---
title: "Playing Out from the Back: Full Training Session"
description: "A complete 90-minute playing out from the back session: rondo warm-up, build-up pattern work, an 8v6 build-up game and a conditioned match, phase by phase."
url: "https://coachboard.app/library/football/playing-out-from-the-back-session"
sport: "Football"
category: "Training Session"
level: "intermediate"
dateModified: "2026-07-08"
---

# Playing Out from the Back Session — Football Training Session

Since the 2019 law change allowed teammates to receive goal kicks inside the penalty area, building from the goalkeeper has gone from stylistic choice to core competence — and opponents have answered with ever more aggressive goal-kick presses. A team that cannot play through that first wave concedes territory all afternoon.

This is a full session plan rather than a single drill, because build-up play is a chain: the goalkeeper's pass, the centre-backs' body shape, the pivot's movement and the recognition of the free man must be trained together before they survive contact with a match.

## Objective

Equip the team to advance the ball from goal kicks through a press by fixing the build-up structure, training recognition of the free man, and rehearsing the decision to go long when the short option dies.

## Setup

- **Area:** From a penalty-area grid up to two-thirds of a pitch across the phases
- **Players:** 16–20 outfield players plus 2 goalkeepers
- **Equipment:** 1 full-size goal, 4 mini goals or 2 sets of halfway gates, 3 colours of bibs, Cones for grids and gates, A full bag of balls in the goal
- **Duration:** 85–90 minutes including recovery breaks
- **Level:** intermediate (U14+)

## How it works

1. **Phase 1 — Rondo warm-up (15 min)** — Two simultaneous 5v2 rondos in 10x10m grids, two-touch, defenders rotating on the minute — priming the exact tools build-up runs on: the half-turn, angled support, circulation under pressure.
2. **Phase 2 — Unopposed build-up shape (15 min)** — Back four, pivot and goalkeeper walk through the structure on a half pitch: centre-backs split to the corners of the box, full-backs push to the touchlines 25m up, the pivot drops between imaginary pressing lines. The goalkeeper initiates each picture and the unit plays out along scripted routes at rising tempo.
3. **Phase 3 — 8v6 build-up game (20 min)** — In half a pitch, the build-up eight (GK, back four, pivot, two midfielders) plays out against six pressers, scoring by passing through either of two 5m halfway gates; the pressers score in the full-size goal within ten seconds of a regain. Rotate the pressing six every four minutes.
4. **Phase 4 — Conditioned match (20 min)** — 10v10 on two-thirds of a pitch, every restart taken as a goal kick. A goal counts double when the move began with a completed pass inside the penalty area, and the pressing team earns a bonus point for any regain in the first third.

## Coaching points

- The goalkeeper is the permanent spare man — the reset pass to him is progress, not panic, because it forces the press to restart its runs.
- Centre-backs receive at the corners of the box on the half-turn, hips open up the line, never square.
- The pivot lives on the blind side of the first pressing line, checking his shoulders and showing between opponents, not behind them.
- Teach the free-man logic out loud: whoever their striker presses, somebody — far centre-back, full-back or dropping pivot — has been left, so find him fast.
- Going long early against a committed man-press, with midfield set for second balls, is a correct answer — not a failure of the model.

## Variations

- **Scale the press** — Move the build-up game from 8v6 towards 8v8 as competence grows — even numbers approximate the man-for-man goal-kick presses now common at every level.
- **Force the switch** — Rule that the building team may only exit through the gate opposite the side the goalkeeper first played. Escaping now requires shifting the press across the pitch and back.

## Build it in Coach Board

Build the whole session as one Coach Board canvas with a separate board per phase — rondo grids, the build-up shape with its scripted routes animated, the 8v6 game with gates marked — then fly through the canvas overview at the pre-training briefing and send assistants the link so every grid is laid out before the players jog over.

## FAQ

### When should a team choose not to play out from the back?

When the opponent commits man-for-man to the first third and your structure cannot free a spare player, or when pitch and weather make short passing in your own box reckless. Good build-up coaching always includes the long option as part of the model, not a betrayal of it.

### What structure works best for building from goal kicks?

The most common start point is split centre-backs at the corners of the penalty area, high full-backs, and a pivot dropping between the opponent's pressing lines. The right structure is simply whichever creates a spare man against the specific press you face.

## Related

- https://coachboard.app/library/football/5v2-rondo.md
- https://coachboard.app/library/football/y-passing-drill.md
- https://coachboard.app/library/football/pressing-triggers-drill.md

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