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Free practice plan · Ages 11–12 · 9v9 · 2-3-3A U12 soccer practice plan:
playing out of the back
This is Week 3, Session 1 of the Full Season Travel Curriculum for ages 9 to 12, drawn here for 9v9. The block is playing out of the back and the habit is Look First: check your shoulder before the ball arrives. Ninety minutes, twelve to sixteen players, every ball starting with the keeper, and a game at the end where goal kicks are always played short.
- Check your shoulder before the ball arrives.
- Backs: split wide, open your body, play what you see.
Bring: Ball each, a full-size goal, flat cones for gates, colored cones for the rondo, pinnies.
Your job: Tell parents before kickoff that you are choosing to play out, and why. Goals against this month are tuition.
The session, minute by minute
Color-Call Rondo
Rondo4v1 in a 10x10. The coach or a resting player walks around the outside holding up a colored cone. The receiver has to call the color before the first touch. No call, no count. Six passes with calls is a point.
Shoulder-Check Lines
SharpenThrees in a line, 10 yards apart: A, B in the middle, C. C holds up one to five fingers. B checks over a shoulder, calls the number, receives from A on the back foot, turns and plays C. Then back the other way. Change the middle player every minute.
EasierB may take extra touches.
HarderC sometimes shows a fist. A fist means a defender is on you: bounce it back to A.
If it stallsCalling after the touch? Slow the pass down so there is time to look.
Beat the First Press
SolveHalf a field with a goal. Keeper, two backs and a center mid build against two pressers. Three cone gates sit on the halfway line: left, center, right. Score by passing or dribbling through a gate. If the pressers win it, they shoot. Every ball starts with the keeper.
EasierPressers walk until the first pass.
HarderThree pressers against keeper, two backs and two mids.
If it stallsPressers winning everything? They start at the top of the box and go only when the keeper's first pass is played.
The game: start short
Play9v9 in the 2-3-3. Every goal kick and keeper save is played short. Opponents drop to halfway until the first pass is received. Then it is live. Keeper, two backs and center mid make a diamond; wide mids show for the second pass; wingers stay high.
Our goal kick
Set pieceBacks to the corners of the box, center mid shows in the middle, wide players high and wide. The keeper plays the free one. Walk it twice, then play it live against two pressers.
Session 2 of the week
The second session uses the same habit with Bounce or Turn and Out and Over, where the backs learn to pull the press to one side and go out the other. Week 4 brings both sessions back with an Up a Level rule, so you spend the time coaching instead of explaining.
Match day: what to watch for
The habit to watch this week is 2 · Look first. Three things to look for from the touchline:
- Do the backs split and open up when our keeper has it?
- Does the receiver look before the ball arrives?
- When the first pass is on, do we take it, or kick long out of fear?
Halftime, two questions, then listen:
- Keeper: who was free on the last goal kick?
- What did you see when you checked your shoulder?
Questions coaches ask
Our keeper panics when pressed. Where do we start?
With the Solve block and the easier rule: pressers walk until the first pass. The keeper needs ten successful goal kicks before the first real one, and the walking presser gives them that. Then make the pressers live and watch the keeper find the free back.
What if we concede from playing out on Saturday?
Count it as tuition and keep playing. Tell the parents before kickoff that the team is learning to play out and why. A team that stops playing out after one bad goal learns nothing; a team that plays out through it has a keeper and two backs who can handle a press by week 6.
Does the 9v9 build-out line change this?
If your league uses one, the opponents must drop behind it on goal kicks, which is exactly what the Play block simulates. If not, the backs still split to the corners of the box and the center mid still shows; the pressers just arrive sooner, so the look before the ball comes matters more.
How is this different at 11v11?
Two center backs instead of two backs, a six instead of a center mid, and full-backs who push to halfway. The decisions are the same. The guide on playing out of the back in a 4-3-3 covers the 11v11 version.
U11 drills and games › U12 drills and games ›
More free practice plans
Twenty-four sessions, twelve match days, one habit at a time
The Full Season Travel Curriculum for ages 9 to 12 is twelve weeks built around six team habits, every game drawn at 7v7 and 9v9, with a match-day page every week, the 30-minute game-day warm-up and an animated video of every activity.