Principle 1: Communication Through Passing

Week 1

Focus: Building Out From the Back

Subfocus: Back Foot Trapping

Principle: Communication through Passing: 

What does your pass tell your teammate? 

Soft, you have time. 

Hard, there’s a man pressing.

In front of the player (to his back/far foot), continue your run or turn.

Behind the player (to his front/near foot), pass it back to me.

Simple.

1. Preflection, Mobility, and Stability - We warmup with bands to help strengthen the boys leg muscles and ligaments to prevent injuries. This will be routine in practice and before games.

2. Rondos - 4v2 - It looks like keep away, but the entire game is in this small exercise (with the exception of shooting).

3. Positional Play Game - 4v2+1 Double Rondo - We always train in context. Smaller games will help the boys “chunk” their learning, especially being numbers up at first. The boys will learn both in possession and out of possession principles through these games and will understand EVERY position on the pitch in due time.

4. Training Game (6v6+4) 

Now’s the time to put into practice what we’ve learned, specifically with back foot traps and subtly answering the question, “What am I communicating to my teammate when I pass him the ball?”

We are always, always, always trying to find the free man to attack space.