Short Passing Special – 8 activities for skill development

The short pass is the most basic element of soccer. Use these eight activities to hone the fundamental skill among your players.

For beginners:

Pass the ball 3 yards to a team mate.

Sounds simplistic but a critical starting point to establish the core skills in your young players.

Follow up with:

Pass to a team mate using both feet.

This ensures balanced skills with left and right feet.

This simple five minute warm up helps players hone passing and receiving over short distances in groups of four, whereas a great passing warm-up is played with larger groups at a high tempo and may suit more accomplished players.

Pinpoint short passing is an entire session that gets your players aiming at cones to score points – great for developing accuracy – and builds into a game scenario.

Zigzag Passing explains the tactics involved in moving the ball through midfield using short diagonal passes – great for turning defence into attack.

Of course, in a match players are usually under pressure when they receive and pass a ball.

Five Minute Basics: pressure passing is a simple set up that lets four players sample that pressure away from the intensity of a match

End to end 4v4 is a small-sided game with a match-like feel that challenges teams to pass into each others’ end zone under pressure from the opposition.

If you can’t find the exact short passing drill you require here, use the search box for more, or select the Passing dropdown in the menu.


A great passing warm up
Get to the opposite group


Pinpoint short passing
Zigzag Passing


Five Minute Basics: pressure passing
End to end 4v4