FineSoccer Drill 187

Here is an interesting way to work on passing, movement, fitness and looking for the penetrating pass.

Start with a 15 x 15 yard grid and have a 4 yard equilateral triangle in the middle made up of coaching sticks (if you don't have coaching sticks, you can use cones).  There are 5 players in the activity with one being a defender and the other four being on offense.  The 4 players try to maintain possession while also looking to score goals by playing the ball through the triangle to their teammates.  The defender is NOT allowed inside the triangle so she must be constantly working her way around the triangle trying to cut of the penetrating passes.  See the diagram below for the set up

The thing that makes this such an interesting activity is the required movement off the ball by the offensive players.  On every pass they are moving in order to get into a better position to either make a penetrating pass or to receive one (as opposed to the norm in possession games when players wait till they receive a ball before thinking what to do next, in this game the players have to be thinking ahead of the passes because it's not good enough to just play the ball through the triangle, a teammate has to be there and receive the ball for it to count.

Play this game for a 5 minute period with each player having a one minute turn on defense.  It gets the players working hard, thinking and competing while having fun trying to beat their teammates.  The player who gives up the fewest number of goals on defense wins.

There is a tendency in this game for the offensive players to get to close to the triangle which takes away the passing angles (just like in a regular game where they come to close to the middle).  This is easy to correct and is a good learning opportunity for the players.

Give this game a try and let me know what you think on the FineSoccer Forum

Have a great day!

Lawrence