Tag Archives for " Passing "

1 Teaching Possession Play

Telling a team that they need to, 'Keep possession' is such an abstract and nonspecific concept for so many young players. Teaching them what it takes to keep the ball gives them specific things that they need to do in order to ensure that the team has the best chance to retain the ball.

In David Goldstein's book, 'Improving Your Team's Possession Play' he outlines simple system that can be taught to players at any age or level of play. The core principle is that the player with the ball must have a, 'Left, Right and Split'.

Here is an excerpt that explains this and the other important concepts of the book.

So what is left/right/split support? It is simply that the person with the ball has someone on the left of them for support, someone on the right of them for support and someone working to

0 Passing, Receiving, Quick Turns 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, receiving, quick turns and movement off the ball.

Start with 2 lines of players 20 yards apart and one player in the middle. A ball starts with the first player in one of the lines.

The player with the ball passes to the player in the

0 Distribution with the Feet

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on distribution with the feet.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server 30 yards out (with balls), a line of players even with the server and a player out wide on each side.

The server plays a ball back to the

0 Footwork, Fitness and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness and finishing.

Start with three balls lined up 5 yards apart beyond the top of the D and then 6 balls spread out around the top of the 18. There is a keeper in goal and a line of players beyond the last ball.

The first player starts by sprinting to the first ball and

0 Teaching Pressing to Increase Effort Level

Occasionally a team will play a game when the effort level is just not there. There can be many reasons (or excuses) for it but when this happens with one of my teams I use it as an opportunity to explain that each player is responsible for their level of effort. When they go on

0 Quick Passing and Receiving Warm-Up

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a quick passing and receiving activity to be used as a warm up.

Start with two lines of cones with each cone 3 yards from the next. The two lines are 5 yards apart. There are two players in this activity and one ball.

The players are playing two touch and it starts with

0 Dutch Up, Back and Through to Finish

Some  coaches may consider pattern play to be limiting. They say, 'I don't want my players to be robots that just pass and move in the patterns that I've taught them.' I can understand this and I agree with it but where are our players supposed to get their creative ideas from? We want our

0 Passing, Receiving and Awareness

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving and awareness.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with 3 groups of 4’s.  The size of the grid and the number of people in the groups can vary based on availability, ability and need.  Three players start with a ball.

In this example, the black team passes to the yellow team.  The yellow team passes to the blue team and the blue team passes

3 Passing Under Pressure and Moving After the Pass

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on passing under pressure and moving after the pass.

Start with 4 lines of players, with each line in the middle of an endline of a 25 x 25 area.  One player starts with a ball.

The sequence is quite simple.  The player with the ball passes to

0 Technical Passing Practices Using Different Shapes

Once we've taught players the proper technical components of passing (foot next to the ball, toes out and up, ankle locked, pass through the middle of the ball) then the natural progression is to have the players pass and move in a pattern in order to accommodate team of players and to replicate the shapes found inside of the game.

The most widely used shape is probably the classic 'Dutch Square'

0 A First Touch with a Purpose

The most important touch is a player's first touch. If that touch is a positive touch away from pressure and in the direction that they want to play there is a much greater chance of keeping possession. When the first touch is poor, into pressure and away from support, the chances of losing the ball are much greater. If your player's first touch is putting them into a tackle, it was a poor first touch.

The key to having a good first touch is giving that touch a purpose. Too often players are only concerned with

3 Changing the Point of Attack

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on changing the point of attack and taking advantage of the defensive shifts.

This activity uses a half field and has 4 attacking players, 3 defending players and a keeper in goal. There are outside zones from the 18 extended to the sideline and one of the attacking players starts in each outside zone.

The two central attackers can pass back and forth until one

0 Teaching Build Up Play Progressively Part 2

This session builds on the one I described in last week's post. The focus of this session on taking the shapes and patterns that were taught in the last session and making them more function.

This is a session I did with my U9 team. In our area we play 6 v 6 at this age so that's how we set up the game related patterns.

2 v 2 + 3

This is really a 5 v 2 game at it's heart. The idea is to

2 Teaching Build Up Play Progressively Part 1

I've written before about our club's philosophy that encourages teams of all ages to play out of the back as often as possible. The key to implementing this with your team is to teach the players what visual cues to look for so that they can see patterns in the options that are available. These

0 Passing Practice in Fours For Conditioning

By Alex Trukan

The passing practice in fours can be modified and used to develop multiple conditioning outcomes. Modification of this exercise shown below is focused on developing speed and agility. This physical component is required in 1v1 situations, during transition phase as well as in scoring and finishing scenarios.

Set up and directions:
Organize number (3) of rectangles as shown on the diagram, depending on the quantity of players. Divide players into groups of four, with each group having two balls. One player should be placed on each end of the rectangle and two players in the middle.

The simplest variation of this game requires middle players to show up for a pass, ask for a ball, play one-touch pass back to the outside player and

0 Dynamic Training For Overlaps

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

Start with two lines of players 30 yards apart and two players in the middle, 15 yards apart. There is a ball with the first player in one of the lines.

The player with the ball passes to one of the middle players and then

0 Technique Triplets

By Keith Scarlett This activity works on technique, first-touch, passing, receiving, turning and fitness. Set-up: The players break into groups of three. Two players start 40 metres apart with the third player in the middle. Each player on the outside has a ball while the player in the middle does not. How it Works: The

0 Passing Drill with Turns and Movement

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s passing activity works on passing, quick touches, turns and movement.

This activity involves 5 players per group. 2 groups of 2, 20 yards apart and a player in the middle. One of the players on the outside has a ball.

The player with the ball starts by passing to the player in the middle. The passer then

0 Take-Over Drill

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, takeovers and turns. Start with 2 players 20 yards apart, one of whom has a ball. A third player is behind the player with the ball. The player with the ball starts by passing to

2 5 v 2 Progression

I feel confident in saying that most coaches use a 5 v 2 possession game in their training plan. It's a great exercise that is a technical challenge but also requires the players to make good decisions about where to pass and how to support. Like any exercise, if you use it too often it

0 Build Up Play Through Quick Passing

This weeks posts is from the May edition of WORLD CLASS COACHING magazine that is available exclusively to Member Drills Database subscribers. The training session was contributed by Kevin Thelwell who is the Head of Football Development and Recruitment for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Reed has been working with professional clubs for more than 13 years. He

0 One-Touch Passing For Speed and Movement

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on 1 touch passing with movement

Start with 4 players positioned in a rectangle that is 30 x 15 and 2 other players in the middle.

The player in the top left hand corner (player 1) starts with a ball and begins by

2 Passing and Anaerobic Endurance

By Alex Trukan

Passing is recognised as one of the core skills in football. This pattern practice focuses on improving this component altogether with anaerobic endurance. That will enable players to sustain the quality of actions throughout the whole match.

Set up and directions:
Organise four cones (2 cones and 2 markers) 20-25 yards apart from each other diagonally as shown on the diagram. Divide players into two groups and set one group on one marker and the second group on the opposite marker. Only one ball will be used in the practice but min. of 4 balls should be placed around and supplied immediately when needed. The practice starts as the first player passes the ball to the opposite group.

After the pass is made, opposite player plays the ball back (one or two touches) and the game continues. Player who has made a pass sprints to

1 Progressive Turning Practice

Turning is an important skill to develop because players often receive the ball with their back to pressure and need to have the ability to control the ball around that pressure and move the ball forward.

As with all soccer skills, they developed over time through a number of training sessions but below is one example of a practice that will lead your players through the learning process.