Middle, Back and Forward

Objective

• React, get moving, and finish before anyone can settle

Set-up and how it runs

• Two goals thirty yards apart, a keeper in each. Mark a square in the middle and a square near each keeper.
• The two teams line up twenty yards apart, numbered one to five.
• Call a number. That player from each team sprints to the middle square, then turns and runs to the square by the keeper.
• The keeper plays a ball in; the player takes it and runs at the far goal to score.
• Four-minute periods with thirty seconds between for the coaching point.

Equipment

• 16 cones in two colours
• 10 balls
• 2 goals

Coaching points

• Go on the number, not half a second after it
• Change of pace at the turn is what wins the race
• Open your body as you arrive so you can see the goal you are attacking
• First touch forward, into the run
• Laces through it — this is a shot, not a pass

Progressions

• Run with the ball to the middle square, then turn and shoot from there
• Pass back to the keeper from the middle square before going again

What it develops

Technical

Shooting

Psychosocial

Competitiveness

Tactical

Finishing in the final third

Physical

Speed