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Home/Training Drills/Passing Drills/Rotate Around the Middle
PassingIntermediate

Rotate Around the Middle

Train passing combined with positional rotation. Players must scan and identify who currently occupies each station rather than passing from memory, which is the habit that breaks down when a real team rotates.

Create your own drill
Live animationPAS
Duration
14 min
Total drill time
Players
5
Recommended
Pitch
Full Pitch
Setup space
Level
Intermediate
Skill required
Intensity
Medium
Physical demand
Age band
U13-U14
Any format

Setup & instructions

Set four stations at north, south, east and west of a small central box of poles, about sixteen metres across overall. Four players take the outer stations and one works inside the box. After you pass, move to a different station. The ball circulates between the outer stations and through the central player, and because everyone is rotating, players must look up and identify the target rather than passing to a remembered position. Two touch, and call names.

Setup time: 2 min

Tactical breakdown

Passing patterns are learned as maps. After a few minutes players stop looking and start passing to a location, because in a fixed shape the location and the player are the same thing. It works beautifully inside the drill and transfers to nothing, because in a match the person occupying a space changes constantly.

Rotating the stations breaks the map. The four positions never move, but who stands in them does, and the moment a player rotates the mental shortcut stops working. Passing from memory now sends the ball to an empty station, and the group discovers within about a minute that they have to actually look. That discovery is the whole value.

Calling names is what makes it work in practice rather than in theory. Once players are rotating, the receiving player cannot always see who has the ball, and the passer cannot always be certain the intended target is looking. A name solves both problems in a single syllable, and it is the habit most amateur sides never build. A drill that makes silence immediately punishing is one of the few places it can be taught.

The central player is the part that usually needs the most correcting. The pole box is small and he can very easily end up behind one, at which point no passing line exists and he simply disappears from the exercise. Learning to show at the corner of an obstacle rather than behind it is a small technical habit with large consequences for anybody who plays in midfield.

How to run this drill

  1. Find the player, not the position. In a rotating shape the station you remember is probably occupied by somebody else, or by nobody. Look up and identify the person before you pass.
  2. Call the name. The receiver often cannot see who has the ball. One syllable solves it, and a drill where silence is instantly punished is the best place to build the habit.
  3. Rotate to an empty station. Moving to the nearest one puts two players in the same place and leaves another vacant. Look at where everybody else is heading before you choose.
  4. Show at the corner of the box. The central player behind a pole has no passing line and has effectively left the drill. Half a metre to the side makes him available again.
  5. Play past the box. Circulating round the outside means the central obstacle and the central player are both irrelevant, and the exercise becomes an ordinary square.
  6. Arrive facing the ball. Rotating into a station with your back turned means a touch to turn before you can do anything, and the tempo of the rotation is lost.

Coaching focus

FROM SESSION PLAN

Coaching points

  • Look up and find the player, not the station you remember
  • Call the name of the player you are passing to
  • Move to a station nobody is heading for, not the nearest one
  • The central player shows on a corner of the box, never behind a pole
  • Pass past the box rather than round the outside of the grid
  • Arrive at your new station facing the ball, ready to receive

Common mistakes

  • Passing to a station rather than a player, so the ball goes to an empty spot
  • Two players rotating into the same station and leaving another empty
  • The central player hiding behind a pole where no line exists
  • Arriving at a new station with your back to the ball

Progressions & regressions

VARIATIONS

Progressions

  • One touch on the outer stations
  • Add a second central player, so the middle is shared
  • Reverse the rotation direction on a call

Regressions

  • Fix the stations and remove the rotation while passing is learned
  • Unlimited touches
  • Widen the grid so the passing lines are more generous
Equipment
Markers×4
Poles×4
Tactical principles
rotation passing drillpositional rotation drillscanning drill footballpassing and movement drillu13 passing drillcommunication drill footballfive player passing drilltechnical passing patternawareness drill footballcentral player passing drill
Audience
U13-U14

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