Fun Game for Football Players – The Point Circles

Drill Image

Another day and another fun game for our players. Today’s exercise is a very nice fun game which build’s team spirit and creates the opportunity for our players to execute many practical repetitions while inevitably enhances his/her passing capacity. With the ”Point circles” game, our players will learn how to pass the ball effectively while they ”experience” in real time ”how much power” should they apply for each different pass. There are additional benefits from this exercises that we should also underline. 1) Gauging our pass 2)Positioning our body behind the ball 3) Balance while passing the ball 4) Accuracy of our pass 5) Play under pressure 6) Play with intention to win 7) Pass with specific purpose (point system). We are happy to inform you that our blog propounds ”extra” exercise ideas for Ball anticipation ,speed, passing, agility, reaction and of course insights for your daily training methodology (warm-up or testing protocols). Let’s unveil now the ”Point Circles”

Description of the Exercise

The ”Point Circles” exercise is a very simple and easy to prepare exercise. Coaches only need balls and cones. Preferably we recommend 3 different colors of cones (1 for each circular zone). As a first step we create the three zones and we distribute evenly 18 or 27 balls to our three teams (6 or 9 balls for each team). Players are guided to build small teams. When everything is ready and all players are positioned facing the ball the fun game is ready to start.

Basic Rules

Each team has it’s own turn. Coach dictates which team will start the game at the very start. The purpose of this exercise is clear. The team which manages to place the most balls in the zones wins the turn. Each player has to kick 2 or 3 balls respectively and at the end of their try, a point count will determine their score. Players are not allowed to lift the ball off the ground and balls that ”stop” on cones do not count as line-on points. Each zone has a different point value. The left and right zones count for 2 points and the middle one for 4 points. Players are not allowed to ”kick-out” an ”opponent ball” from a zone by hitting it with their own ball (this is another variation that we will propose later). We recommend to play this game for 9 turns (1 turn each team at each position for 3 times ). By the end of each turn, teams switch positions in a clockwise manner. In the end, the team with the most wins is the winner of ”Point Circles”

Animated Example

My Coaching Suggestion – Instructions

AS we mentioned before this fun game offers a lot of benefits. Place your emphasis when your player is gauging his/her pass. Does your player understand the distance between him/her and the circle? We should demonstrate few passes with proper technique and of course explain why we execute each movement throughout the follow through face. We expect ”clean contact” with the ball and sufficient ”hits” with the inside part of the foot. We expect our players to externally rotate their feet and use the flat part of their leg for effective and well executed passes. What about our body position? At young age, we educate our players to position themselves just next to the ball while their shoulders ”drop” a bit forward. We provide constant feedback to our players, preferably just before the execution of the pass. A players who understands which is the most efficient manner to position him/herself in relation with the ball is already more drastic with his/her passes. There are additional characteristics that we should mention but we believe that we should place more emphasis on other more complicated components of the ”pass”. Which is the pressure that a player feels when a pass is about to happen? A lot of players are reluctant to execute a pass or even ”freeze” while they try to pass. Why this is happening? Players are attracted and highly affected by the notion of success. We as their mentors hold the responsibility to ”free” them from their ”success stress”. It is completely fine to fail and make a mistake. Success is comprised of many mistakes, all perfectly executed. Believe us, this is not a cliche! Motivate your players to engage with the process and push them to make a lot of mistakes. By following this approach and by offering constant reflection upon each mistake, success will not take long and each individual will excel gradually and steadily.

Play to win! Football inevitably is not only fun in real life. Unexpectedly, coaches have in their hands a detrimental leverage to provide practical experience to their players. You guessed it right! It is indeed the Game Nature of football. Every fun game should include the real life circumstances of a Football Game, ”Win – Loss – Draw”. Our players should be educated to struggle for the win and of course crave for success. We are convinced that players should place their full effort and their endeavor on the pitch. It is our first priority to built critical thinkers who can discriminate with ease, how to win without hindering the effort of the opposing side. We always embrace ethical and even competition which shapes our player’s character! As a last statement we kept the pass with specific purpose. Our players do not just pass the ball and convey it from one side to the other. Every pass executed has a reason and with it we aim to provoke reactions on the pitch. We should teach our players to play offensively with clear intention to forward the play from one line to the other. In the end, we want to score and players should learn it from early stage. There is a lot of space for development and self reflection upon our training prescription! Don’t you agree?

Mistakes to Avoid

1. Inappropriate passes. We stay close and we always correct our players. We want passing quality and consistency.
2. Fear. We motivate our players to pass the ball. There are players who feel ”fear” when all their teammates stare at them and expect from them to be successful. They feel a huge psychological burden. We are there to help them crash their emotional threshold and sculpt a resilient character
3. Player passing at the same time. We control the game and we are responsible to impose the rules. Every one has his/her respective balls
4. Ball availability. We should return the balls. We make sure each team has the same number of balls available before the start of each turn
5. Lifting the ball off the ground. How can we refine our ground pass if we execute a lobbed pass? Long ball is a completely different training objective which we can develop with different exercises
6. Lack of ”intra-team” interaction. This fun game is played ”team-wisely”. Teammates are encouraged to provide verbal assistance or verbal recommendations while their peers executes their passes. Be careful we want assistance and not guidance. Help your players if needed!
7. Lack of scoring system. Make sure you bring a piece of paper or a notebook in order to keep track of each team’s score. Otherwise you are doomed against enraged little mafias!

Prospective progressions – Suggested

We eventually reached the progressions paragraph! There are different progressions which you can try, hence we will recommend those that we find more intriguing and easy for execute. What about increasing the competition to the limits? With the first variation, players from other teams can hit the balls of the other teams. Each ball that gets ”kicked-out” of the circles being hit by an opposing balls counts as a deducted point from team’s total points. Believe us the game will ”catch fire”. In case that you want to add another training objective to this exercises we also recommend another variation. This particular variation develops the 1st touch of your players. When coach returns the balls to each team, player have to control the incoming passes. If they miss a touch, the same points will be deducted from their team total score. Points deducted vary according to the circle that they come from. For example a missed touch of a ball coming from the 2 point circle will deduct 2 points. Please try these variations and share your personal experience with us!

As a conclusion, the ”Point Circles” is a very nice exercise which is highly recommended for any coach who wants to amplify his/her team’s passing capacity. You can try it out with every age group, even with senior professional players when you aim to significantly decrease the daily training load. We hope that it is a nice idea to include it in your weekly plan and of course personalize it as much as it is tailored to your needs. We are extremely happy and we hope that we proposed another ”arrow for your coaching quiver”.

Until the next one Ciao