This week I am focuing my session on passing. I will coach young people from 5 to 15 and at ProFormance we will work this week with players from 18 months to 20 years of age. So I have to be careful not to generalise too much. I am writing this blog on the back on my session at Slough where I worked with 7-9 year olds.
I want the players at the ProFormance Soccer Academy, especially the 7-9 year olds, to focus on the key aspects of punching the ball. The weight of your pass. A pass is basically moving the ball. But when you move the ball you are not removing yourself of responsibility and often in a Rondo, we make two players go in the middle, the player who lost the ball, and the player who passed them the ball. The challenge is to make the players think quickly about their decision.
You will see on our social channels today a short clip taken from a longer YouTube video. The three key aspects stated in this clip are;
1- Orientate yourself!
Think! Be aware of what is around you. Are you close to the edge of the pitch, is a defender in front of you, try to think about how you will play the ball before it arrives.
2 – Good first touch!
Direct touch away from the defender. Or direct the touch so you can play quickly.
3 – Punch your pass!
Kick firmly through the middle of the ball. Make sure there is good weight to your pass.
This is a really basic way to look at it and it is key for me that you do, at least understand these basics, not matter your age. As you get older or more experienced in playing I then expect you to know much more about the details of your pass. The how, where and when!!
When I am considering my session, and the age and ability of players I think back to the blog ‘Understand the brain and improve your football decision making’because passing is generally a series of decisions. This can be a lot to process for a new player and we focus our starting point on technique, especially ball manipulation and mastering the ball, so we have to allow players the chance to practice and experience making those decison for themselves. If a player can’t think, or be allowed to think, then they can’t express themselves, possibly fail, and learn to improve.
The thought process of a pass, happens in miliseconds, and there is a lot to think of. There is no calculator to put the equation into, it’s you and you alone who has to process all this information.
The above image is the basic thoughts a player will go through to passing the ball. All of this happens in moments and when you progress to Premier League level this diagram can be extended further. Maybe that will be a post in the future. But for now we can see to make a simple pass a lot is going in a players head. A player who is young or inexperienced can certainly be forgiven for letting one of these vital pieces of information slip, especially when that time is cut by an opponent. After a game or session can we help the learning process by supporting a player with constructive feedback. What part of their decision or execution was wrong?
If you want to take a look at some sessions for passing, we have some here in this blog, passing short and long, and Atleti punch passingsession. You can also of course keep up to date on this weeks session on our daily vlog.
