Tag Archives for " Passing "

5 First Touch Training in 'The Cage'

When I'm constructing an activity for a training session I try to make sure there is an opportunity for the players to work on their first touch. After all, every individual action begins with a first touch. A one touch pass is really just a controlled first touch to another player. I also like use

0 W Passing Pattern

The use of shapes in passing patterns is very common. Most coaches will be familiar with diamond and square passing patterns. The Dutch are fond of 'Y' passing patterns. A pattern that I had not run across before, but transfers beautifully to game situations, is the 'W' pattern. I found it in The Complete Soccer

2 Train Like the Dutch

There are a number of books that I return to again and again for ideas and inspiration. Dutch Total Football is one of those books.

The author, Terry Michler, has studied the Dutch methodology over many years. This book is a in-depth review of all aspects of their system. It includes a history of Dutch soccer beginning with

0 Active Possession Drill

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on quick passes, accuracy, footwork and more

Start with three players in a triangle approximately 15 yards apart. One player has a ball.

The players start by passing to each other one touch so that the ball

1 Dutch Flow Exercise

By Keith Scarlett

This activity works on technical and tactical aspects of finishing, passing, attacking in a 1v1 situation and goalkeeping.

Set-up:
Field length is 44 yards (length of the penalty area). Width is from the edge/corner of the penalty area to the midfield line. Two flags should be placed in the middle of each end line to be used as goals. 4 additional cones should be placed equidistant from each corner-flag (goal-post) and each corner cone on the end lines; per the diagram.

Each goal should have a goalkeeper in it whom is playing full-out and the balls should be split into two groups and placed

0 Transitioning From Indoor to Outdoor Soccer

While much of what I do during the Futsal season is intended relate to soccer in general and not just Futsal, there is still an adjustment period that my teams go through when we move from indoor to outdoor. The two areas that I focus on during the transition are recognizing and playing longer passes and finishing with a different ball, on the larger goal.

Shooting sessions to prepare the players for the different

0 Playing Out of Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing the ball out of pressure in order to go forward.

Start with a 20 x 10 grid with two attacking players and one defending player. One of the attacking players starts with the ball in the middle of the grid with his back to the defender. The other attacker is further back from the end line they are attacking.

The attacking players are trying to dribble the ball across the end line behind the defender. In games, players sometimes have a tendency to

0 Preparing for Super F National Finals

The purpose of the winter Futsal league is mostly to keep the player's foot on the ball during the cold midwest winter. But each year the teams in our club participate in the Super F National Finals. The tournament brings together teams from around the United States in age groups from U8 through Men's Open. The tournament is great way to end the Futsal season and bring together all of the technical and tactical work we've done throughout the winter.

Being able to hold the ball under pressure is

2 Warm-Up For Passing and Dribbling

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a warm up that works on short passing, turning while receiving the ball, dribbling, turning off the dribble and longer passes.

Start with server with a ball and a player 30 yards away (in this example, there is only one server and one player but you would have many going at the same time in a team training session). There should also be a line 15 halfway between the server and player.

The player checks to the ball and the server passes it so

0 One-Touch Passing and Agility

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

Start with the player at a cone and 4 cones in a horizontal line 5 yards in front. There is a server, with a ball, 10 yards from the line of cones.

The player starts by sprinting to the first cone, and as soon as he gets there

0 Keeping Sessions Fresh During the Winter

With our harsh Midwest winters we are forced to do most of our training indoor. This usually means training in school gymnasiums. They vary in size but most are much smaller than the spaces we use outdoor and severely limit what training topics can be covered.

We do a lot of technical dribbling and passing work during this time because the players get a lot of touches, the sessions are easily scaled to the number of players at training and small spaces actually help to increase the pressure on the players. It requires them to keep closer control and be more aware of open space.

While these sessions are great for technical development, they are

0 Competitive Small Group Training

This is an excerpt from our latest book, 'Competitive Small Group Training' by Tony Englund.

Introduction

As a long-time enthusiast of coaching books, I was struck recently in looking through my library that the vast majority of compilations of training exercises are based on either progressions from small numbers

3 Passing Combinations and Aerobic Fitness

By Jebreel Bubtana

The following exercise and progression will work on your player’s aerobic fitness whilst using a ball. It is important to incorporate the ball into fitness exercises, as this will ensure that your players are working on their technique as well as their fitness during exercises.

Set up the field as shown below in figure 1 in a 30x30 yard area. Depending on the age of your team, you can make the area smaller. The gates made by the discs are 5 yards apart. You will also need to split your team into four groups, with each group having one ball.

The idea with this exercise is that all 4 groups link together with passing in an anti clockwise direction. The exercise starts with the player who is

0 Creating Movement to Create Options

During the winter my teams play Futsal. I have always been frustrated by my team's lack of movement and interchanging of positions. The players tend to stay in a small area which creates fewer options.

I put the following session together in order teach my players to pass, move and be aware of the movements of their teammates. If each time a player passes and moves another player slides to

0 Receiving the Ball Under Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on receiving balls under pressure and passing away from pressure.

Start with 3 players in a 20 x 20 grid with a ball.

The black player starts with the ball and passes to

1 Conditioned Passing Game

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured game is a regular scrimmage with an emphasis on passing

Depending upon the number of players available this can be a full field game (11 v 11) or smaller if less numbers are available. Play with full sized goals (or if keepers aren’t available play with small goals).

All regular rules apply and the only difference with this game and a normal game is the scoring.

A “negative” pass counts as 1 point. This would be a pass made away from the goal you are attacking. In this case, negative means away from and NOT bad.

A “neutral” pass in the defensive half of the field counts as

1 Balancing Creativity and Decision Making

This is an area that I'm constantly thinking about. Especially with players that are moving from one developmental stage to the next. My focus currently is on my U10 that plays in a U11 division. We have focused on individual technique to the point where they are very confident with the ball. But at times

0 Pass Combination with Sprints

By Daniel Severn

This week we have an easy to set up, fun, but hard working exercise. This exercise works well with groups of either five or six players.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below. The exercise runs with a simple passing combination running around the outside of the marked square (around 10-15 yards each side). Ensure to have 2 or more players at the starting cone and only 1 player per spare cone, as shown.

The ball will be passed around the area in an anti-clockwise rotation. The players must sprint to the

0 Teaching Three Runs to Create Options

This is one of those sessions that I read or saw another coach present but I can't recall where. I wish I could give the coach credit because I've found it to be a very useful session to teach players how to make runs for their teammate with the ball.

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

0 Dribbling and Passing Warm-Up Game

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a dribbling and passing warm up game.

Start with 15-18 players in a big circle (40 yard diameter) with a small square (5 x 5) in the middle

Start with one player having a ball. This player dribbles into

10 Playing Out of the Back

The year our club is emphasizing the need for our teams to learn to play out of the back from goal kicks and goalkeeper possessions. It will take time for the players to learn how to maintain possession under pressure and build up an attack. There will also be times when we give up goals because of mistakes by the goalkeeper and defenders. However, the long term up-side far out weight the loss of a goal or even a game. If we train our players to deal with pressure and play around it from the back, they will be better able to do this all over the field.

This starts with our youngest teams. Here is how we want our U8, U9 and U10 teams to take goal kicks:

0 Creating Scoring Opportunities For the Withdrawn Forward

This post is an excerpt from our new book, "The False 9", by James Lambert.  The excerpt is from the Training Sessions chapter and the section focusing on the passing drills part.

Passing Exercise – Striking the Ball 1

Objective:
Passing Exercise building up to a strike at goal.

Exercise Description:
Previous coaching points leading up to the

1 Passing and Receiving

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

Start with 3 groups in a confined space. In this example, we have 3 groups of 4’s in a 40 x 40 area. One of the groups starts with a ball.

The yellow group starts with a ball and they are looking to

0 Using One-Touch Passing to Improve Attacking

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on one touch passing and attacking in a game situation.

This is a small sided game (although it can be 11 v 11 on a full sized field) with only two limitations.

A player can only play one touch

The only exception so rule 1 is if they attack a defender or the goal with their first touch.

As an example, in the picture below the black team has the ball.

The player can pass one touch or can