Run them in that order and do not swap the middle one out. Block 1 makes losing it survivable and block 3 makes it rare, but block 2 is the one that decides games, and it is the only block where a player has to look before they act rather than react after.
Short on time. At seventy-five minutes, cut block 1 to fifteen. At sixty, drop it entirely and run blocks 2 and 3 at thirty each. That is a real session and not a compromised one.
Moment: we just lost it · Players: 3 per square · Space: 8 x 8 yards per square
One player loses the ball and two go after it, inside six seconds, without anyone shouting at them.
Three players to a square, eight yards by eight. Two keep the ball, one tries to win it. Run as many squares as you have players for; with fourteen kids you have four squares and two spare, who rotate in every thirty seconds.
Balls stacked at your feet, not in a bag. You will be putting a new one in fast and often.
| Task | "Keep the ball away from the one in the middle. The second it's lost, whoever lost it goes and gets it back." |
| Rule | Win it back inside six seconds, or the point is theirs. Count it out loud the first few times so they hear how long six seconds actually is. |
| Points | Two points for winning it back inside six. One point for winning it back at all. One point to the middle player for surviving thirty seconds. |
The numbers are doing the coaching, not you. Two points for the fast one and one for the slow one means they stop deciding whether to chase and start chasing, and nobody had to say "work hard."
Nobody can hunt alone in here, and that is the whole reason the square holds three players. When one of the two loses it, the other one is the only teammate on the field. There is no third option to hide behind, so the club's rule — whoever loses it goes, and the nearest teammate goes with them — happens every single rep whether or not you are watching that square.
Two or three inside the twenty minutes, same moment each time. Do not change the moment.
Where to stand. Between two squares, side on, where you can see four players at once. Not behind the ball. You are watching what the second player does, and that happens away from the ball every time.
What to count, and it is one number. Turnovers where both players went, out of turnovers total. Say nothing while you count. A 20-minute block gives you around thirty of them, and 8-out-of-30 in the first half rising to 20-out-of-30 in the second is the session working.
The one question, asked after a rep and not during. "Did one of you go, or two?" Both answers are real and they always know which was theirs.
Never say: "Get back." "Help out." "Both of you!" The first two hand them the answer, and the third turns the rule you just built into your voice, which stops working the moment you are not shouting.
When to stop it. Never for a bad tackle or a big touch — three full seconds of silence, then the question. Once, immediately, for effort: a player who watches their partner chase alone gets stopped on the spot. Effort is not a decision, so there is nothing to ask them about, and this is the only place in the night where you interrupt.
| What you see | Do |
|---|---|
| It looks clean and the middle player never wins it | Shrink the square before you change anything else |
| Touches are falling apart and nobody is keeping it for five seconds | Open it back up, or take the six-second rule off for five minutes |
| The ball goes out and everyone waits | New ball in within one second. Every time. This is on you, not them. |
| Turnovers are happening but only one player ever goes | The square is too big. They can still see a way to cover instead of hunt. |
| Everybody is doing it inside four minutes | Go to progression 3 early. A block that has done its job is finished. |
Moment: we just won it, and the first look decides · Players: 7 per box · Space: 15 x 15 yards, plus 15 yards beyond one end
A player wins the ball, looks up before their second touch, and picks the pass that matches what they saw.
A fifteen-yard box. Three players inside keeping the ball, two inside trying to win it. Beyond one end of the box, fifteen yards out, one target player who cannot move more than a couple of steps.
Between the box and the target stands one more player, and this is the whole activity. Every thirty seconds you tell that player, quietly, to stand either right on the edge of the box or right next to the target. Nobody inside the box is told which.
Seven players a box. Fourteen kids gives you two boxes and nobody standing around. Balls at your feet.
| Task | "Three of you keep it. Two of you win it and get it out of the box." |
| Rule | Three seconds from winning it to the ball leaving the box. If it is still in there, it goes back to the other three. |
| Points | Three points if the ball out matched where that one player was standing. One point for getting it out at all. Nothing if the three seconds run out. |
Matching is the whole scoring system and it is worth reading twice. If the player in between is standing on the edge of the box, there is grass behind them — the ball goes over or past them to the target, and that is three points. If they are standing next to the target, there is nothing behind them — two quick passes between the winners and out the side, and that is also three points. The same pass is worth three points on one rep and one point on the next, and nothing about the pass changed. What changed is whether they looked.
A brilliant ball to the target with that player standing next to it is one point. They will complain about this. That is the moment the activity teaches, and you should let them complain rather than explain it.
Where to stand. Beside the box, level with the in-between player, so you can see both their position and the winner's head in one glance. Never behind the target. From there you will watch the ball, and the ball tells you nothing here.
What to count, and it is one number. Of the turnovers, how many times did the winner's head come up before their second touch. Say nothing while you count. Twenty reads a block; six in the first half rising to fourteen in the second is the session working.
The one question, asked after a rep. "Where was he standing when you got it?" They can answer it or they cannot, and a player who cannot did not look, whatever happened to the pass.
Never say: "Look up." "Play forward." Both name the answer, and the second one is worse because it is wrong half the time in this activity by design.
When to stop it. Three full seconds of silence after any bad pass, then the question. Immediately, and only for effort: a player who stops competing after losing it. Everything else waits.
| What you see | Do |
|---|---|
| The three keep it forever and there are no turnovers | Take one of them out. 2v2 in the box produces turnovers every few seconds |
| The winners get it out every time inside two seconds | They have stopped reading and started rehearsing. Go to progression 2 |
| Passes are matching by accident — they get it right but cannot tell you why | Slow down. Ask the question after every single rep for two minutes |
| Quality has collapsed and nothing gets out | Widen the box to eighteen, or take the three seconds off for five minutes |
| Everybody is standing waiting for a ball | Two boxes, not one. Nobody in this activity should ever be watching |
Moment: we are about to lose it, and one player already decided how bad that will be · Players: 12 to 14 · Space: 30 x 30 yards, four small goals
We are attacking, we lose it, and whether that is nothing or a goal against us was decided ten seconds earlier by where one player was standing.
A thirty-yard square with four small goals, one on each side. Eight players in possession against four. No keepers.
The eight need ten passes before they can score in any goal. The four can score the instant they win it, in any goal, with no passes needed.
Before each round, name one of the eight out loud as the one who stays behind the ball. Change that player every round so the same conscientious kid does not do it all night.
| Task | "Eight of you: ten passes, then score anywhere. Four of you: win it and score straight away." |
| Rule | The named player stays behind the ball. Every second, all round. Behind the ball means between the ball and the goal the four would attack. |
| Points | One point to the eight for scoring. Two points to the four for scoring. Four points to the four if the named player was ahead of the ball when it happened. |
The four-point rule is the entire activity and everyone in the square can see it. The eight are not being asked to believe that covering matters. They watch it cost them four points, in front of everybody, about six times in a half hour. That is a different kind of learning from being told.
The named player will look bored for long stretches and will hate this job at first. Tell the whole team what it is for before the first round, not just the player doing it. A thirteen-year-old who understands they are the insurance policy will do it. One who thinks they were left out will drift forward inside ninety seconds, and then the four will score four points and everybody will know exactly why.
Where to stand. On the halfway line of the square, facing the goals the four attack — which means for most of every round you have your back to the ball. That will feel wrong. It is the only place you can see whether the cover player is where they said they would be.
What to count, and it is one number. Turnovers where the named player was already behind the ball. Not goals, turnovers — the cover either was there or was not, and the score is a lagging measure of that. Fifteen to twenty turnovers in a half hour, and going from six-of-fifteen to thirteen-of-fifteen is the session working.
The one question, and ask it to the team rather than a player. "If we lose it right this second, who is there?" Freeze the game and let them look. Either somebody is or nobody is, and both answers teach. Do this three or four times, not once.
Never say: "Stay back." "Track back." The first turns a job into a punishment, and neither tells anybody what they were supposed to be reading.
When to stop it. Three seconds of silence after any turnover, then a question if it is worth one. Immediately, and only for effort: a player jogging back while the four are running at goal. Everything else waits, including a cover player who got it badly wrong — that one is a question, not a stop.
| What you see | Do |
|---|---|
| The four never win it | Ten passes is too easy in this space. Shrink the square to twenty-five before adding a fifth defender |
| The four win it constantly and the eight never reach ten passes | Widen it, or drop to six passes. The eight are not getting a single rep of the moment you came for |
| The named player is drifting forward every round | Stop naming them. Progression 2 makes it the team's problem and they solve it faster than you can |
| Nobody is talking | That is the point of progression 2 and it is worth going there early |
| It is working and looks slow and boring | Leave it alone. This block looks less impressive than it is, which is why nobody trains it |
Before the players leave, open the feedback form and answer one question per block. Tap only. Nobody is asking you for paragraphs.