If you the readers would like, in april and may we will have the opportunity to give a FREE coaches clinic at the fields. Just respond to SCCYSA or to the FORUM DEDICATED TO COACHES.

This activity uses a 40 x 30 grid with the length split into quarters. There are a total of 16 players split into two teams. There are 4 players from a team in one of the outside quarters and also on an inside quarter. Each team starts with one ball. See diagram below for a better understanding.

Each team starts by passing the ball amongst their teammates in their own grid.
The red team will also be looking to make a penetrating pass to a red player in the middle quadrant. At the same time, the yellow team is looking to make a penetrating pass to their middle quadrant.

A team gets a point for every successful penetrating pass. They lose a point for every unsuccessful penetrating pass (one that goes our of play or to the other team). If the opposing team wins the ball on the through ball, they get a point. On this loss of possession, the ball does get returned to the original team.

The players on the outside quadrants have a relatively easy time as their job is to pass for possession and look to penetrate with the pass. The players on the inside quadrants have a much more difficult time because while some of them are looking to receive penetrating passes, others are looking to prevent them from the opponent.

This is an extremely complicated game as it requires a great deal of communication by the players (knowing whether to defend, or provide offensive support and knowing when to make the penetrating pass and when to keep possession). With younger ages, you might want to start with one ball at a time. When doing it this way, instead of returning the ball on a loss of possession, the team keeps the ball and looks to penetrate to their teammates.

For an advanced group, you can add a defender inside the two outside quadrants to make the possession difficult as well.
If you try this activity, start slow, let the players figure out who to do things and see how quickly they can pick things up.
CP: PLAYERS SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR THE FORWARD OR PENETRATING PASS FIRST. THEN IF IT IS NOT ON LOOK FOR THE PLAYER TO PASS ALONG TO WHO CAN MAKE THIS PASS
CP2: WATCH THE SHAPE AND MOVEMENT OF THE GROUP WITH BALL AND THE GROUP WITHOUT. ARE THEY KEEPING PASSING LANES OPEN?

AJAX TRIANGLE 3

Drill Introduction: This is a favorite drill of Dutch Soccer Clubs everywhere, but it is a drill that is closely associated with Ajax. There are several elements at work in this drill. It focuses on your technique and in building that all-important technical foundation. It also works on a player's technical speed and timing as passes need to be made when the player makes himself or herself available. It incorporates technical preparation as players must work on checking and showing for the ball. Accuracy of passing is also important as players must pass the ball to the appropriate foot in order to make the drill faster.
Description: Start the set up of this drill by placing two cones down five yards apart. From the first cone, walk twenty yards up and set a cone down. Go back to the second cone and walk twenty yards up again and place a cone down. You now will have an area set up that resembles a 5x20 grid. From the first cone, walk up twelve yards towards the top cone, then turn right and walk out fifteen yards and place a cone down. Do the same to the other cone. There should now be a cone at an angle on the outside right and outside left. You have now set up the grid. Place three players on each cone in the drill. At the bottom, the players are lined up facing the cone at an angle on their side. Each of the bottom three players has a ball. On the cones at an angle outside, they are lined up facing the bottom players. The players on the top cones are lined up facing the bottom cones.

The drill begins with the player with the ball passing to the player at an angle on the outside cone. The passing player then drops behind the ball to support the receiving player. The receiving player passes the ball back to the bottom player, then makes a bending run around their line so that they are above their original line. The bottom player receives the ball back and makes a pass back to the same player who has made the bending run. The outside player receives the ball and makes a pass to the space in front of the top player. The top player begins by checking away, then coming back as close to full speed to gain possession and dribble to the end of the starting line.

The drill should be continuous.

CP: Accuracy of passing is very important in this drill. Players on the right half of the drill are passing and receiving with their right foot, and players on the left side of the drill are passing and receiving with their left foot.
The coach should interject to make technical and tactical corrections.
CP2: the timing of the checks made by the outside players, the timing of passes, making sure the pass is played to the appropriate foot so that the drill can continue and flow, faking with the hips in the opposite direction so that the receiving player can get used to being deceptive in passing and receiving, and so on.
Equipment Needed:
6 Cones
Recommended Duration: Be sure to switch sides so players can work on their right foot and left foot equally.

I am always looking for good ways to coach movement off the ball. The best way Ive found is to set up a system which needs good fitness and penetrating passes.

How to set up to coach movement

Start with a 15m x 15m grid and have a 4m x 4m x 4m equilateral triangle in the middle made up of cones.
Use 5 players, with one being a defender and the other four being passers/attackers.
The 4 players try to maintain possession while also looking to score goals by playing the ball through the triangle to their teammates.
The defender is NOT allowed inside the triangle so he must be constantly working his way around the triangle trying to cut out the penetrating passes.

Attackers have to move to create “goals”
What makes this a really good drill is the required movement off the ball by the attackers. On every pass they are moving in order to get into a better position to either make a penetrating pass or to receive one.


Thinking ahead to make space for the pass

The players have to be thinking ahead of the passes because it’s not good enough to just play the ball through the triangle, a teammate has to receive the ball for it to count.

Working hard but having fun

The game should last 5 minutes with each player having a one minute turn as the defender. It gets the players working hard, thinking and competing while having fun trying to beat
their teammates. The player who gives up the least number of goals on defence wins.

Player 1 is passing to player 3 very close to the defender. The best opportunity lies in a pass to player 2. In this way your players have to move around the square looking and creating the best angles for passes.

CP1 Tell your attackers not to get too close to the triangle as it cuts down the passing angles.

Progression
Change to 4 v 2, or 2 v 2 v 2. Keep the 5 v 1 game going until players get good at this before you do change. Experiment with numbers increasing the difficulty of the session as you go.

passing warm up.

Start with three players in a line around 15 yards apart. The player in the middle starts with the ball



The basic rule is the ball starts in the middle, is played to the outside then brought back to the middle. If the player in the middle passes to his left, that player receives the ball and takes a hard touch to the middle

The person who started with the ball could then go out to the left to fill that space



Or, the player who started with the ball could go to his right and the player who started on the right goes across to the left



Other than the rule that the ball must be taken from the middle to the outside and then from the outside to the middle, there are no other rules. There can be overlaps, takeovers, dummies etc. The objective is to move the ball down the field while following the rules and also maintaining some shape and balance.

Encourage creativity and make sure the ball keeps moving throughout the entire activity.

YOU CAN THEN TAKE THIS ACTIVITY TO GOAL TO ADD SHOOTING.

Today's featured activity works on understanding the importance of field position in games.

First, if you don't subscribe to the Soccer Newsletter, you missed a series on the fourths of the field. The very short summary is below.

Now to summarize the fourths of the field:

1. Back Fourth - Safety first
2. Defensive Fourth - Possess with the intention of progressing the ball
3. Attacking Fourth - Possess with the intention of trying to penetrate behind the defense
4. Final Fourth - Take chances and take shots

When thinking about field position, it's important to realize it's not just good enough to possess the ball, you want to also move down the field.

The field is broken into fourths of the field. Each fourth is labeled as A, B, C or D. The yellow team is going to the lower goal and the black team is attacking the top goal.

In this game, a goal counts as 7 points. If the yellow team has possession of the ball in their back fourth (in the diagram above, it would be in quarter A) and loses the ball in that quarter. the black team gets 3 points. If the yellow team loses the ball in quarter B, the black team gets 2 points. If the yellow team loses the ball in quarter C, the black team gets 2 points. If the yellow team loses the ball in quarter D, no points are awarded.

Likewise, if black loses the ball in D, yellow gets 3 points. If black loses the ball in C, yellow gets 2 points. If black loses the ball in B, yellow gets 1 point.

The game is played as a typical scrimmage but because of the points system, players are encouraged to defend using high pressure and on attack, keep possession and get the ball into their final fourth.

The size of the field will vary depending upon the number of players on the teams. This game can be played 11 v 11 on a full field or 3 v 3 on a small field.

This game does a great job of forcing the players to think about field pressure and possession and getting forward.

Today's featured activity works on passing, movement and communication.

Start with 9 players in a 30 x 30 grid in 3 different color bibs. There is one ball.



Yellow starts with the ball and everyone is moving within the grid. The yellow player passes to the black player.



The black player then must pass to a red player.



The red player then must pass to a yellow player.



Every pass is hit one touch and all players must be moving at all times. Other than the sequence of yellow to black to red there are no predetermined passes. Players must put themselves in a position to receive the ball and to be able to pass without turning.

This is a great activity to work on passing, movement and communication as at various times, every player the field will be doing each of these things.