The Rehearsed Ball

The dead-ball moments won on the training field — attacking sideline and free routines, a throw-in and a set kickout move, and how to defend every one of them.

Gaelic football
Adult
80 min
18–28 players
1 coach
Effort 3/5
Full pitch
adult
tactical
set-plays
dead-ball
routines

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 30 cones, 12 footballs, 24 bibs (2 colours), one goal with a keeper

Warm-up12 min

Strike and Time It

Setup: Pods across half the pitch, a ball each, a keeper warming to the side. Set plays live on accurate strikes and timed runs, so the warm-up grooves both. Build the gears.

How it works: Warm the tools of the dead ball. Start with accurate kick-passing in pods, receiver always moving, rising to firm 30m deliveries onto a moving chest. Then add timing: one player calls, delays, and breaks onto a delivery so the striker and the runner learn to meet the ball in space. Finish with a couple of relaxed frees and sideline strikes into a target zone. Nothing maximal, just the striking muscles warm and the timing of a run and a delivery starting to click, because a set play is only ever as good as the strike and the timing behind it.

What to say

“Strike to where he is running — the delivery and the run meet in the space.”
“The runner sets the timing — break as the striker looks up, not before.”
“Warm strikes only for now — full-blooded frees once the body is ready.”

Easier

Shorten the deliveries and keep the runs walked through while the timing settles.

Harder

Add a token defender to the timed run so the delivery must beat a marker.

Activity16 min

Sideline and Free Routines

Setup: Set up near the D and along a sideline in the attacking half, goal and keeper. Walk the group through two or three rehearsed attacking routines with numbered roles. Bibs for a token defence.

How it works: A set play is a rehearsed answer to a stopped game, and clubs leave easy scores behind by never drilling them. Build two or three simple, repeatable routines. From an attacking sideline: a screen where one player blocks a marker's path so a team-mate breaks free into the space for the delivery. From a free near the D: a decoy run that drags a defender out, opening the pocket for a second runner to receive and shoot. Give every role a number and a job, walk it, jog it, then run it against a token defence. Keep them simple enough that tired players execute them under pressure — a complicated routine is one nobody runs on Sunday.

The technique, step by step

Call the routine so all know which one is on.
Screener takes up a legal, still position to block the marker's path.
Decoy runner attacks hard to drag a defender away.
Free man breaks off the screen into the vacated space.
Striker delivers early and accurately into that space to finish.

What to say

“Everyone knows their number and their job — a set play is choreography, not a guess.”
“The screen is legal and still — block the path, do not chase or barge.”
“Decoy runs sell it hard — a lazy dummy run fools nobody and drags no marker.”

Easier

STEPR: walk the routines against no defenders until every role is automatic, then add a token marker.

Harder

STEPR: full live defence so the routine must genuinely create the yard of space under real pressure.

Activity16 min

Throw-In and Kickout Move

Setup: Midfield for the throw-in, and a goal with a keeper for a set kickout move. Walk through a rehearsed shape for each. Token opposition to begin.

How it works: Two more dead balls worth free scores. The throw-in: agree a shape — who contests, who breaks left and right for the tap, and who sweeps behind in case it breaks the wrong way, so a fifty-fifty becomes a possession you win more often than not. The set kickout move: a rehearsed run pattern that guarantees the keeper a free option against a press — a two-man switch to lose markers, with a runner attacking the space behind as the release. Walk each, then run against a token press, then live. The point is that these moments happen a dozen times a game and most teams improvise them; a team that has rehearsed them banks a real edge.

What to say

“Throw-in has roles — a contester, two breakers and a sweeper behind, never a scramble.”
“The kickout move gives the keeper a certainty — a rehearsed free man beats a hopeful kick.”
“Win the break, then protect it — the sweeper behind turns a loose tap into our ball.”

Easier

STEPR: token opposition and walked-through shapes until the roles are automatic for everyone.

Harder

STEPR: full live contest at the throw-in and a full press on the kickout, testing the moves under real pressure.

The rest of this session is free — along with 3 more this week.

PitchPlans coaching team

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