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Small Sided Shooting Game
This is a great finishing activity from long-time contributor Stuart Sharp. This basic and effective shooting game encourages your players to utilize their technical skills around the opponent’s box. Adjust the dimensions or number of players to adapt to your team and environment.
Diamond Passing Warm-up
Try this continuous, fast-paced, medium intensity, short range passing progression! These three simple variations allow your players to focus on their spacing, timing of runs, combination play, properly weighted passes, field awareness and overall technique when passing and receiving.
Attacking Patterns to Goal
Try these Attacking Patterns to Goal with your attacking players! Focus on the timing of runs, properly timed and weighted through balls, dealing with a recovering defender and finishing under pressure. These repetitions are good for working on principles of defending as well.
4V2 Screening
This is a great rondo to work on the defensive relationship of your two central midfielders, two central defenders or perhaps your two forwards in a 4-4-2. The focus is on all defensive principles in small group defending.
Seattle Sounders U-14 Training Session
The objective of this session is to encourage possession by playing through lines and gaps, finding the #9, provide support underneath and find space to expose behind the opponents back four.
Penetrate Your Opponent
When to dribble? When to pass? Through plenty of repetition, here is a great opportunity to help your players gain confidence when deciding how to execute and breakdown the opponent in the final third. The session starts with a warm up focusing on dribbling at pace, then progresses from 4V4 to 7V7 to a final 8V8 match. Your players will enjoy this fast paced session!
Recovery Runner
Recovery Runner will force them to manage the ball as well as the lurking forward behind them. Plenty of reps for both your forwards and your defenders in this fast paced 2V1 and 3V2 activity!
Back Four Functional Defending
Back Four Functional Defending is a great activity to economically train your eight defenders and work on the different principles of defending. This simple but demanding game will enable your players to learn how and when to apply pressure to the ball, force them to stay connected laterally as well as vertically, teach them to cut off passing lanes, and through communication, develop a cohesive working relationship.
L.A. Rectangle Passing Sequence
The following is a three-progression, tight-space passing activity that can be used for day before a game, day of travel or regeneration day training. It was observed by SoccerSpecific Staff at an LA Galaxy full team training session.
2V1 / 2V2 to Goal
Do you use the goal as a reference point when teaching your players how to defend? Are your forwards useful when working with their back to goal? How do we…
7v7 Plus 3 Possession
If you prefer to play out of a 4-3-3 formation and you want your focus to be on the three central midfielders, then try this 7V7+3 possession activity. This simple…
6V6 Interchange
6V6 Interchange is a fast-paced, transitional and continuous action possession activity that focuses on your players ability to maintain possession, improve passing accuracy, improve mobility and movement off the ball, combination play, and decide when to penetrate or when to possess.