Football (Possession): Session Plan UPDATED.

Football (Possession) Session Plan UPDATED

The following post is an updated and improved session plan for possession within football. The aim and objectives of this session are as follows:

·         Introduce passing within possession

·         Interchange short/long passing

·         Introduce awareness to passing

·         Introduce transitions of play which result in overloads

·         Incorporate all the above within a game like scenario.

Warm Up

Within a square, the participants are keeping on the move, nothing to strenuous. Lightly jogging around the marked out area; the participants are given the following instructions.

On the whistle, they will perform the following tasks in tandem with the correct number of whistles. For example, ONE whistle, each participant sprints round a cone on the outside and comes back in. The following are the tasks on the whistle

1.       Run around cone and come back

2.       Left hand down

3.       Right hand down

Including these, keeps the warm up fresh and enables the participants to keep warm and not stand about.

Following the warm up, static and dynamic stretches are introduced in order to prevent injury; with participants dictating stretches used.

Drill One: Passing

In threes, each group are given a ball. Standing in a triangle they are to produce passes between one another. The passes have no constraints as it gives the participants a chance to get a feel for the ball before the possession starts. This is a simple yet effective drill that is to give confidence to the participants about their passing skills.

Drill Two: El Rondo

In a circle, with one defender; the task is for the outside players to maintain possession away from the defender. Starting with unlimited touches and introducing constraints as they develop.

Aims – Introduce quick passing/passing under pressure, awareness and quick thinking.

Possible Constraints – Two touch, one touch, two defenders one defender, head height.

Drill three: Switching play, Possession & Overload

Within this drill the indoor pitch will be split into three sections. Either end will be known as the possession areas, and the middle section will be for the defenders. Below is a diagram of how the pitch will be separated.

The coach will pass the ball to either side of the possession areas, once they have taken their first touch; ONE of the defenders from the middle section will then proceed into the possession area and will attempt to win back possession. The possession area must then make five passes. If successful they then pass the ball to the other possession area, when upon their first touch another defender from the defender section will close them down. If the defender is able to gain possession or knocks the ball out of the rea, then the defending section swaps with the losers of possession. Play this out for a while, is this is the biggest part of the session.

Constraint One – this is where the amount of passes made by the possession areas can be increased to 10.

Once this constraint is made, this will increase the amount of passes being made by the possession areas. However it also gives the defender longer to intercept the ball.

Constraint two - Increase the amount of defenders from one to two. This makes the passing a lot harder for the possession area, move passes back down to 5 also.

This will ensure that the possession areas are careful with their passes, are aware of the defending two and think about their passes prior to receiving the ball.

Game Scenario

This time, keeping the same 3 sections the participants will be divided into two teams. Each team will have players within each section, defenders, midfielders and attackers. Each will rotate so it doesn’t matter what position they begin with.

The game will be played as normal, however if for example a defender passes to a midfield player, he can then move forward and join in with the midfield to overload that area, and visa-versa with midfielders to attackers. Once the move has broken down the players must return to their positions and only one player can move forward and attack at one time.

Constraints: Within the game scenario, the constraints are the sections that the participants are restricted to unless they play the ball forward and create an overload. Another constraint you can add is a two touch rule which limits the time that players have on the ball in each section. Altering the positions in this game scenario is key to involve all players in each section enabling them to develop skills in overloading, defending and attacking whilst also passing throughout.