This is a great drill to work on 6v6 in transition, ball movement, and team defense in one fun, fast paced drill. A special thanks to Albany Head Coach Scott Marr! I heard him talk about the drill in our podcast interview and had our kids do the drill in a week. They loved it, and it improves a lot of key transition skills or what he called building “Anticipation” on both sides of the ball. This is a fantastic drill for players of all ages.
Very often, we as coaches have a tendency to work in “equal” situations in a sort of static midfield setting. You could even call it a bit boring, but I want to offend you so early in the article. This drill is more game-like (emulating game-like situations is critical to all of our drills) in that, although it is a 6V6 drill, it starts in a transition setting and includes finding the ball, ground balls, ball offense, transition and transition defense. and it’s a great way to include a lot of players in running, reconnaissance and conditioning.
It’s basically a 6V6 exercise that starts at the midfield line. Six offensive players are lined up facing the offensive end or cage and “behind” them are six defensive players. Coach Marr has his defenders start with their heads down so they initially don’t notice where the coach has rolled or thrown the ball. In fact, we put our defenders in front of the coach, instead of the cage, so they have their backs to the action.
From the Midfield line, the coach shoots or rolls the ball to the offensive end. All offensive players spring into action on the toss or on a whistle. Offensive players need to locate the ball first. Then, when one offensive player picks up the ground ball, the others must identify the appropriate passing lanes or open space. Coach Marr has his players drive or pass an open man and immediately go on the offensive to the cage.
From the midfield line, about 3 yards behind the offensive players, defensive players also turn and run on the pitch or whistle. Potentially, one of the defensive players may think they can chase the ground ball before the offense identifies the location, however, the drill is designed so that the defense first runs into the “hole” and then very quickly identifies who is covering whom. who. with strong communication.
Coach Marr talks a lot about anticipation, as both offensive and defensive players need to not only think on their feet, but perhaps more importantly, think on their feet as a unit. All of this exercise is fast paced and designed to get you into the cage fast. The players on the field then return from outside the action area to the midfield area, while another group of 6V6 is ready to play immediately. We typically run ours in max sessions of 30-40 seconds or less and immediately jump-start the next group.
One tip that worked best for us (we like quick practices) was to have the next group line up immediately after the first group of 6V6s is in play, so everything moves quickly. This is not the time to talk or be bored.
We also had a bit of fun adding some nuance to the exercise. The first thing we look for is a fast pass or two passes to shoot. If the shot from a pass isn’t there, we immediately make the offensive unit go to a 2-2-2 or 1-4-1, or my favorite, identify a matchup where we have shorty on shorty and “Reverse” to “X ” and play. This is also all done in the interval of 30-40 seconds (or less!).
In games, these kinds of hectic and unstable “jailbreak” scenarios, is where we often found the mismatch we wanted. But we need to quickly find him as a team and possibly exploit him before the defense can change or line up the way it wants to be lined up. But it’s really hard to coach this off the bench. Therefore, this drill can also be great for teaching players and getting players to think and identify pairing opportunities through “Invest” or “Set”.
When the offense does a great job of acknowledging or creating space in a shaky situation, make sure they get recognized. When the defense does a great job of holding together in the shaky, fast-paced 30 seconds, make sure they are recognized, too. We also recommend not overthinking this drill and keeping the entire drill to 7-12 minutes in length to keep kids interested and engaged.
