Ball-possession need be emphasized at every practice to develop
that style of team play. The coach wanting to play the
possession-oriented game collects sessions emphasizing
possession and uses them to provide variety while developing
play around a central theme of ball possession. Here, I describe
a practice committed to using possession to control match tempo.
Practice improves a team's ability to hold its possession:
sessions employing a warm-up followed either by small-sided play
or larger game scrimmages--all played to a common theme directed
at holding possession--helps. A warm-up might consist of a
half-field scrimmage where the object is to hold possession and
complete a number of consecutive passes, sometimes using a
grapefruit-sized ball--especially with older, skilled
players--sometimes using scoring gates bounded by flat cones or
corner flags--five or so of them three steps wide.
Warm-Up Sessions
A
warm-up that we particularly like divides the team into three
equal groups, each marked in distinctive colored vests (Diagram
1). While one team defends (here red) the
possession of the
other two (brown & green) teaming together (assuming 15 field
players & a keeper: 10(+1)v5), the latter try to complete 10
consecutive passes. When the defense wins possession, the team
causing the loss become defenders. If possession is lost before
10 passes have been completed, play stops while the two
offensive teams do push ups (or sit ups) to reward their lapse
in concentration. Note: The keeper always plays with the
offensive teams--free to use his hands through the entire
playing area--so play is really 11v5.
With an odd number of players, teams can either play short or
the extra few can be constrained to play defensively (or
offensively). This is an excellent warm-up to begin a session:
as new players arrive late, the first stays on offense, the next
defense, and with the arrival of a third, one can be added to
each team.
Restrictions can be added: to emphasize individual ball-holding
skills and pressure defense, require every third pass be held
for five-to-ten touches (giving defenders time to compress into
the quadrant surrounding the ball); to emphasize changing the
point of attack, require every third pass cross a boundary
dividing the area in half (line A in Diagram 1); and to
emphasize accurate longer balls, require after five passes in
Zone B a completed pass through (or over) central Zone D into
Zone C--then five be completed there before re-entering Zone B
with the long ball. In Diagram 1 the second restriction has been
implemented: three passes have been completed in the right half
(passes 3-5) then pass 6 switches the attack back to the left.
An
interesting variation makes use of
possession charting to inter-rank the three teams in the
overloaded-underloaded [10(+1)v5] game just described or the
more conventional even-numbers (8v8) game. The coach identifies
one player from each of the three teams or two from each of the
two teams. These players, chosen by their similar skill, remain
unknown until the game ends.
Play progresses as each team tries to hold its possession and
accumulate 10 passes, but now the coach records play of the
selected few: a (+) every time the player makes a pass that
retains possession and a (-) every time his play causes a
possession loss. After five minutes scores are tallied with
minuses canceling pluses, and again the losing teams do push
ups. Play continues with new player choices. The following Table
shows typical results:
| Player |
Team |
Possessions |
Score |
| Alexi |
Red
|
+++-+-+++-+
|
+5 |
| Claudio |
Blue
|
++++++-++
|
+7 |
| Joe-Max |
Green
|
+--++++++++++
|
+9 |
"Moving goals" is yet another possession-oriented warm
up. Two teams, divided evenly (8v8), try to score on goals that
can constantly move through the area. Each team has two of its
players holding the ends of a 12-foot rope--taught at their
waist. The two switch off with team-mates every two minutes. As
both goals move through a half-field area to avoid their
opposition, players try to hold possession, move the ball
rapidly, and score under their opponent's mobile goal.
"Quadrants," a
Small-Sided Game of Possession
Quadrants provides further warm-up. It's again a small-sided
game emphasizing possession. Shown in
Diagram 2, 16
players are divided into teams of eight: one
defends while the other tries to hold its possession as it
travels through the quadrants--each a 20-by-20 yard square. Two
defenders (red circles) stationed in each of the quadrants are
restricted from moving among the quadrants, while the offensive
team (blue squares), partitioned into sub-teams of four, keeps
two balls in play.
Four-versus-two play begins in quadrants A and C as both
sub-teams try to string five or more passes together before
moving into quadrants B and D, respectively, and then on into
quadrants C and A. When the quadrant to be entered is occupied
by attackers, that subteam must continue to hold its possession
where it is until the quadrant empties. Should the defense win
possession or the ball be knocked out of bounds, the offense
immediately restarts a new ball (from one of several placed
outside each quadrant) and continues play.
The coach scores possession by adding each subteam's number of
lost possessions to its number of balls forced out of play. When
both subteams re-enter their original quadrants, the two teams
of eight switch assignments and play continues. The team of
eight with the lower number of lost possessions wins.
Scrimmage:
Direct Versus Possession Play
A
controlled scrimmage expands the theme:
Diagram 3 shows one played on a three-quarter sized field,
where one team (red circles) emphasizes possession while the
other
(blue squares) emphasizes direct play. The field is
divided into four zones with flat cones: wing-channel boundaries
extends from penalty box to penalty box while midfield
boundaries link these to the center circle.
Circles try to maintain their possession--not attack goal. They
are constrained to crossing the midline through wing channels;
otherwise a free kick is awarded squares. Squares, on the other
hand, attack goal by playing long, air balls over the top to
their strikers, who are themselves constrained to the attacking
half of the field: air balls must be played over the center
circle to enter squares' attacking half, or circles are awarded
the free kick. We want squares to play air balls through the
central channel, by-passing any midfield play when at all
possible.
For twenty minutes squares attack goal, while circles score with
time of possession: one goal for each two minutes of their
accumulated possession in Zones A, C, or D (by the coach's
stopwatch) [note, scoring could alternatively be based on number
of completed passes in those Zones--say one-half goal for each
sequence of five passes or one-half goal for every 20 passes
accumulated there].
Possession in Zone B counts for nothing because lost possessions
there can be devastating to the ball-possession team. A recent
example took place in World Cup '94 in the Argentine-Nigeria,
first-round match: in the first half, Nigeria intercepted a lazy
pass just below the midline in its attacking half--as most of
the Argentineans were making attacking runs; before they could
transition to defense, the ball was in the back of their net for
the lone Nigerian score. Even the best sometimes make poor
choices. In our scrimmage, the direct-play team scores two
points for every conventional goal and one point for every shot
on goal. The sessions objectives are for one team: (1) to
dictate tempo against another playing long ball, (2) to control
where its possessions are being lost, and (3) to improve its
ability to use possession in holding leads.
Scrimmage: Holding
Leads Late in the Match
A
scrimmage with a slightly different twist ends the session.
Here, the game is 7v7(+2K), played to goal between the tops of
the two penalty boxes. A possession-oriented team begins the
scrimmage with a 2-0 lead and 20 minutes left in the match.
While it tries to hold its possession, the other team is again
constrained to playing more directly. As an option to lessen the
pressure on the possession team, we could include the following
restriction: When the possession team has control of the ball,
two designated players on the other team must kneel on the field
and not resume play until their team regains possession.
Alternatively or in concert--to increase pressure on the
possession team--we could force two of them to kneel on defense
as well.
Middle third boundaries--marked with flat cones--run between
touchlines. The direct-play team again attacks goal
conventionally except for a constraint to force the long ball:
It must pass through the middle third--from one middle third
boundary to the other--with an air ball; otherwise, a free kick
results for the possession team. Note: It can play the ball into
the middle third, but play there must be followed by a ball
played back then over the middle-third boundaries.
The coach, observing from the sideline, charts the play of the
possession team: where its possessions are lost and the number
of passes it strings together on each. While the direct-play
team scores two for every conventional goal and the
possession-play team one, the possession team also scores once
for every possession of four or more passes that ends with a
turnover in its attacking third and loses one for every two lost
possessions in its defensive third.
Typical results are shown in
Diagram 4. In the 20 minute session, there were 42
possessions: for the ball-possession
team, 22 were lost in its
attacking third, 13 in its middle third, and 7 in its defensive
third. Remember, the score stood 2-0 before game began. Two
goals were scored by each team with double value to the
direct-play team [score: 4-4]; an additional four goals were
scored by the ball-possession team by stringing four or more
passes together before losing possession in its attacking third
(shown encircled) [score: 8-4]; and finally, the direct-play
team won seven of its possessions in the other's defensive third
to add 3.5 goals [final score: 8-7.5 to the ball-possession
team].
Given the possession team's goal to hold its lead by dictating
tempo, we expect most of its possessions to be lost in its own
attacking half and more of them to last longer than three
passes. If the reverse is found, the team has likely taken more
chances to score than tried holding its possession. Players
weren't in tune with the scrimmage's intent, possibly because,
with more-skill, they found attacking too easy. If that be true,
add constraints: force the possession team to make five passes
before attacking goal, to move the ball from one wing zone to
the other before attacking goal, or to pass the ball back (into
"negative" space) on any won possession in its middle or
attacking thirds. We could also use the kneeling-player option
to benefit the long-ball team as well.
The session's goal has been to force the one team to impose its
tempo on the other and hold its lead. Improvement should be
reflected in its session-to-session statistics: in the relative
number of possessions lost in the attacking versus defensive
halves, in longer possessions, and in game scores. A
ball-possession team imposes its tempo consciously by first
blunting the efforts of the long-ball team, then by forcing play
to its own strengths.
© Ric Miller 1996 (all rights reserved)