Fun passing drill for football: The Box

-September 2, 2019

As little boys, we learned football by playing with a ball on our own, our parents or a couple of friends. Simple and fun games taught us the basic skills we needed for the game. Later in life, some of us joined a club or an academy, and things got more serious. Unfortunately, coaches often miss the point and forget about the spirit of the game: to have fun. I am not talking only about kids’ coaching; football training should be an enjoyable experience for all ages and levels. This post will discuss a fun passing drill that will make your training sessions a more pleasant experience.

Setup

The Box gets its name from its setup: two boxes in which two opposite teams play a small football game. The first box is the half of the field closer to the goal, and the second box is the whole pitch.

The setup is easy. Use a set of cones and small goals to create a 7-aside or 5-aside pitch. The number of players will depend on the size of your squad. Having a squad of 20+ players turning to training is unrealistic for amateur teams. You could play this game with as few as 2 players per side.

Instructions

The main objective of this drill is to keep possession of the ball by using accurate passing and good positioning in the field. The basic rules of the game are:

Players are allowed only 3 touches (e.g., 1 touch to control the ball, 1 touch to change direction and 1 touch to pass the ball).
There are two phases when in possession of the ball: defensive possession and attacking possession.
A team must complete the defensive phase to move into the attack phase. The defensive phase is done when 5 consecutive passes are completed in the team’s defensive half of the field.
Once the defensive phase is finished, the team in possession moves into attack. In this phase, a team is allowed to shoot to goal once a total of 10 passes is completed. This number includes the 5 passes done when defending. A key difference with the defence phase is that passes in attack can happen anywhere in the field.
The count is restarted once the team recovering the ball completes its first pass. If a defending player touches the ball but doesn’t complete a pass, and the ball goes back to the attacking team, the attacking team can continue with its list of passes.

There are some variations to this game that you may want to consider. Conflicts between teams often happen when a player stays in front of the small goal all the time, so a variation is to delimit an area around the goal where nobody can step in. Another interesting variation is to allow the team that scores unlimited touches of the ball; the opposition must score to reestablish limited touches and score again to gain free touches. You can also use bigger goals and goalkeepers.

Be creative and add your own rules. The main point is that the game has to keep the spirit of passing the ball among teammates, forcing players with individualistic characteristics to play as a team.

Takeaways

Although on the surface, this game seems only like a fun passing drill, it teaches a few important lessons:

Accurate passing. The rules of the game focus on passing. You can only score after completing a given number of passes. Therefore, the only way to win in this game is for players to improve their passing technique.
Accurate finishing. Because the game is played with small goals, it encourages a clinical finish.
Players have to play as a team. Although individual skills play a part in the game, limiting the time players can hold the ball forces everyone to play as a team.
Transitioning from defence into attack in an orderly manner. The only way to move into attack is by passing the ball in defence instead of kicking the ball away.
Positioning. In order to keep possession of the ball and increase the number of passes, players have to move in a block and be close to each other.

Pablo Matamoros

I am a software engineer with 25+ years of experience across diverse industries. I've climbed the corporate leader over the years, which has some benefits but means I moved away from my love for tinkering with technology. So, I build the odd website or application to keep learning and stay in touch with technology. FootballTechniques allows me to combine my programming knowledge with my passion for football.

To find out more about my professional experience, visit PabloMatamoros.com