Progression as a Warm-Up

This week I want to share a warm-up that I've used with every age group I coach. It's a fun and dynamic game that can be used to prepare for many different types of sessions. It's based on a simple game of Tag. The first thing I do is have all of the players give

1 Passing, Following and Seeing Space

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, following the pass and seeing space.

Start with 5 players in a circle (you can use the center circle of a field for spacing purposes. There is one ball.

The player with the ball passes to any of the

0 Atletico’s Defensive Struggles this Season

By Stevie Grieve

Last season, Atletico Madrid won La Liga on the back of a strong defensive unit, good individual players and speed in transitions in both attack and defence. After losing GK Courtois, LB Felipe Luis and CF (and talisman) Diego Costa to Chelsea, they have struggled to recreate the attacking transitions that provided so many goals for Diego Costa, while being much less organised in defensive play, particularly in both horizontal and vertical compactness.

In the last 7 games against Atletico, Barcelona have struggled as Atletico’s game plan was simple – reduce space between units, stop Barcelona from being able to get players between the lines to receive and reduce the space on the side of the ball as much as possible. This did not happen.

Good Compactness in a situational 3-4-3

Here, Games is to press and play 1v1 against Messi who plays as a

3 Possession and Finding a Target Player

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession and finding a target player.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with a 5 x 5 area in the middle.

This is a 6 v 6 activity (the number of players and the size of the

0 Passing Pattern 'Y' to Improve Aerobic Power

By Alex Trukan

This exercise is an unopposed, continuous passing pattern aimed at developing aerobic power. Passing tempo and position interchanges forces players to be constantly on the move below their anaerobic threshold. Therefore, the practice is focused on developing the capacity to recover and sustain prolonged match conditions.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise 8 cones and players as shown on the diagram. Distance between first and second cones from the bottom should be half shorter than the distance between the second and third. Min. number of players for this exercise is 8.

The practice starts with a player on the bottom cone who makes a vertical pass forwards. The receiver on the

3 Liverpool Improving in Possession

By Stevie Grieve

Since the summer, Liverpool have struggled to get back to the fluid and penetrative style of last season. Losing Luis Suarez was a big blow, and replacing him with 2 immobile strikers instead of a more suitable mobile player or use the rapid and mobile Divock Origi (who stayed on loan at Lille) has caused no end of problems for the team in an attacking sense.

Recently, Brendan Rodgers has found a way to fit in his £25m signing Adam Lallana, talismanic figure Coutinho and potential World Class player Raheem Sterling, by using a system of 3-4-3-0, incorporating a back 3 with Emre Can able to stride into midfield and use his excellent ball playing abilities, with raiding full backs Moreno and Manquillo offering the width on the sides.

The often criticized Joe Allen has found a position similar to the one Busquets made his trademark by dropping between centre backs and operating in front of the oppositions midfield, looking for passes into midfield or attack from a deep position, with Henderson playing ahead of him in a position to press or offer short passes to and from Allen to keep play moving.

Liverpools 3-4-3 is designed to place players between the lines and attack the

2 The Top Clubs in Europe Do this in Training ....Do You?

This week's post comes to us from Bob Warming, the Head Men's Coach of Penn State University. Warming ranks third among active NCAA Division I coaches with 441 wins. He has been voted Big 10 Coach of the Year for two out of the last three years.

Coach Warming has traveled the world examining the training methods of the top teams and coaches. The innovative training system he describes below is something that most of us don't use and will certainly help take your team to the next level. 

First of all, don't feel bad if you haven't been doing this type training. And...if you are not doing this...don't feel alone! In my experience, very little of this type training is being performed in American soccer training sessions. It's not being taught in our coaching schools and yet it is prevalent throughout top teams in the world. If the academies and first teams at major clubs are doing this type training...shouldn't we be doing this type training in the USA?

I believe that we can add an important component to our youth training in America. I have seen this training develop quicker feet, quicker minds, and a transformation on my own players about thinking, combining and playing in Triangles. I only wish my players had started doing these type exercises when they were younger! And that is the main reason for this article.

Since we began using this methodology as part of our training, we have

0 Passing Back to the Goalkeeper

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing balls back to the keeper.

Using the keeper to relieve pressure is an important part of playing out of the back but it’s also something that is frequently neglected in training. Here is a simple activity that works on just this aspect of the game.

Start with a keeper in goal and a group of field player 40 yards from goal. A server is 45 yards out with some balls.

The server plays a ball behind the

0 Shooting Circuit and Starting Speed

By Alex Trukan

The shooting circuit exercise incorporates fitness content of starting speed. This quality is needed in 1v1 duels, runs for the ball or exploiting shooting opportunities in and around the penalty area. Due to competitiveness of this practice, players are motivated to perform at 100% intensity, having fun and being engaged at the same time!

Set up and Directions

Set up two goals on each side of the area and 3x3 yards square in the middle. Divide the team into two groups (give them different colour bibs) and organise them on each end, next to the goal as shown on the diagram. Each player should have one ball each. There should be one goalkeeper in each goal.

On a coach’s signal, one player from each side dribbles to the

1 Combination Play Exercise

A large part of teaching combination plays is teaching timing. The challenge is that timing is developed through an understanding of the basic principles and then getting the number of repetitions necessary to get a feel for the timing.

It's best to first teach the patterns of movement and basic principles of each combination play separately. The ones I focus on with young players are the give-and-go, overlap and layoff.

Once these have been learned and understood then I like to combine them into a pattern that allows for a lot of repetitions on both the left and the right side.

This setup is one that can be used for many passing activities from

0 'Numbers' Game to Improve Anaerobic Power

By Alex Trukan

This exercise is focused on improving Anaerobic Power which is required for acceleration and speed qualities. ‘Numbers’ game is appropriate and fun for almost any age group and ability level. Apart from physical area, it also focuses on 1v1/2v2 or 3v3 attacking and defending scenarios. It can be also used to develop skills needed to deal with underload (1v2/2v3) and overload (2v1, 3v2) situations.

Set up and Directions
Set up a pitch of approximately 20x30 yards. Divide a team into two groups of equal numbers. Organise them on each side of the pitch, next to the goal. Each player should have a number. Place one goalkeeper in each goal. Take coaching position as shown on the diagram. Prepare spare balls.

The game starts by coach passing the ball into the playing area and calling a

0 Passing and Dribbling Square

By Alex Trukan

The passing and dribbling square exercise is focused on improving technical skills along with physical capabilities. The main emphasis is placed on aerobic endurance maintenance which serves as a basis to improvement in anaerobic power and capacity. Apart from that, this practice enables the group to develop two different core skills – passing and dribbling. That can be used to suit the needs of individual players.

Set up and Directions
Organise a square as shown on the diagram below (area size depends on the number and characteristics of players). Divide a team into two groups. One group of 4 players takes positions around the square with one ball per group. Every player from the second group needs one ball each and should take starting position inside the square.

The outside group passes the ball to each other in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction. Players inside the

0 Decisions When Attacking

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking with pressure or playing away simple. Start with a 4 v 4 game plus keepers in a 50 x 40 grid with full sized goals (the number of players and size of the field can

0 Crisp Passing and Receiving

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on crisp, hard passes on the ground and receiving the same type of passes.

In a grid 12 x 6 with a midfield line, there are two groups of 2 players. Each group is on one side.

One team starts with a ball and makes a crisp hard pass, on the