passing, receiving, movement and defending

by Paul Schnake -- U12 Girls A team, West District Tornadoes, Soccer Association of Columbia (MD)

from the soccerclub site

I use this soccer drill for moving to the ball and I'll share it (I'm sure some of you have already used it):

4 players, 2 balls, 2 cones.

A. pass<- C D ->pass. B

Players A and B are at the cones with the balls. Players C and D show for the ball and then receive a pass and pass it back. Then, they run across and receive a pass from the other passer (i.e. C starts with A, then goes to B, back to A, etc.) Do this for a bit and then switch. The hard part is making sure C and D don't run into each other while running to meet the next pass.

Modification: Now, have C be the attacker, D be the defender. Run it the same way, but now C must shield D from the ball to receive the pass. If C stands and waits, they won't get the ball. After a bit, switch C and D, then switch outside and inside. I usually have the defender start with light pressure - just running with the attacker, but I have them increase it to full pressure before too long.

I've found that this seems to get the girls to move to the ball better, especially after you add the defender and they "see" why it is important to meet the ball. It also helps with communication - the player in the middle should be able to communicate to the passer to pass the ball to a particular side/foot (depending on how well the player in the middle can hold off the defender - with my U12s it takes some time.)