Soccer Drills

World Wide Soccer Drill #15
Today's featured activity is a good way to work on receiving the ball with a defender on your back and either turning or playing it back where it came from.

Let's assume there are 15 players in the training group. Break them into 3 groups of 5's with different color bibs. Use a grid that is 40 x 40 (size can vary depending on space available as well as age of the players). Have one group spread out on the outside of the grid and the other two groups are in the middle. The two middle groups match up 1 v 1. See diagram below for an example of the setup

In the diagram below the Blue team (B) is on offense and the White team (W) is on defense. For a 2 minute period the Green players (G) on the outside try to pass the ball into a B player who then one touches the ball back to the G. After the 2 minute period is over the B's go to the outside, the W's become the offensive group and the G's become the defensive group. After a 2 minute period they switch again and the G's become the offensive group, the W's go to the outside and the B's become the defending group.

After the first rotation you can change the rules so that the offensive players in the middle must receive the ball and take 3 touches on the ball before playing the ball back to the player on the outside. This allows them to work on receiving the ball with pressure and maintaining possession. This is the type of things that a forward might have to do when receiving the ball while checking back to the ball.

The next rotation might have the offensive player in the middle receiving the ball and then having to play the ball to a different player on the outside. This will work on receiving the ball and turning with a player on the back. The outside players are working on playing the ball in a way that allows the offensive players to receive the ball and turn. If the defending player is on the attacking players right shoulder, the ball would be played in toward the left side of the attacking player so he can turn away from the defending player. Also, the players are working on communication as the players in the middle should be calling for the ball and the players on the outside should be letting the players on the inside know which way to turn and who is open for the return pass.

There are numerous other things you can do with this setup and not only does it work on many technical and tactical aspects of the game but it's also excellent fitness work if done at full speed.

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