Own the Restart

Half the possession in a modern game arrives from a kickout — win yours clean and make theirs a coin toss.

Gaelic football
U16
60 min
14–24 players + a keeper
2 coaches
Effort 4/5
Full pitch (half pitch works for the first two blocks)
kickouts
pressing
restarts
shape

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 12 footballs, 24 cones, 16 bibs (2 colours), kicking tee

Warm-up10 min

Break Reactions

Setup: Groups of three with one ball: a server and two contesters, spread across a 30×30m area.

How it works: Server throws a high, deliberately awkward lob a stride or two off the pair — short, long, left, right. Both attack it: catch if you can, and if you can't, punch or flick the break to grass you can reach first, then win the loose ball. Winner becomes the server. Build the height and the mischief of the throws as they warm. Every kickout your team ever contests is decided by exactly this half-second, so treat the scrappy stuff as the skill, not the failure.

What to say

“Read the flight early — first to the landing spot owns the ball.”
“Can't catch it? Punch the break to space YOU can reach first.”
“Land, protect, then look — possession before ambition.”

Easier

Softer lobs straight up between the pair; contest for position only, no flicks.

Harder

Add a fourth player so it's 2v1 on every break, loser serves.

Activity15 min

Press the Arc

Setup: Half pitch. Keeper kicks from the 20m line with a tee; every kickout must clear the 40m arc, so mark the realistic landing band with cones — roughly 45m to 65m out, split into a left, middle and right landing zone. Six receivers spread across the band, six pressers, spare players rotating in.

How it works: Live kickouts, six at a time. The pressing six set up AFTER the keeper places the ball, reading the shape: two players shading the receivers' strongest catcher, one screening each remaining zone, one spare hunting breaks. Receivers move late to lose their markers. Score it: clean catch is a point for the receiving side, a press steal or won break is a point for the pressers, and everything is played out for three passes so wins mean something. Swap the six roles every set of kicks.

Rounds: 4 sets of 6 kickouts — swap press and receive roles each set

What to say

“Press the zones, not the man — close the easy lane and the keeper's picture shrinks.”
“One voice sets the press, everyone else mirrors it.”
“Watch the keeper's eyes and run-up — shade that side a heartbeat before the kick.”

Easier

Pressers must leave one zone completely open so the keeper always has an out — the drill becomes reading which lane died.

Harder

Play every kickout out to a score at one end; a steal converted inside three passes counts double.

Activity15 min

Trigger Words

Setup: Same half pitch, 8v8 plus keeper. Agree two team triggers before you start — for example a backwards pass and a bobbled first touch.

How it works: Play from live kickouts, but the press has rules: after a clean opposition catch, the winning-side team drops off and holds a mid-block — UNTIL a trigger happens. Backwards pass or a loose touch and the nearest player screams the trigger word, and everybody goes man-to-man for ten seconds flat. Win it in the ten seconds and play to a score; miss it and drop back into the block. This teaches the hardest lesson of pressing at this age: it is all-in or all-out, and the half-press is the worst of both.

What to say

“The trigger is a scream, not a suggestion — one voice, everyone commits.”
“All-in means the keeper's short option is marked too.”
“Ten seconds, then honest — if it's not won, get back into the block together.”

Easier

Coach calls the triggers from the sideline instead of the players spotting them.

Harder

Add a third trigger of the players' own choosing and make them brief it back to you first.

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

PitchPlans coaching team

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