Pleasant Hills Soccer Association
Summer Session, August 5 - August 10, 2002

`Serving Long Passes (Under 9 and up)`

Suggested summer session for week 6 of U9 and up. 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.

Start off with the regular power kick for the long passing
Introduce the long passing with the front of the foot or the laces
If the front of the foot is successful, then see if they can chip the ball to the long player.

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

`Game Related: Name Passing Game`

Have the players all gather in a complete circle and follow the progression below:

Start off with one player having a ball. This player is to yell the name of another player in the circle, pass the ball to the named player, and then run and take the named players position in the circle.
Introduce another ball and continue as above. If they are successful, maybe introduce another ball.
Place a smaller circle in the center of the circle formed by the players. The players can think of this circle as a pond. They are to continue play as above, only now they are trying to pass the ball over the pond to the named player. It is helpful if they try to chip the ball over the pond. Make sure the center circle is of a size which give the players success. After a passer has attempted to pass the ball over the pond to a player, he/she must take the named players position, but cannot run through the circle, but must run around it.

`Game Related: 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 Shooter's Game`

                      ______________
         ____________|______________|_______________
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |    Y                                      |
        |                       Y                   |
        |      X                               Y    |
        |                                           |
        |    Yo         X                           |
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |                                      X    |
        |                                           |
        |               X          Y                |
        |___________________________________________|
                     |______________|

Warn Down: Short-Short-Long

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