01 May 2014

Football Training – Help players to pass accurately

The best players can pass the ball accurately over long and short distances. There are two simple ways to help your players become better passers, particularly with the frequently used side foot short range pass.
1. Get their head up prior to the pass, so they can see who they want to pass to and “picture the pass”
2. Use the correct side foot passing technique.

Watch the best passers, Xavi, Gerrard etc. They all take pride in their passing. Every short range pass is accurate and weighted to be sympathetic to the receiving player. They also have a compact body shape over the ball. They don’t look like they are going to mess the pass up, they look right.

Young players loose concentration and get sloppy. They think the 5 – 10 yard pass is easy and get into bad habits, resulting in too many poor passes.

The football training practice in the video is designed to make players play with their heads up and see who they are going to pass to, before they pass. It also puts pressure on them as there are lots and lots of passing and receiving situations. So through repetitive passing, they develop good passing habits and technique. If they don’t the practice gets messed up and that is the challenge for the players, not to be the one who messes it up.

Watch the video of the progressive football training practice