Coaches Corner 

Passing—A Key To a Better Player  

Carmine D’Agostino: 

When you use all four of the following factors, it means you have a good pass.

~Accuracy

~Pace

~Timing

~Disguise

Accuracy simply means whether the pass goes where you want it to, and whether you have chosen the right place to play the ball. Instead of just playing the ball in a general direction, an accurate pass means you have chosen a specific target and hit the target that you were aiming for. An accurate pass is one to the correct person and to the correct foot.

Pace means hitting the ball at the right speed. Too often a ball is played accurately, but is hit too soft. This means that while it was an accurate pass and would have put the receiver in a good position to do something, it was hit too softly, and the defense has the time to anticipate the pass and shut down the opportunity. A poorly paced ball might also be one that is hit too hard for the player receiving the ball to handle it. In most instances though, the passes are hit too softly than too hard in a game of youth soccer.

Timing means playing the ball so that it arrives when you want it to.  An example of this might be an accurate ball hit with proper pace but it is played to a person who is surrounded by opponents. While the pace might have been good, the timing of the decision to pass the ball to a player with opponents on him/her was a poor one.

Disguise means not showing your opponent where you will be passing the ball ahead of time. If you have the ball and you see a player in a better position than you and you look or stare at this player before passing the ball to them, this will give the defense time to predict your pass and prevent it. Disguising a pass can mean anything from using the outside of the foot, to using a back heal , to simply not staring at the intended target before you pass the ball.  By hiding where you intend to pass the ball, it makes it much harder on a defense to know where to go.

If you take all four of these factors into consideration when passing, you will become a much better player. 

Carmine D'Agostino

Back