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Switch and score

Objective: Your players will improve their ability to switch play, to play with their heads up and their decision making.

Switch and Score is also a good physical work out for you!

Age group: U9s and upwards.

Number of players: Whole team.

Equipment: Six poles or traffic cones to make the goals, one ball, some flat cones, training vests.

Set-up: Divide your players into two teams of four or five. Differentiate the teams with training vests.

Set up a 40 yards long by 30 yards wide playing area with three goals at each end.

You stand at one end of the pitch behind the goals and an assistant stands at the other end.

How to play:

Each team attacks and defends three of the goals.
There is one rule: You can’t score in a goal if there is someone standing behind it.
So you and your assistant work along the end line, blocking off whichever goal you think will be targeted next.
Players will love making the coaches scamper along the line, trying to stop them shooting!
First to score five goals wins the game.

What to say to your players:

“Play with your head up”

“Find the empty goal”

“Pass the ball quickly”

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

Shooting under pressure

Objective: To improve your players’ ability to shoot quickly under pressure.

Age group: U7s and upwards.

Number of players: Four to 10.

Set-up: Create a 40 yards long by 30 yards wide playing area with a goal on one end line.

Divide your players into teams and pair them up.

Put a neutral player, an assistant coach or a parent in goal.

How to play: The first players in each team stand together on one side of the goal with their backs to the playing area.

You stand between them facing the playing area.

You serve a ball over their heads and they turn, compete for possession then try to score.

They play until the ball is dead – a goal is scored or the ball leaves the playing area or a shot is saved.

After each round, make sure everybody has a new opponent.

Tip: Make it competitive – award a point for a shot on target and two points for a goal.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Target passing

This is a simple but very effective way to practice quick passing and supporting play.

Age group: U9s and upwards.

Difficulty: Medium.

Set-up: Two teams of four play in a 30×20-yard playing area marked out with flat cones.

How to play:

Each team has two players in the playing area and a player at each end as a target.

The objective is to get the ball from one target player to the next without losing possession.
The two teams play in two different directions. One team plays north to south, the other east to west.

Tip: Make the game competitive by awarding a point for each successful play. First to five points wins.

Coaching note: If you have more than eight players, play 5v5 or set up more than one playing area.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Play it through

I found this game really does help young players spot opportunities for a through pass and play the ball quickly before the chance disappears.

Age range: U9s and upwards.

Number of players: Eight.

Set-up: Split a 40-yard square area horizontally into thirds.

The middle third is 20 yards wide and the end zones are each 10 yards wide.

The end zones are further divided into four 10-yard squares.

How to play

Place one player in each of the four squares in the end zones.
The player in square 1 attempts to pass to the player in square 3.
If the pass is intercepted by the player in square 2, he tries to pass to the player in square 4 and now the player in square 3 tries to intercept.
If the pass is successful, the player in square 3 tries to pass back to the player in square 1.

Coaching notes: To begin with, players are not allowed to leave their zones.

If your players are finding this exercise easy, allow the intercepting player to move out of his square and put more pressure on the pass.

Tell your players not to let the ball stop moving.

Move players around between squares every minute or two.

Progression: Take away the four squares in the end zones and play a 4v4 game in the middle zone.

Teams score a point by making a pass into an end zone for a team-mate to run onto.

Coaching note: the only player allowed in the end zone is the player running onto the pass.

Finally, remove the end zones, put a goal at each end and play a “normal” SSG. Award extra points for through passes.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

Find the target

Objective: Find the target is a small-sided game (SSG) which requires your players to make quick, forward passes.

Find the target is also good for practising shooting, defending, making forward runs and encouraging good movement off the ball.

Age group: U10s and upwards.

Set-up: create an area 40 yards long by 30 yards wide that is split horizontally into thirds.

Place a small goal at both ends.

Divide your players into three teams plus two goalkeepers. Teams of four are ideal but you can play with teams of three or five.

Two teams play “normal” football.

The players in the third team are split into two groups of target players. One group stands next to one goal, the other group stand next to the other goal.

How to play

Players can only score following a pass to a target player.

The target players move along the end line, trying to make themselves available for a pass.

Target players cannot be tackled and have four seconds to pass the ball back to the team that passed to them. Or you can impose a two/three-touch limit.

Corners are taken by target players.

Goalkeepers throw the ball out – no kicking.

Play five-minute games.

Rotate the teams on the pitch with the target players in every new game.

What you’re looking for

Attacking players passing to a target player at the first opportunity then moving quickly into space to get the return pass.

Find the target is adapted from Target Man, one of Michael Beale’s 64 More Small-Sided Soccer Games.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Objective: To practise all the usual elements of a SSG: passing, receiving and support play. It also makes your players react to a sudden change of objective. One moment they can be trying to score in a goal, the next moment they are trying to dribble or pass the ball into space.

Create a 40 yards long by 30 yards wide playing area with a goal at each end. The playing area also has two five-yard-wide channels (end zones) marked parallel to the side lines.

Play with two teams of four players or four outfield players plus goalkeepers.

How to play: The objective for each team is to try to score in the goals or stop the ball in an end zone, depending on which game you tell them to play.

For the first three or four minutes they play “normal” football then you call out “end zones” or “change”. Now they score a “goal” by stopping the ball in an end zone.

The first team to score five goals is the winner.

Tips: If a team scores in a goal when they are supposed to trying to stop the ball in an end zone, that’s an “own goal” – a point to the other team.

The first time you change the game, tell your players which end zone or goal they are attacking but only tell them once.

Progression: Limit your players to three touches.

Put a target player in each end zone whose job it is to receive a pass when the end zone game is being played. In the two-goal game, goals can only be scored if the move includes a pass to the target player.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Pass to the end player

This is a fun and effective way to improve passing and receiving skills as well as the ability to spot and execute a through-pass.

Age group: U8s and upwards.

Number of players: Eight to 16.

Set-up: Create a square playing area suitable for the age and number of your players and split your players into equal teams.

How to play: A player from team A stands on one end line and a player from team B on the opposite end line.

The rest of the players try to pass to their team mate who is on the end line. If they succeed, they join their end player on the line.

The team that gets all it’s players on their end line first is the winner.

Note: To be counted as successful, a pass must be controlled by the end player.

Progression: Play two or three-touch.

This game works well with most young players.

Several of my U12s, however, like to stay in the game for as long as possible and they won’t pass to their end player even when there is a clear opportunity to do so.

To stop that, I changed the game slightly.

The end lines are now called jails.

The game begins in the same way as before – with one player from each team in jail (i.e., on their end line) – but now if you make a successful pass you don’t join your team mate on the line.

Instead, you get to send a player on the other team to their end line – in other words, send them to jail.

The winning team is now the team that can send all the players on the other team to jail first.

Coaching tip

Generally, the more players you have, the bigger the playing area needs to be.

If I had 10 U10s playing this game, I would begin with a 20-yard square playing area. If I had 16 players, I would use a 30-yard square.

But regardless of the number of players you have (or their ages), it is good practice to progressively shrink playing areas.

Making the space smaller requires players to play faster, more accurately and is a good way to build the tempo of your coaching sessions.

With my 10 U10s, for example, I would start with a 20-yard square but as they got used to the game I would gradually move the cones inwards until they were playing in a 15-yard square.

Very competitive and loads of fun!

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

End play

Why should my players play this game?

This game encourages movement off the ball, decision making and passing to team mates in space.

Can my players play it?

It is suitable for any player who can pass the ball reasonably accurately over a distance of about 10 yards.

Set-up: Split your players into teams of four or five and create a 20-yard square for each pair of teams.

How to play: A player from team A stands on one end line and a player from team B on the opposite end line.

The rest of the players in both teams compete for the ball and try to pass it to their team mate who is on the end line.

If they succeed, they join their team mate on the end line.

The team that gets all its players on the end line first is the winner.

Note: To be counted as successful, a pass must be controlled by the end player.

Progressions:

1. Restrict players to two or three touches of the ball.

2. When a player makes a successful pass to a player on the end line, she nominates a player from the other team to go on their end line. The winning team is now the team that can send all their opponents to the end line.

Coaching notes: This is a deceptively simple game. As it progresses, you will see how your players cope with numbers up situations, how well they communicate and if they can support each other off the ball.

Players on the end lines should be encouraged to move up and down the line, calling for the ball.

If the ball goes out of play the game can be restarted with a kick-in or a throw-in. If there is only one player from team A or B on the pitch, the ball may be dribbled in.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.