Tonight we set up a passing sequence through grids that involved a lot of passing, receiving and running. We ran it for 40 minutes, the length of one half this season. Their only breaks were for resetting the drills or to explain the next progression.
We basically passed on angles, received the ball opening up and passing the ball again. 2 touches. Every player who passed into the next grid on an angle ran to the unoccupied corner so the balls were always going through each grid alternating at opposite angles. By the time you made your way through the grid you did 6 passes and had about 15 seconds before you went through again. Again, it's a drill where you have to pay attention and have very little time between playing balls.
Our small game at the end was based on 2 touch. The sessions started at 8:30pm and the boys had just run a ton, so the quality game quickly tapered off. I know you end up with a lack luster game but the passing and running is what I wanted to accomplish tonight. They still had some good ideas while they were playing.
We only had 12 players tonight. One was sick and the other has a broken toe. Smaller rosters make games easier but hurt training sessions. We will have to re-examine that.
Overall I was happy with the boys tonight. They all worked hard and we had our foot on the ball for quite a while. I was impatient a few times but had my coaching points written down and touched on them all.
Tuesday we train with our second team. We are going to work on turns and more passing. We'll get 6 different turns done and a large-group, field-size passing drill.