Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Passing

Technical (5 mins)

Organisation

Using 12 players, Line up 3 players on each cone with the first player ready to play and the 2 players in behind giving them a little space to manoeuvre.

Demonstration

My assistant along with myself will do a demonstration in the middle of the square so that everyone can get in position to see and hear clearly and to show the mechanics we are looking for in the first part of the passing session.  

Drill

The players from group A and group C will start by getting the balls out of their feet and play passes into players B and D with a firm side footed pass and then follow their pass in and join the backs of groups B and D, Players B and D will watch the ball in and control with a strong ankle get their heads up and change direction getting the ball out of their feet and continuing the drill with a firm pass into players C and A and then joining the back of them groups, players C and A will repeat into D and B, players D and B complete the cycle passing into the next players in Group A and C, this will continue clockwise for 2 minutes 30 seconds when I will then call for a change of direction to anticlockwise for a further 2 minutes and 30 seconds to ensure players are practicing off both feet and varying passes with different parts of the foot, standing back and observing throughout, if I find that its too difficult for the group with 2 balls I would regress the drill by taking a ball back and continuing with 1 ball to complete the technical drill.

Mechanics

Passing

Look at target,

Eye on the ball,

Head over the ball to ensure keeping the pass on the floor,

Set non kicking foot alongside the ball, 

Play a side footed pass with the inside of the foot with a firm ankle and follow through towards target through the centre of the ball.

SSG (15 mins)

Organisation

Remove central 5 cones from Technical and Skill drills and bib up 2 teams of 6 and try to set the pitch where it has relevance to an actual match at the weekend, here I have set the game central as most passes during gameplay will be through the middle third, my assistant and myself will once again get in position to see everything and intervene if needed.

Drill

The most important part of the session I think as this is what the players actually want and ask for all the time.. a game situation, this is now a chance for me to see if the players have taken on board what we have worked on through the session so for the first 5 minutes of the game I am going to limit the players touches to maximum 3 this way they have to pass, I will stand back and observe, if the players are taking it seriously we will continue for the 5 minutes if I think that players are not taking it seriously and just shooting for the sake of it from all over the pitch I will limit everyone to a 1 touch finish, this challenge always done the trick for me as again it makes the players think, for the next 5 minutes I would limit the players to halves of the pitch with only 3 players allowed in the attacking half and 3 in the defending half however with the condition that if the 3 players defending completed 4 successful passes 1 player would be allowed to enter the attacking half until the attack was over or ball lost at this time a different player would return to the defending half to ensure rotation movement and thought, for the final 5 minutes its a all in game where I will observe and intervene if required and challenge individually quietly if need be, I would encourage all the players as I have done all session and I will always try and end the final game on a draw, this way everyone goes home happy and has hopefully more importantly taken something away from the session, I will always end and leave the session by thanking everyone, telling them how well they have done and ask if anyone has any questions as I would do throughout the drills.

Mechanics

Although it is a PASSING session throughout the players would have used a lot of mechanics from other aspects of our game, Passing, Control, Turning, Dribbling and Shooting mechanics would have all been used at some stage.