Soccer Passing Drills

Soccer Passing Drills - Here are some simple techniques to get you started...

By Erkan Gungor

The key to these drills and exercises is to sample and test each drill yourself or with your team. There is no "magic bullet" for implementing soccer passing drills that will make your team better. The key is to continue your research and eventually understand what makes a solid drill and what drills and activities your team will respond to.

With that being said, let’s get to it!...

Passing Circle: This is a simple drill that is easy to implement and increases passing with either one or two touches of the ball per player.

Directions:

Have your players group into a large circle.
Have someone start with the ball and make a firm pass to another player within the circle.
The player that has been passed to must now recognize that they are being passed to and call out the name of the next player they intend to pass to.
Once a player knows the ball is coming to them, they must now think who their next pass will be to, and call out the name of that person.
This process repeats until all players are receiving and passing the ball with control.

Further Explanation:

Younger and more intermediate players should begin with two touches of the soccer ball. One touch to settle the incoming pass, and another to make the next pass to a waiting teammate in the circle.

The player receiving the ball should make an attempt to pass to someone other than they received the ball from.

How to add difficulty, or get more out of this exercise:

Try to limit your squad to only one touch. Have your players recognize that they are being passed to and allow them only one touch to make their next pass.
Increase or decrease the width of your circle. This can have the effect of increasing passing strength when the circle is made larger. If you make the circle smaller, your
team will be forced to make decisions quicker and more accurately.

Ok, on to the next soccer passing drills....



The Advancing Defender Drill: This is the perfect set of soccer passing drills that will encourage your defensive players to help in the attack and score goals. If you have anyone on your team that is in a defensive role, but has the ability to score, then this family of drills is for you..

How to do the drill:

Start the ball with a defender near his or her own goal.
The defender will then pass the ball to a midfielder who is positioned relatively in the middle of the field (Who would have thought!).
Once the midfielder has controlled the ball, the defender then overlaps, or starts to make a long sweeping run towards the opposing team’s corner flag.
The Midfielder should now pass the ball to a forward.
When the forward receives the ball from the midfielder, the forward should have his back to the goal, and then pass the ball back to the midfielder again.
After the midfielder receives the pass back from the forward they should pass the ball towards the attacking corner of the field, where the defender who originally started the play is now running toward.
Ideally, the defender should meet the ball near the corner of the attacking half and cross the ball into the middle for either the forward or midfielder to score.

Further explanation:

This drill should be run with no defense in the beginning so your team can understand how the ball should move between players. This drill encourages team play and understanding of how the soccer ball should be advanced from defense to offense. Many teams struggle with either defensive or offensive minded players, so if you are experiencing similar problems with your squad try this drill and you will see how well your defensive players enjoy doing offensive soccer passing drills.

How to add difficulty to the Advancing defender drill:

Make your players practice the drill using only one touch per person. This may be ugly at first, but it will dramatically improve your players touch and understanding of the game.
Eventually you can add defenders to this drill. At first, the defense should be added only at the end of the drill to contest the final shot. Eventually more defenders can be added to simulate a game environment.

Well there you have it folks, these are two crucial soccer passing drills that can be implemented easily, and can also be changed and adapted to suit your specific team needs. Stay tuned for more information, including video tutorials. Check out videos and more information at soccer passing drills.

Till next time…….