Warm-up phase: passing and receiving on different lines

This exercise is a technical warm-up practice that I used in one of the first weekly training sessions (Tuesday) last month, with my U15 team.

How many times do we tell our players to “not to play horizontally“, to be positioned on different lines to the ball circulation easier? But then, how do we coach them to answer our request?

For this reason I thought about this sequence of passings and receivings on 2 different set-ups; a rectangle for the first phase and rhombus for the second part of the sequence.

The main objectives of the practice are:

Look for diagonal passing lanes, toward a lower and upper vertex

Combinations with 3 players (first phase) and 2 players (during the second one)

Time of moves without ball, passing and receiving

Positioning of the body in relation to ball receiving and subsequent passing

Rhythm of the ball circulation

The exercise, as previously stated, is carried out on 2 different set-ups; a 30×15 y rectangle and 10 y per side rhombus; the set-ups are 15 y away from each other. The picture shows 2 practices that are carried out both from the left and from the right side of the rectangle.

Left side: the player in possession num. 3 dribbles toward the cone in front of him (1), while 2 teammates move toward opposite directions (the num. 5 backward and the num.2 forward) to receive (2 – 3). The num.2, once the ball is received, passes forward (4) towards the rhombus, where the num.4 and the num.8 move without the ball in order to be passing options from higher or lower vertexes (5). In the picture, the num.4 receives and he plays forward while the num.8 is moving.

Variation: the sequence can even be carreid out, playing toward the higher vertex num.8 and then passing backwards to the num.4.

Right side: the player in possession num.10 dribbles toward the cone in front of him (6), while 2 teammates move backward on the lines of the cones on the right and on the left of the ball carrier. Once the num. 10 is on the center higher cone, he decides who is the teammate who has to receive the pass (11 in the picture – 7); the num.11 must receive with an opened body shape toward the further passing for the num.9 (8), who runs forward again. The num.9 passes towards the rhombus (9), where the num.16 and the num.15 move without the ball in order to be passing options from the higher or lower vertexes. In the picture, the num.16 receives as higher vertex and then he passes back on the run of the teammate (15).