Football with Purpose: Training to Play, Not to Repeat
As we’ve talked about before, this section focuses on football training drills I’ve used in the teams I’ve coached—always contextualizing them and explaining the “why” behind each exercise and what we were aiming to achieve.
👉 If you want to learn how these drills were developed and what ideas led me to this approach, click here.
Context
We’re in the 2023/2024 season at Black Leopards FC in South Africa, working with a young and talented group of players.
75% of the squad had no previous professional experience, and 50% were under the age of 22.
In this case, our most experienced players were in the defensive line and central midfield. But then comes the question: Shouldn’t experienced players still train technical actions?
The goal of the drill I’ll share below was to introduce and strengthen one of the core principles we defined as a team: pressing after losing possession.
We wanted to be a team that aggressively regained the ball. As I mentioned before, most of the squad was young and physically capable of performing repeated high-intensity efforts.
This drill was done on the third day after matchday, and it’s the kind of task we typically rotate between team-based exercises. In the language of Tactical Periodization by Professor Vítor Frade, this would be called a “screw and bolt”session.
In this particular case, we did it with all players, and instead of mixing it with group drills, we used it right after the warm-up.
1v1 with Pressing After Loss
We divide the group into two teams (as shown in the diagram), and each team lines up in front of a mini-goal they must try to score in—facing off against the opposing team’s line.
The exercise is based on a 1v1 situation, where the attacking player aims to dribble and finish.
Once the action ends with a shot, the individual objective shifts: the player who just attacked now immediately switches to defend the opponent who begins their 1v1 the moment the previous shot is taken.
So, it’s a constant switch from attacking (dribbling + finishing) to defending (press or block the shot).
The idea is to make it competitive, so that the intensity and sharpness of each action go up with the stakes.
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📚 Keep learning with purpose—check out more articles and exercises that go beyond the obvious.
