Game situation
The Opponents have the ball and pass it back towards their own goal for example or we pass the ball forward maintaining possession.
The coach can move around the field with a ball and the team can take their shape from that also.
All the movements are without a ball to begin.
Here in the game the players move up the field only up to perhaps five yards in distance (it may be only one or two yards), edging out waiting to see if we win the ball then they can apply the OUT call.
Also it can be when we pass it forward and move up as a team.
Units move up together maintaining the same distance between each other. They move up a short distance then reassess the situation (and reorganize) depending where the ball is.
If it goes back again (we force them to play it back as a team) we can move a short distance up again.
If they pass it a long distance back then as the ball travels back we travel forward too and it can be the OUT call instead (see next slide).
Game situation
We have the ball and have played it forward into the attacking third for example and kept possession (or not, maybe just played it behind the opponent’s defense and it takes time for them to get the ball and turn and pass it forward again). It can be a big movement forward of the team.
At Practice: The coach can move around the field with a ball and the team can take their shape from that also.
The team sprint out together on the OUT word until you say sit or stop in the practice, they then stop moving and sit down and you assess their spacing between players and between the three units.
As they get good at this, speed up the commands until they are moving around the field quickly and efficiently with correct spacing. Eventually you can say the different words and all they do is stand still not sit on the stop command (in practice) so you can move them around the field at a faster pace working the transitions.
Game situation
Holding the line at the back of the defense and staying in the same place. The back defenders neither drop nor push up. This could be when the opponents have the ball but there is pressure on the ball so can’t play it forward.
The two opponents are included to show how this situation works; you wouldn’t necessarily use them in this practice though it may help the players to understand it better. This is a tricky situation to identify for the players and relies on good officiating plus positive direction from the player in charge.
This can occur even if the opponents have the ball and are facing forward with it but the defending pressing player or players prevent the forward pass effectively.
Decisions have to be instant here.
Our team lets the opponent’s strikers run off side. Players can also use the UP call too in this one, just pressing a little to work the opponents’ strikers if there is pressure on the ball to prevent the forward pass. This makes it even more obvious the opponents have run offside as the distance between them and the back four is greater.
Game situation
They have the ball and are moving forward with it playing left to right; we are playing right to left.
Here the team drop back together recovering back to the goal.
Again, it isn’t all black and white here as to when this happens but a situation could be when they have the ball and are moving forward and there is no pressure on the ball so the player on it can pass it forward and maybe in behind our back players for their strikers to run onto.
To avoid this we drop back as a team behind the ball but in the game the closest player would go to the opponent on the ball delaying the forward pass to allow others more time to drop and get back behind the ball.
For ease of practice to highlight the movement here we work all the players together to get the point across.
More attention to detail shows that you can break the situation down further to the player on the ball facing forward;
- Do they have their head up and hence can see a forward run and play the ball in quickly and therefore the back four must drop, or:
- Has the player got the ball at their feet and are facing forward still but their head is down and hence they do not see a potential run and in fact delay the forward pass long enough for us to actually DROP; HOLD the line or even press up with the UP call.
This delay may just give enough time to the closest player to the ball on our team to be able to apply pressure and thus stopping the forward pass.
Another variable, if the furthest striker is alongside the deepest defender, if that defender recognizes the moment quickly enough then that player can push up and play offside (and call UP) even with the opponent facing forward and ready to pass.
We rely on good officials to catch this!!
Ultimately move the players around the field with the various commands keeping them in motion. You can introduce other players to pass or run the ball around the field and they must adjust off where the ball is. The team can only intercept passes not make tackles as we want them to move around the field off the ball.
Once they intercept it they can attack the goal and try to score as a reward. Introduce this method into an 11 v 11 game situation as the final progression.
USING ALL COMMANDS
The team need to learn that the shout is SLIDE one second; then within a moment it changes to UP (maybe they passed it back), and within another moment the call is DROP (as they line up to pass it forward), then it may be the OUT call within another second or two because we won the ball and passed it forward quickly giving us valuable time to get out.
Train the players to be able to makes these decisions quickly and effectively, offer lots of situations where this happens and have them practice it.
Mistakes are expected, so we must correct them, and the time to make them and correct them is in training.
