Pressing session: speed of the press

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Mar 3, 2025

Session intentions

This is week two of the pressing and covering session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session will help players:

work on when and how to press
use speed and body positioning effectively
improve their ability to apply pressure to the player on the ball.

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.

30x50-yard pitch

16 players

Mini-goals

Flat cones

Bibs

Speed of the press

Create parallel pitches appropriate for the age and stage of your players. Put a goal at each end. Players take part in a normal small-sided game on each pitch for ten or fifteen minutes. Encourage players to think about how and when they could press.
Create a 10x10-yard diamond area for this 1v1 game. Attackers start on one cone with defenders on the opposite cone. If attackers avoid being tagged, they score a point for reaching a side cone and three points for getting to the defender’s cone. Progress this by giving attackers a ball to run with.
Create an area with a zone and a goal at each end. Each team has a player in their own defensive zone while the rest are in the middle. Players work together to score but can’t make a backwards pass to a teammate in the middle. But they can pass back to the player in their defensive zone.

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Tactics board

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out James'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:

let the defender dictate the play during diamond duel by allowing them to pass the ball to the attacker and press immediately while the attacker waits to receive
stop players from making any pass backwards in the final activity, this gives the opposition a better chance to press and win the ball
allow a player to press their opponent in the end zone during the final practice.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

make the diamond duel area bigger
allow players to pass backwards to anyone in the final activity, making it harder to press.

Coaching points

Ask players to look for signs to apply pressure, such as their opponent looking down, taking a heavy touch or not having the ball under control.

Emphasise the importance of being able to increase and decrease their speed at the right time. Defenders need to quickly get close to their opponent but slow down enough so their opponent can’t use the defender’s momentum against them.

Encourage players to take a side on and lowered position to help them react to the movements of the player with the ball.