Drills for 16-18 year olds

[Kevin8833]

I am coaching a varsity team in the near future and have a good number of drills of my own that I use and have in store but I am just wondering if anybody would mind sharing some of their favorite and most effective drills that would be suitable for this level, we are an above average varsity team who contends or wins districts every year but not a state powerhouse or anything, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[rca2]

One of my favorites is simple. Pair up and pass a ball back and forth while stationary. Two touches. One touch to control and one to return the pass. Unskilled players will start off hitting slow passes with the side of their foot. Skilled players will be hitting moderate instep passes and collecting them at 15 yards apart. The better the skill the harder the pass. I have seen pros use this before matches.

[saabrian]

i've always been a big fan of keepaway. keeps everyone moving and encourages positional awareness. i throw in discs too that the players have to avoid the ball hitting (forces them to keep their heads up). you can limit touches, of course, as appropriate. it's also good because you can do it in small groups or larger.

[goyoureddevils]

Have you ever played any passing gate games or breakout games? I play them with subtle variations for my U13/U14 teams, my high school kids, and my two U23 teams. The kids like them as they keep them moving, and I like them because I can adapt just about any lesson to them.

The idea is to set up a game where there are either gates that the teams have to complete passes through to score a point, or put a player from each team in one of several "jail" boxes where their teamates have to pass into them and break them out to score, (the player who passes the ball into the box has to go in and replace the one who comes out).

You can set up a half field game with gates, or jails in the corners to work on possesing the ball... I usually put one or two gates/jails in the middle and give double points for scoring there.

You can set up an 18 to 18 game with gates or jails on the flanks and in the center to help the kids learn how to find the "killer" pass... I start this out as just a keep away game with neither team having a direction, but transition into a game where they each have a goal to attack/defend at the top of the 18's, but only after they have successfully found one of the gates/jails.

Finally, you can do full field game, setting up gates/jails wherever you want your kids to find key players or "killer" passes in a game. I make sure to scrimmage my kids alot during pre season in short games (10 to 25 minutes) to see what kind of strengths and weaknesses we have, and then set up games like this to help them get the timing and shape of their runs and passes just right. What I am saying is, the way I set up these type of games as far as numbers, space, and location of gates/jails is different for each team, and often takes some tweaking to get it tuned just right.... that said, it is one of the most effective ways to develop team play that I use.

[saabrian]

Actually this is a variation I often use on my keepaway games. That's what I like about keepaway. You can adapt it in so many ways to accomplish whatever you need.

[ButlerBob]

Is there anything specific that your trying to work on with your team? Or are you just looking for some general drills?

Here are some links to drills that I've used before.

http://www.soccerclub.com/training/drills/default.asp

This one is my favorite site for drills. It's loaded with pretty much everything you could need and more.

http://www.dprsports.com/drills.htm

Here's a sub section that deals with tactics.

http://www.dprsports.com/drills/tactics.htm