Pleasant Hills Soccer Association
Summer Session, July 29 - August 3, 2002
 
 

Serving Long Passes (Under 8's)

Suggested summer session for week 4 of U8's. The theme of the summer session is "Its in the Air" and passing long balls (serving long passes) is within this summer theme.
 

Warmup: Short-Short-Long

Divide the players into groups of three (four may also work).  Place two players close to each other, and one player farther away.  There is one ball between each set of three players starting with the group of two.  Have one player pass the ball to the other (short) and have this player pass it back to the original player (short).  This player, in turn, attempts to give a long pass to the player located further away (long).  Upon serving the long pass to the far player, this player follows the pass toward the far player.  The far player receives the pass, passes the ball with a short pass to the on-coming passing player (short). This player, in turn, gives a short pass back (short) and the receiving player passes it long to the awaiting player (long).  This short-short-long pattern continues until the players get into a nice flow.

This simple little drill-like activity gives the coach plently of opportunities to help the players with the delivery of long passes.

Game Related: Zone Passing Game

Divide the players into two to four players per team with an even number of teams.  Pair the teams up for competition.  Create a field of the appropriate size of about 20 by 40 and create four zones length-wise on the field by putting in three lines of cones across the narrow side of the field as picturned below.

   ________________________________________________
   |          |           |           |           |
   |          |           |           |    Y      |
   |          |    Y      |           |           |
   |   X      |           |     X     |           |
   |          |           |           |           |
   |          |           |           |           |
   |          |           |           |           |
   |    X     |           |     X     |           |
   |          |           |           |    Y      |
   |          |    Y      |           |           |
   |          |           |           |           |
   |__________|___________|___________|___________|
 

Place players from the same team evenly in alternating zones as pictured above.  Have on team start with the ball.  This team will attempt to move the ball to the other zone without the other team intercepting the pass.  The receivers in the other zone must receive the pass without leaving their zone. Then they must get the ball back to the other zone from which they receive the ball.  Since the players are not under pressure within their zones, after they receive the ball, the ball is not allowed to stop moving and the players in that zone have to attempt a pass within a limited number of touches (say five or six).

If the ball is intercepted, the new team has possession and attempts to pass to their corresponding teammates in the other zone.  Each time a ball is successfully passed and received, the team receives a point.  Have the teams play to certain fixed number of points (say 10).

Game Related (alternative): Hit the Target and Join

Divide the players into teams of approximately four players.  Place an additional player on each team at the endlines. This player is the initial target players.  See the diagram below.

   ________________________________________________
   |                                              |
   |                                       Y      |
   |               Y                              |
   |   X                        X                 |
   |                                              |
  Y|                                              |X
   |                                              |
   |    X                       X                 |
   |                                       Y      |
   |             o Y                              |
   |                                              |
   |______________________________________________|
 

The target players may move anywhere along the endlines.  One team starts in possession of the ball. The objective is to pass the ball to the target player over the endline with the target player successfully receiving the ball.  If the player passing the ball is successful on passing the ball and the reception is successful, the player that passed the ball joins the Target player and becomes an additional target players for his team.

If the other team gain possession of the ball or if the ball is not received properly, the new team in possession attempt to pass to the target player on the opposite end line.

If at any time when a team has more than one target player on the endline, the receiving target player must be successful.  If the target player is not successful under this situation, the target player must rejoin his/her teammate on the field.

Notice that a team which is successful at gaining additional target players will play down in numbers.  A team is declared a winner if it can get all its players over to target players.  However, notice that if the teams are even in strenght, that this game could go for an extended period of time.  Under such circumstances, you may change the rule that once a player is a target player, he/she does not have to return to the playing field.

Game: The Dutch Four Goal Game

           _____                             _____
         _|_____|___________________________|_____|_
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |    Y                                      |
        |                       Y                   |
        |      X                               Y    |
        |                                           |
        |    Yo         X                           |
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |                                      X    |
        |                                           |
        |               X          Y                |
        |___________________________________________|
          |_____|                           |_____|

Warm down: Short-Short-Long

Have the players finish with what they started using the short-short-long passing pattern above.