FineSoccer Drill 44

This is a 4 v 4 v 4 game that works on attacking at speed, defensive organization and both offense to defense and defense to offense transition.

Start with a full sized field (if possible) broken into thirds with the middle third 10 yards long and the others of equal size to each other (see diagram below))

The red team starts in the middle third and attacks the blue team (there is a neutral keeper in each goal).  If the blue team wins the ball, the red team starts defending to keep them in that third of the field.  This is working on the quick transition from offense to defense.  If the red team wins the ball back in the offensive third of the field, they continue to attack the ball.  The blue team tries to win the ball an get out of their defensive third of the field.  If they succeed in getting into the middle third of the field, they then attack the white team in the other third.  With constantly changing opponents, a team must reorganize quickly which work on communication (especially from the keepers).  

If the blue team scores on the red team, then the ball starts in that keepers hands and they change directions and the blue team tries to work the ball out of the back with the white team defending (in other words, if a team scores, they are rewarded by getting to keep the ball and attack the other goal).

With older, more skillful teams, you can make the middle third as small as you want while with younger players you can make this middle third bigger (the bigger the middle third the easier it is to pass to a teammate in that middle to get out of the back).  To really put pressure on the team trying to get out of the back, completely take away the middle third.  This means that they the team coming out of the back must cross over into the other half of the field to be clear of the first defensive team and as soon as they do that, the second defensive team is there to go against them.  Without skillful, controlled players, this can turn into a total nightmare (trust me I have made this mistake).  Start with the middle third and then if that is successful, progress to a smaller middle and then no middle.

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

Have a great day

Lawrence