Train the centre back's distribution under a simulated press. The receiving touch has to open the pitch, the head has to come up before the ball arrives, and the pass has to clear or split a line of three from around thirty five metres.
Set three mannequins as a press line about twenty five metres from goal, with a keeper on the line and a centre back ten metres out. Put two targets around fifty five metres upfield, one central and one higher and wider. The keeper rolls to the centre back, who takes an opening touch and distributes to either target, over or through the mannequin line. Alternate targets, work both feet, and rotate players through the centre back role.
Playing out from the back is coached constantly as a team pattern and rarely as an individual technique. The shape gets drilled, the rotations get drilled, and the actual skill at the centre of it, a defender receiving under pressure and hitting an accurate forty five metre pass, is assumed rather than practised.
This isolates that skill and nothing else. Four players, three mannequins, and one decision repeated: where does the ball go. Stripping out the rest of the team means a coach can watch the centre back's first touch on every repetition, which is where most distribution actually fails.
The touch is the whole thing. A defender who receives square to his keeper has only backward passes available, and the press arrives while he is still turning. Opening the hips as the ball travels, so the first touch takes it across the body and into the space he is about to strike from, converts two touches into one and buys the metre that makes a long pass possible.
Having two targets at different heights and widths matters more than it looks. One target makes this a passing exercise with a known answer. Two makes it a decision, and the correct answer changes depending on where the press has shifted. The near target usually wants a driven ball through or past the line; the far one usually wants it lofted over. Recognising which is on, and disguising the choice until late, is the part that transfers to a match.
The honest limitation is that mannequins do not press. Adding one live defender who closes as the keeper rolls the ball changes the exercise considerably and is worth doing once the technique is sound.
Save it to your private drills, then change the animation, adjust positions, swap equipment, or drop it into a session block. Or start from a blank pitch and build your own.