Four Corner Passing Drill
Choosing suitable drills for junior teams is always a challenging task, but the Four Corner Passing Drill is one of a few drills which add some much needed value to the myriad amount of drills currently available to a coaches. The problem for coaches when faced with selecting drills to incorporate into their ‘bag of tricks’ is ensuring drills fulfil not only one purpose, but cover a number of technical or tactical points to help utilise training time efficiently and effectively.
The Four Corner Passing Drill achieves this by focusing on a number of important technical skills. The first and probably the most obvious are passing. The full array of different passes can be incorporated into the Four Corner Passing Drill. This is compounded favourably by the high repetitions players individually, or as a team achieve within a short time period while using this drill.
Another fantastic aspect of the Four Corner Passing Drill is its linking of movement with passing. This sounds like a very simple linking skill, but for junior players this is a very difficult task to achieve and complete at a high percentage of accuracy. The Four Corner Passing Drill helps players both receive and make the pass all in one motion without needing a great deal of direction. With players receiving the ball on the run specific technical skills like having active hands for providing a target to the passer are also able to be demanded of players.
Additionally, team based elements like communication can be added to the mix to assist in reinforcing proactive communication. With some much movement happening at any one time the Four Corner Passing Drill demands junior players especially communicate with each other to ensure the ball is not thrown to the wrong person. By asking your players to communicate this skill has a positive effect on offensive awareness, especially vision. Without looking ahead as the passer communication will fail and the same can be seen from the perspective of the receiver. By asking for specific and purposeful communication there are a number of positives to be achieved.
The Four Corner Passing Drill is aimed at junior teams. It is not a competitive drill and does not ask passing technique to be performed under pressure. For this reasons it is not suitable to be incorporated into individual skill development for senior or elite players. It can be used within warm-up activities for senior players but at the end of the day do you really want to be using drills that do not get your team ready to compete when you only have a very limited period of time in which to rehearse.
Players start in corners of the half court.
One (1) passes ball to player on the right. Then cuts to adjacent corner.
Three (3) passes ball to player on right. Then cuts to adjacent corner.
Four (4) passes to player on right cutting through the key which is Three (3).
Two (2) passes to player on right cutting through the key which is One (1).
Three (3) receives ball and passes to corner heading towards which is Six (3), Three (3) continues to follow pass and joins end of line.
One (1) receives ball and passes to corner heading towards which is Eight (8), One (1) continues to follow pass and joins end of line.
After making pass to player o right Four (4) cuts to adjacent corner.
After making pass to player on right Two (2) cuts to adjacent corner.
Stages are repeated where player passes to cutter and follows pass.
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Coach Riches has been working within the sport, business and education industries for many years. During this time he has built an extensive number of formal and informal qualifications. A firm believer in training and development designed to help people reach their full potential, relevant o their needs and functional to their industry environment.