Off the Ball Movement - Grid Passing The following is an exercise suggested by Bob Christensen of the Manadan (ND) soccer club with some helpful additions by Gary Rue of Frankfort, Kentucky. The exercise is flexible grid exercise idea that can be used to get players thinking about smart off-the- ball movement in a passing environment. Set Up Set up a grid of flat cones about 5 to 10 yards apart, depending on the age and skill of the players. If the primary objective is to work on first touch, make them about 5 yards. The grid should be at least 3 squares wide and 4 squares deep. 4x4 or 4x5 is perfect. Pair up the players, each pair with a ball. If you have an extra player, make one group of 3. Basic Pass & Move Explain that you want them to pass the ball to their mate in another square, and then to sprint to receive it in a different square. Look for instant movement after a pass.
The following convention is used Purple Dashed = Dribble Green Solid = Run Without Ball Red Dashed = Pass Solid Blue = Shot In the above example the first blue player has passed diagonally to his teammate and made a penetrating run up the grid. The second blue player now has to make the diagonal pass and make his run off the ball as shown below.
Now lets multiple this by another two sets of players in the grid and you can see that heads up, and thinking ahead become necessary. This will help increase the speed of play. Variations You can vary this basic exercise enormously by putting certain restrictions on the play, such as: 2-touch ball cannot stop, passes must be to an adjacent square, passes cannot be to an adjacent square 1-touch player cannot enter a square that has another player in it player must run through the square that the pass came from and into a new square to receive, receive and dribble into an adjacent square If the players become too crowded in the central portion of the field (or any other portion), occasionally freeze play and have them look around at where available space is. If it still doesn't help, restrict runs into unoccupied squares. If it still doesn't help, freeze play occasionally and have any players who are co-
occupying squares do push-up, sit-ups, or some other consequence. Each of these variations work on a different aspect of the game. Coaching Points Communicate Anticipate. Make a predictable run Find room to work. Working First Touch This is a great exercise to work on smart 1 st touch. Explain that you want the players to receive the ball and with their first touch, play the ball into another square, by dribbling. Then pass it to their mate who must do the same thing. Variations Many of the same variations described above can be used with the touch exercise as well. Just make sure that you focus on the touch and not the other aspects, since this is a demanding exercises. It can be made very difficult by restricting touches to 2, with the 1st touch required to go to a different square. Coaching Points Anticipate Plan Open body to the pass and prepare receiving surface before the ball gets there. Get in line with the trajectory of the ball Communicate to your mate. This is a physically demanding exercise and can be used as a strong warm up for passing-focused training sessions. If you do not see the work rate, they are either not making their runs properly, or are dribbling too much. Since this exercise is for quality, not quantity perhaps it is best if it is not made a competition. In fact you may find that the players start out moving way too fast. They may have trouble controlling their first touch and you may have to tell them to slow down a bit. The idea is to do it WELL first. Then you can speed things up. More Advanced Variations All passes must be to grids at angles to the passing grid. In other words,
No square or vertical passes. All passes must be to grids that do not touch the passing grid., i.e the grid where the ball came from. The pass must skip a square One touch passes can be made to grids that touch; if the passer takes a Second touch the receiver must move to a grid that doesn't touch. o this forces players to recognize what their teammates are doing and what the consequence is to them First pass is to touching square, next pass is touching square, third pass Is to non-touching square (i.e., short-short-long) 3 man passing, alternating touching square pass with non-touching square passes.