Crossing football drills

Every touch a winger takes hands the defence a second to reorganise. Crossing first time is how that second gets denied to them.

This is a volley drill wearing a crossing drill's clothes. The delivery is a constant; the body shape at contact is the variable.

Inside or outside is decided by the defender, not by preference. If he shows you outside, the underlap is the run he cannot see.

Under-11s cannot head the ball, so the usual crossing game is illegal. This one keeps the width and the byline, and insists the delivery stays low.

Young players cannot cross and are not allowed to head. So teach the version that works: beat the full-back, reach the byline, and roll it back low.

Carry to the byline, head up, and deliver into the space between keeper and defenders. Two runners attack it, one at the spot, one at the back post.

Whoever makes the near-post run usually does not score. Praise only the finishes and within two weeks all three run to the back post.

Conditioning a game teaches by making the wrong option impossible. The cost is players learning a rule instead of a decision.

A pole never recovers, never closes the crossing angle and never reads the run. That is why it is useful, and what it cannot teach.

Low and hard across the six-yard box only needs a touch to become a goal, and it takes the keeper out of the decision entirely.

From the same byline position there are two deliveries. The cutback converts far better, because everyone defending it is facing the wrong way.

A winger who has just beaten a full-back is off balance with a defender recovering. That cross is nothing like a free one.

From open play the near post is the shortest route to goal, and the smallest touch on a fast cross is the hardest thing to save.

Two against one is only an overload if the defender has to choose. If he can cover both, you have a 1v1 and a spectator.

Waiting for the byline is a habit, not a rule. A line that has pushed up and not yet dropped is the moment to cross early.

The overlap is not the move. Fixing the defender is the move, and the run only pays off once he has genuinely committed to the ball.

Crossing sessions live or die on volume. Two lines, both flanks, three runners every time, and nobody standing in a queue.