Restarting from a long goal kick – Drill

-October 4, 2022

A bad restart from a goal kick can put your team in danger. We previously discussed a drill to restart from a short pass to a defender. This drill focus on restarting with a long goal kick.

Setup

This drill emulates a simple restart that you can apply in an actual match. Therefore you need enough space to practice, at least 50 metres long (half a football pitch size). You can practice this drill with as few as 3 players: a kicker (preferably a goalkeeper), a receiver and a defender. If you have good attendance at training and a full field available, you can run multiple groups in parallel and make it a competition, as it is shown in the picture.

In addition to a full-size field, you will need balls, mannequins (or anything that forces the kicker to kick the ball high), a timer, and cones to mark the pitch, as shown in the picture.

Instructions

We discussed in a previous post that kicking the ball high up the field is a bit of a lottery. However, in some scenarios, you may still want to kick the ball long: the defenders are tightly marked, the field is heavy due to rain, you want to mix up restarts, etc. So, this drill emulates restarting with a long kick to the midfield and flicking or passing the ball to the forwards. To make it fun, run this drill in multiple groups and make it a competition. Follow these instructions as a starting point:

You need 3 players: 1 x kicker, 1 x receiver and 1 x defender. If training with the full squad, divide the group into parallel drills.
A player kicks the ball long over the mannequins towards a receiver.
Depending on how high the kick gets to the receiving players, they can: flick the ball towards the small goal or control it in the air and kick it to the goal.
If the receiving player decides to control the ball, they can only use 2 touches: 1 to control and 1 to shoot at goal.
The defender must stop the receiver from scoring.
Sliding tackles are not allowed.
Standard rules apply when challenging the ball in the air (e.g., can’t push the rival with arms)
Swap positions every 5 kicks: receiver becomes defender, the defender becomes kicker and so on.
To make it more competitive, use the following scoring system:
- 3 points if scoring from flicking the ball with the head
- 2 points if scoring from a controlled ball
- 1 point for the kicker for each goal the receiver scores

The player with more points after 2 cycles of the drill is the winner. If you run parallel drills, you can choose the player with more points across all groups as the winner or run a knockout competition between the groups.

You can also make alterations to this drill, such as having an actual forward receive the ball instead of using a goal.

Takeaways

This drill will help practice a long goal kick but also help with:

Mechanising movements. The exercise simulates a common scenario during a game. The more the team practices this drill, the easier it will become to execute in actual games.
Kicking technique and accuracy. Consistency is critical in long balls. Players must use the right power and be accurate with their kicks to make it easier for the receiver.
First touch. Because players can control the ball in the air to then kick at goal, players must improve their first touch.
Headers. While controlling the ball and shooting are allowed, most long balls require headers. The repetition of this exercise will help even small players to challenge balls in the air.
Accurate shooting. While shooting is not the objective of this drill, if a player chooses to control the ball, they must be precise with their shooting to score.
Defending air balls. Within the game’s laws, this drill will help players practice all possible tricks to difficult the receiver’s job.

I hope you find this drill helpful. If you like this post, please share it with your friends. If you know about other exercises or have questions, leave a comment on our Facebook page.

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