Keep The Ball & Combine
Principles & Concepts
This activity is designed to have your players work on keeping the ball in a tight space under pressure and then combining with the target support players at either end of the playing grid. Learning how to keep the ball under pressure and receive the ball under pressure are important skills we need all players to develop. We also want players to learn how to play the way they face when under pressure and then dismark away from the defender to receive the ball back in space.
Once the player in possession plays the ball to one of the supporting players they will need to dismark from the defender quickly in order to try and receive the ball in the tighter space. They will need to use disguise, deception and double moves to create the space.
Activity & Set Up
Create a small square playing grid aprrox. 6×6 yards and place one neutral at end of the grid. If your grid is too large it will make it too easy for the player to keep the ball we want the space to be small so it discourages a lot of dribbling and forces them to practice keeping the ball or finding space quickly. Adjust the size of your grid based on the level of success the layer with the ball is having. The player with the ball must try and keep the ball for 5 seconds from the defender in the middle. After they have kept the ball for 5 seconds they can then pass to one of the supporting players at either end of the playing grid. Increase or decrease the amount of time the player has to keep the ball depending on level of success. Once they pass to one of the neutral players they will then look to receive the ball back and keep it for another 5 seconds before they can combine again with one of the neutrals. If the player in possession loose the ball then they become the defender and the other player tries to keep the ball. Rotate the neutrals into the middle after 3 minutes
Encourage the two neutral players to move to any side of the playing grid to offer support to the player who has the ball. The two neutrals should move to be able to receive a pass from the player with the ball when the 5 second time limit is up
Coaching Points
Vary the size of your playing grid based on the success level the player in possession is having. Bigger to make it easier and smaller to make it more difficult.
Change the length of time the player in possession has to keep the ball to make it easier or more difficutand also to change the objective or technical skills they must use
The player in possession should try to dismark from the defender and find space so they can receive the ball with an open body shape and play the ball to the neutral at the other end quickly. If they receive wth their back to the goal this will not be possible
Shield the ball keeping it as far away from the defender as you can you really do not need to dribble or move that much just keep control of the ball whilst you lean back into the defender so you can feel where they are. Try to roll away from where you feel the pressure of the defender coming from
Make sure the neutrals are passing to the foot of the player that is farthest away from the defender to give the player in possession the best chance of keeping the ball in the tight space
Variations & Progressions
Vary the size of your playing grid based on the success level the player in possession is having. Bigger to make it easier and smaller to make it more difficult.
Change the length of time the player in possession has to keep the ball to make it easier or more difficutand also to change the objective or technical skills they must use
In this progression the two neutral players must stay on either end of the playing grid however, the player who is in possession can play the ball as quickly as they want to either of the neutrals.The only rule is they can not play back to the same neutral they must alternate passes to either neutral. Here the player has found space receives the ball and plays directly to the other neutral quickly
In the next progression we can really increase the difficulty for the player in possession by taking one of the neutrals and making them into a second defender so now the player in possession has to try and keep the ball away from two defenders and only has one supporting option on the outside. You can make this easier to start by having only one defender try to steal the ball and the second defenders job is to block the passing lane to the supporting player. Or if you want to challenge the player in possession fully allow both defenders to try and steal the ball.