Passing and receiving session: around the clock

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Apr 28, 2025

Session intentions

This is week three of the passing and receiving session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session will help players:

make decisions on when to play forward
explore receiving to turn forward and receiving to pass forward.

If you're short on time, this structured training programme can be used as it is. Pitch sizes in this programme are shown as how long the pitch is x how wide it is, but these are just suggestions.

To make the programme more effective, adapt it to suit your players, your numbers and the space you have. If you want to skip, repeat or amend these sessions – that's fine. It’s up to you how you use this resource.

If you like this idea, download the session plan and give it a go. And don't forget to share your experience on the England Football Community. We'd love to know how you got on.

Session setup

In our example, this is what we’ve used to set up this session. But adapt it to suit your team and the space available to you.

Half a pitch

12 players

Goals

Flat cones

Spots/flat markers

Bibs

Around the clock

Create a 10x10-yard diamond area. Have three players on each cone. One player starts with the ball. They pass to the player to their right. While the passer runs to join the cone on their left, a player from that cone presses the receiver. The receiver passes to their right and the process repeats.
Create an 40x30-yard pitch that’s split into thirds with a goal at each end. Have one defender locked in each third. Three attackers drive into the area and look to combine with each other to work through the thirds and score. If the defenders win the ball, they’re unlocked and can combine to score.
Split a pitch into a 10-yard third, a 20-yard middle third and a 15-yard end third. Have a keeper at each end with a 2v2 in the middle. Teams can only shoot after a player receives a pass in the final third. Play for six minutes then swap ends to let teams experience receiving in the other third.

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Tactics board

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out Emily's tactics board video for this session.

Make it easier

Using the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002) can help keep things fun, engaging, and appropriate.

To make this session easier, you could:

increase the size of the diamond area to give receivers more time to control and pass the ball
allow players to shoot from anywhere during the final drill but give them double points for scoring in the final third.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

decrease the size of the diamond area to encourage a quicker press on the receiver
introduce another football in the first football drill
have an attacker start by receiving the ball while being marked in the second practice.

Coaching points

In the second practice, swap the defenders and attackers around after four minutes of repetition.

Ask players to scan for ‘BOTS’ to gain key information before receiving the ball. This stands for; ball position, opposition players, teammates and space.

Encourage players to receive on their back foot so they open their body out to see the next player they’re looking to pass to.

Challenge passers to think about where the receiver is to dictate what pass they need. If the receiver is in a tight area, the passer will need to play into their feet. If the receiver has more room, it might be beneficial for the passer to play the ball into space.

Task players with using deception to outwit their opponent.