Practical Drill– ‘Switching the Ball’ to Find Space
| Drill – Set up the position below. |
| The defence is positioned correctly. Ask players to identify where the spaces are. X = the ball. |
| The best teams switch the ball continuously looking for space and probing the oppositions defense for an error. As you can see, there is little space in the area the ball is in. The area with space is circled in the diagram below. |
Key Coaching Tips: good teams switch frequently.
| The best teams switch frequently. Do an analysis of how often your team switches in a game. A worthwhile drill is to have 6 small goals as shown. A team gets a point if it gets a player to run through the gates in the middle when playing out from the back or 2 points for passing through the end gates. This encourages switching. ALWAYS play offside it keeps it realistic. Make the gates/goals wide enough to mean there is no use simply putting a player between them to stop a run or pass. An added alternative is at the goal-line have one player who runs from goal, A to B, off the pitch if they are in the gate the opposition cannot score. They could, of course, also act as keeper. |
