Turning Circle Practice 1

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Introduction:

This circle practice gives your players the chance to practice turning with the ball in a variety of ways and situations, firstly without pressure from opponents and then with defenders involved. It touches on all the key coaching points, from the actual skill involved in turning with the ball, to the awareness of where the players around you are and the communication required from your team mates to help you make the right decisions.

Setup:

• A circular area coned off of roughly 15 - 20 yards diameter (but adapt for the age and number of players and how far they can comfortably pass accurately). On an 11 a side pitch, can use the centre circle.
• Split your players into 2 even groups. One group starts in the middle of the circle, the other spread out evenly around the edge. Each group in different coploured bibs.
• Start with the edge players with the footballs. We want to use slightly less balls than we have edge players. So if you have 10 players in total, with 5 in the middle and 5 on the edge, use 3 or 4 balls. Adapt if necessary - for advanced players, up to one ball per edge player could work.
• Coach at the side with more footballs to fire in if others go flying off. Assistant coach to collect stray balls is ideal too.

Basic Rules:

• The job of the middle players is to collect a pass from an edge player, turn with the ball and then find a different edge player to pass to.
• They then dribble off and find another edge player to receive from and repeat again.
• Players must turn - that is what we're practising - but can do so in any number of ways.
• Encourage the players to try different types of turn, including the "no touch turn" where they just step over the ball / let it run through them.
• Switch the two groups after a short while so everyone gets a chance to practice turning. If you see a player do a type of turn the others could benefit from seeing, stop the session and get them to demonstrate (but avoid stopping too much).

Progressions & Variations:

• Give the edge players the opportunity to practise turning too - when they receive, they have the choice of passing to a new player as normal, or turning, dribbling a couple of yards and then turning back and then passing back into the circle.
• Introduce a couple of defenders (take one player from each group), starting as passive defenders (not allowed to actually tackle) just to give the players the chance to get used to being aware of where opposition players are and then allow full tackling. When defenders win the ball they get a point for their "team" - challenge them to work together.
• Once defenders are introduced, allow the central players to pass straight back to the player they received the ball from if there is no way to turn.

5 Key Coaching Points / Challenges:

• Different ways of turning - encourage the players to try various types of turn (several touches, one touch, even no touch turns) and show them how to execute these types of turn of they don't know. The types of things they'll try will depend on their age and ability level.
• Try to be aware of what is around you and find a space where you can safely turn (ie not into "danger" of a defender or into "traffic" of team mates). Have a quick glance around to "check your shoulders" before the ball arrives with you and use an arm to feel for an opponent and hold them off if necessary.
• Passing accuracy and power. Give our team mates the best chance to turn effectively by giving them a pass they can control.
• Communication - edge passers to let their team mate know where they can turn and when they can turn. Once the defenders are involved, they may not be able to turn, so let them know to come straight back to the passer.
• Try to have in your mind what you're going to do before the ball gets to you (awareness, communication from team mates both help you with this).

Coaching Points (FA's 4 Corners):

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