Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): technical passing (Start Time: 2024-02-27 17:20:00)

Screen 1 (15 mins)

Passing technical drill aimed at U14 and over

practice time 4 blocks of 3 mins 

practice set up - 16 cones or floor markers

8-12 balls 

pitch area 36 -36 again this can be reduced or made bigger

12 players required can make numbers bigger or smaller depending on number of players at session

pass and follow the ball, focusing on different parts of the foot, keep it simple to start (side footed pass)

Player 1 passes ball to player 3 and follows their pass.

player 3, controls it and sends a pass to player 2 

this continues for a block of 3 mins looking at accuracy, weight of pass, control when receiving pass. at the end of the 3 mins coach can quickly intervene with the group setting expectations for the next 3mins.

coaching point, coach should be in the best possible position to view all players, if coach is by themselves then move around practice set up

Adaptations (Progressions & Regressions):

after the 3mins, progress the technical into using a lofted pass, again still looking at pass and follow method.

after a lofted pass look to complete a follow through pass on the floor

if the task is becoming easy then look to extend distance between players and number of touches on the ball.

Regression- reduce area size and focus on touch and weaker foot pass.

Challenges, Conditions or Targets: set conditions being how many passes can the players complete in a 3 min block, targets being how many touches the players use, for more advanced players ensure they take fewer touches for those who are not quite there yet increase the touches.

can the players demonstrate the 3 different passes ?

after each block of 3 mins gives the coach perfect timings for interventions 

coaches position will more than likely be as shown as it gives a perfect view of what is happening and how things can be adapted if needed. from this position on the pitch the coaches can quickly intervene if needed.

Screen 3

rules

12 players or more

1 ball 

3 set of bibs if you don't have 3 sets two will fine.

pitch put into 4 sections as shown, cones can be used to mark pitch out.

wave passing game 

3 teams of 4, each colour in different zone as shown above.

blues stay in zone 1 until they complete 5 passes after this they can come out of the zone and try and feed a ball through middle team (black tops) into the red team. 

when blue team have the ball the black team are allowed to send 1 player out to try and stop 5 passes from happening, this player will then stay out and try to stop the bule to from sending the ball through to the red team. the remaining 3 black players stay on the half wayline to block passes (they can not come off the line). team that sends a ball through to the other team gets a goal. if the pass is intercepted the the middle team come out and the team that lost the ball go into the middle.

Adaptations (Progressions & Regressions):

15 min game with blocks of 4 mins, coach can intervene and set challenges (up the passes, reduce the size area, send 2 players from the middle in to get the ball.

regression- allow less passes for the end zone, black team player can only tackle in the end zone then becomes inactive to help the blue/red team have more time on the ball and pick the right pass.

Challenges, Conditions or Targets:

this is great as all teams can have mini targets and challenges, how many passes, can they go one touch. can they use different passing techniques? 

time bound.  

from a coaching point this small sided game can be broken into a group intervention if we wanted to slow the pace down or a mini group when the other team has the ball the coach can intervene with the smaller group of 4. on a drinks break the coach can pull a player aside for that one on one chat. 

at the end of the session the coach can ask for that group feedback