A great passing drill to work on team ball movement working inside out agains a zone
Set Up
Set up the drill by dividing players into two teams and assigning each team a color. Arrange all players in a large circle around the field, alternating colors. Give 1 player on each team in the perimeter a ball. Place one player from each team in the middle of the circle. On the coach’s signal, both outside players begin with a quick dodge to simulate pressure, then bounce back out and pass to a teammate on the perimeter. That player quickly moves the ball to another teammate on the perimeter, and after this second pass, the ball is fed back into the original inside player. The inside player then passes the ball back out to the next point person on the perimeter, and the drill continues in a continuous flow. The ball can move in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. This drill is designed to build timing, quick decision-making, and inside-out passing skills. See below for progressions to increase the challenge.
Coaching Points & Principles
Progressions
- Have the players throw to random perimeter teammates, not just 1 direction
- After the player dodges, have them cut to the crease and exchange with the teammate there
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- Passing! make good passes to your teammate, that is very catchable. The quicker we move the ball, the better!
- head up, always keep your eyes up to find a teammate
- Communicate, call for the ball, show your stick!
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A great small area game that emphasizes playing vs pressure
Set Up
If your field has the football hash lines, use those or create a small area in front of the goal 10×20.
Its a live 3v3 and you can manipulate the rules as you see fit, but here are the base set of rules:
- Always trigger with a pass down pick down
- Defense must always try to double team off the picks
- If the defense neutral;izes the pick, offense should move the ball and try to find an advantage to the goal
Coaching Points & Principles
Progressions
- Have the off ball defender show more as a slide player
- Younger players that don’t use picks, have a slide come to the dodger as a double team and use shallow cuts for offense
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- Playing vs pressure – double teams we need ball carried to find space and off ball teammate to find support space
- Quick ball movement
- Picks – making sure we use good angle to help our teammate get hands free
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A fun small area game that focuses on transition play
Set up
Put your players into 2 teams, and create a small playing area. The teams will line up on opposite sidelines, coach throws a live ground ball in. 3 Players from each team go try to win the groundball. The team that wins, goes right to the goal they are attacking and play until goal/save/turnover. New ball comes in and the team on defense now attacks the other goal, until dead ball. Coach will give the original winning team 1 extra offensive rep, and they will transition and go try to score
Coaching Points & Principles |
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- Groundballs – Players should work on ground ball battles, boxing out and helping other teammates get the ball
- Transition – We want to play fast and try to get scoring opportunities in transition
- Defensive pressure – defense should pressure the ball and force the offense to move the ball
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A fun unsettled build up game to do with your players!
Set Up
Using the gameplay within the 12M arc, set up 2 offensive lines on each wing and 1 up top. Add a defending line between the 2 wings, and add 1 up top. There are 5 offense lines and 3 defense. The game starts with coach throwing the ball into 1 wing play, all 3 players are in making it a 2v1 to the goal. Once the play ends, the 3 players stay in play and coach will pass to another perimeter offense players, the closest defender comes in, now its a 3v2 to the goal. Continue build up adding 1 offense and 1 defense after each rep, until you get to 5v4 or 6v5
Coaching Points & principles
Progressions
- Make the playing space larger for younger players
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- Offense – Finding the advantages – there is always an extra player so we want to move the ball quick finding the open teammate and best shot possible
- Defense – Communication, slide and recovery as we are always playing with 1-less player
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