Set up an area made up of 3 x 3 yards squares. Split your players into pairs and put one pair in each square with a ball.
The challenge is for the player with the ball to keep control of it for 10 seconds, using good technique to shield the ball from the other player.
30 seconds is a good amount of time for players to keep the ball so they can use it when outnumbered and waiting for team mates. Please experiment with times if players are finding it too easy or too hard
Try to pair players up evenly – you don’t want to have the biggest player shielding the ball from the smallest member of the group.
“Keep your body between ball and opponent”
“Use touch to keep opponent at arms length”
“Keep the ball close to your body”
in more ways than one
in more ways than one
Roughly a fifth of Premier League goals come from set pieces, and the gap between teams who plan their routines and teams who do not has never been wider. Here is how the modern set-piece specialists design attacking corners, free kicks, and throw-ins - and how you can apply their ideas at any level.
The next frontier in football coaching is not physical, it is mental. Cognitive load training - the deliberate use of perception, decision-making and dual-task demands inside football drills - is reshaping how the best academies develop players. Here is what it means and how to use it.
If the last decade taught us about pressing, this one is teaching us about what stands behind it. Rest defence is the shape your team holds while attacking, and it is the difference between dominating a game and getting picked off on the counter.