Center Circle Passing Game

Soccer: Center Circle Passing Game

Dick Moss, Editor

This game will improve your players' ability to pass through open lanes to a teammate. It also improves pass reception skills.

Setup
Place a number of cones randomly in the center circle of your field (or use additional cones to establish a circle).

Give the group several balls and have the players stand around the perimeter of the circle.

How to Play
On your signal, the players begin passing the ball to teammates on the other side of the circle. For a pass to be successful, it must bounce somewhere in the circle, miss all the cones and be received by a teammate.

Each time a successful pass is made, the passer counts it out loud so that the team's total successful passes are counted as the game progresses (i.e. “One, two, three!” etc.).

After a certain time period, blow your whistle and compare the successful passes to determine the winner. As an interesting variation, you could deduct each knocked-over cone from the team's total score.

References
1. Marcus DiBarnardo, 45 Professional Soccer Possession Drills: Top Training Drills From the World's Best Clubs, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
2. Tony Waiters, “Coaching 6, 7, and 8 year-olds.” Soccer Journal, November/ December 1988.

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now