U13 Tryouts - large passing drill for entire group

Tonight I was going to review 2v1 situations again but all the signals told me not to.  It was a 5pm session, so the arrival of players is tight and kids straggle onto the field for the first 10 minutes of the session.  We only have an hour with 30 players, so organization might be tight and I find the boys are a bit more hyped up so close to after school.

We set up our whole field passing drill similar to last Tuesday but this time I turned it sideways and made more, but shorter, lanes.  The frequency of ball touches was higher and the time to day-dream was down to zero.  From beginning to end of one sequence the boys have 28 meaningful touches on the ball.  While moving the players make penetrating type passes, laying the ball off and involved in wall passes.

I am going to try and explain this without video.  :-)

The figure shows the starting position of the exercise.  There are 6 lanes going across, each roughly 5x30.  There are 12 players positioned in the lanes and the rest of the players are at the start with a ball on their foot.  You should have as many players waiting in line as there are in the lanes.  If not, it will fall behind and your players will tire quickly.  With less players, reduce the lanes.

For the purpose of explanation we will only go through the first 2 lanes.  All passes are ONE TOUCH.

• The entry player passes to players 1.  
• He will then follow his pass, player 1 will lay the ball off and the entry player will put a pass through to player 2. 
• Player 1 now follows that pass, player 2 will lay the ball off for player 1 who lays it back, in the next lane for players 2 (wall pass).  
• The entry player takes player 1's spot in the lane.
• Player 2 must run around the cone before entering the next lane to meet Players 1's pass.
• Player 1 takes player 2's spot
• Player 2 then plays a pass to player 3.  Player 3 lays the ball off for player 2 who plays a ball through to player 4.
• Player 3 follows the pass. And player 2 takes player 3's spot.
• Player 4 lays the ball back for player 3, moves into the next lane (around the cone) to meet the ball back from player 3 (wall pass).
• Player 3 takes player 4's place.  Player 4 moves the ball to the middle player in the next lan and off they go....
• When the ball finally gets to the player at the exit, they just turn and run back to the start line.
• So the path of the ball in this sequence is Entry-1-Entry-2-1-2-3-2-4-3-4-next player
• As each player assumes the next players spot they turn to be ready for the next player coming behind them.
• As soon as player 1 and 2 execute their wall pass the next entry player plays a ball in.
• When there is a flow, every player should be at the point where they play a ball and then turn to be ready for the next ball coming to them (with very little rest).
• Concentration and accuracy are big in this exercise.  Every player will realize when they mess up it could cause the drill to collapse. 

Coaching points:

• Accurate passes
• Pay attention to where you are
• Take responsibility for your part in the exercise and don't be the cause of it falling apart.
• Ball laid back on an angle, backward at proper pace, on the ground
• Locked ankles on longer passes
• Do not stare at pass as another ball is coming behind you
• Keep moving
• Wall passes must be played firmly and in proper space  to keep timing with runs by receiving player

We then did a quick 1v1 drill before getting into a game.

We did not coach during the game.   It's tryouts and we're down to the last 2 sessions, so it was time to let them play.