Name: Coach the Details - Receiving on the Back Foot in Soccer
Uploaded: 2025-09-07
Duration: 16 min 3 s
Channel: Coach KW
Description: A new video breaking down the coaching points you can use to coach your soccer players to receive the ball on the back foot, one of the foundational…

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Part of the series: Sessions, Technical Details for Coaches

About this video

Hello coaches! A new video breaking down the coaching points you can use to coach your soccer players to receive the ball on the back foot, one of the foundational skills needed to unlock the next level of performance for your players. I go over the detailed coaching points you can use while running the simple but effective 4 Cone Passing Drill I've demonstrated on this channel before - but this technique is used all the time - practically every time a ball is passed to a teammate, this skill comes into play. 00:00 - Start 02:38 - Drill Setup and Conditions 03:13 - What is the “back foot?” 04:08 - Why the back foot is more efficient 04:32 - Back Foot = View of Field 05:53 - Proper Body Angle/Shape to receive 06:29 - Use the Hip to Initiate Opening up 08:40 - Lifting the Knee from the hip to raise the foot 09:55 - Game Example 1 - 5th grade boys 12:27 - Turning to protect the ball - still using back foot 13:25 - Game Example 2 - U16 MLS Next 14:37 - Post-Game Wrap Up Playlists: 9v9: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUycE4Fq1TE1gJT67VeG4_EEq24RRYtJ 7v7: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUycE4Fq1TEZU65U8W-2Ll-NTTD23hXP Big Picture: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUycE4Fq1TG__907rrtzDrgm7Y940xR8 Sessions and Drills: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUycE4Fq1TF0ls71Zhq0PBL514IF91WU Futsal: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUycE4Fq1THDbZz8K-XDeROSyiQJ1jS5 Full Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQkkm5iE_Xld9p49k7dlog?sub_confirmation=1 Get the AI Camera for soccer that doesn't nickel and dime you! https://partner.reeplayer.com/soccercoachkw Amazon Coaching Items: Kwik Goal Digital Ball Pump: https://amzn.to/4blZmoK Small Tactics Board: https://amzn.to/48Ug0tP Small Magnets (Light): https://amzn.to/43iHk3S Small Magnets (Dark): https://amzn.to/3wUh6bM Big White Board: https://amzn.to/3x0NBoU Large Soccer Tactics Board: https://amzn.to/3VhzO7d Large Magnets: https://amzn.to/48RGiNv Large Magnets: https://amzn.to/3VfQxIc Waterproof Stickers: https://amzn.to/3Vfhn3b Folding Goals - High Quality: https://amzn.to/3AEITP7 Books: https://amzn.to/4jNrsOC - How to Coach Girls - Are you coaching a girls team? This little book is invaluable to understanding the different mindset and dynamics within a girls/women's team, especially if you've only coached boys - written by 2 women coaches for all to understand the subtle differences and best motivational tactics to try. Coaching younger players? Give this a look for some innovative ideas: https://amzn.to/40RI9j7 Scoreboard Soccer: Creating the Environment to Develop Young Players https://amzn.to/40MuPNb - Soccer Starts at Home General Coaching or Soccer/Football Books: https://amzn.to/4hGf1BP The Coach’sGuide to Teaching: What great classroom teachers do is relevant to coaches in profound ways. After all, coaches are at their core teachers. Lemov knows that coaches face many of the same challenges found in the classroom, so the science of learning applies equally to them. https://amzn.to/3EvW332 Football's Principles of Play - We all know the standard principles of soccer (right?!) - this book looks at those, and then multiple other ways to break down the game, with good example sessions to drills to illustrate the points. https://amzn.to/3DUAY2q - Constrained - Constraints Led Approach Connected to Principles of Play - Great book about using rules and limitations to change player behavior in game-like activities https://amzn.to/4gvYSOT - Inverting The Pyramid Most Dan Blank's Books are worth it for at least ideas to incorporate: https://amzn.to/3CwNKUd - Soccer iQ Presents... POSSESSION: Teaching Your Team to Keep the Darn Ball https://amzn.to/4hSlpGV - Soccer IQ: Things That Smart Players Do, Vol. 1 https://amzn.to/4gxhOwE - Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl: and other truths about winning Lastly - really interesting concept - having 10 or so standard layouts for a practice sessions, and then dozens of different drills that use the same setups (Amazon UK only): https://amzn.to/4hKGxyy Essential Practices for Player Development: The Ultimate Program for an Entire Season of Training soccer strategies and tactics, coaching soccer formations and tactics, best soccer formations, how to teach offside in soccer, best 7v7 soccer formations, best 9v9 soccer formations, football tactics for beginners As a memeber of the Amazon Affiliate program, I earn a small commission off items you may buy off these links. Thank you!

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Transcript

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Well, hello coaches. Welcome back. Coach KW here after a couple of weeks off during summer vacations and such, but school's back in session. I get my Fridays back, so I can get in front of

the camera without it being 2 a.m. Big thanks to everybody who have been finding my videos. The uh subscriber count over the last couple of weeks has

actually been climbing like crazy, which uh would be unexpected for the fact that I haven't released any new videos, but here we are. If I help you in any way,

shape, or form, the subscribe would be a huge way of thanking me for my time. Uh, I do this just to help other volunteer coaches so that they can do a better job

for their kids. Whether it's something that you have been wanting to do for a while or maybe you're forced into coaching because nobody else stood up.

I'm hopeful that my content can make this a better experience for you and your kids. Today, what we're going to look at is a little bit more of a

technical focus. A lot of my videos are big picture, helping coaches understand the big picture, big concepts, things like that. We do have some drill videos out there. But I realized in that

process of looking at some of my videos and in the process of helping some of my other town coaches working on things during that preseason, I need to spend a

little bit more time with you coaches, helping you to know how to coach certain particular items and things so that you understand the finer points. if you're

coming to the game without a lot of playing experience or high level coaching experience. So today we're going to look at receiving specifically.

We're going to look at a very simple exercise that I have a drill video on out there. It's the four cone passing drill. You can find it. I'll put a link

down in the description. It's a foundational drill. Pretty much you pass in a circle or a square round some cones and players pass and receive and follow

the pass. It's a really simple setup, but you can use this setup to really focus on how they receive and take their first touch. And that's a spot where I

think coaches who come to it from a volunteer standpoint, who maybe don't understand the game or didn't play the game at a higher level, don't really know what it is they're looking to do

and what they're asking their kids to do. So, that's what we're going to look at. We're going to look at some video of some of my sixth grade boys in

preseason. They had a really good day.

They were doing this drill and I captured some video and it really highlights the coaching points that you want to make with your players so that they really start to make this part of

an ingrained way of how they handle what the ball comes to them no matter what drill or game situation. We'll then look at some game footage of a bunch of

different teams and a bunch of different games so you'll see it in action. It's one of those things that once you see it, you're going to start watching pro

games and you're going to realize you see it all of the time and you didn't notice it before. So that's what I hope here. So let's go take a look at some of

the videos. I'll give you some of those coaching points and we'll wrap up. Okay.

All right, coaches. So what we have here is our basic four square passing. We got one player off to the left. You can't see because I've stepped away from the

cone. I like using the big tall cones because they get in the way of the ball as opposed to the flat ones. So they have to work a little bit harder. But as

always, the cones represent defenders. So we always ask our players, what do the cones mean? Defenders. So that they stand off of those cones. Too many times

players just want to stand on top of the cones. And that's the point, not the point of the cones. The cones are always defenders. So, we're trying to check

away. That's one piece of this skill that we want them to learn. What we're going to be focusing on in this video is the first touch and receiving on the

back foot. So, what is receiving on the back foot means? So, in the most simplest terms, what it means is when that ball is traveling from one player

to the other, the player receiving the ball is going to let the ball roll across their body to the foot that's furthest away from where the ball came

from. And we'll stop this video in a second and show that. So, let's just uh get this moving across.

So, right there, let's just back this up just a little bit. You can see here as the ball is coming into number 10, he's turning his hips and letting the ball

roll across his body to the foot that's furthest away from the player that passed the ball. That's what receiving on the back foot is. A lot of times in

this drill, players will receive this ball on their front foot, that would be, of course, the foot that's closest to the ball, this foot, without turning.

And so they touch the ball back towards the other player. Then they have to take another touch to get the ball over to this foot before they can pass the ball

off in this direction. And that's what we're trying to eliminate. We're trying to allow them to receive that ball on the back foot. So that now their touch

allows them to go in almost any direction. The other part of receiving on the back foot is what a player can see when they do that. The whole point

of playing on your back foot is that you open your hips up. And when you open your hips up, you're now putting your shoulders in the direction that the

field is in usually. So this player now because they've opened their hips, their angle of what they can see is a big sort of 90 to 180° in front of them. If they

don't open their hips and they're facing the player that passed them, then all they can see is from where the ball came from in this direction and they have now

have to work harder to look to see where else is going on the field. And we'll look at that in the big picture video.

Well, the video when we look at them playing in the game, we'll see this over and over again. So, that's the first part of this basic piece. We'll let this

go around a few more times. You can see right ball first touch out, one touch forward, first touch forward. And you can see they're really in a good flow

here. We're going to use this player right here with our back to us right now to demonstrate some other components of this that are good coaching points. So,

a lot of times we're talking about re receiving on the back foot and the players are just kind of like leave their back foot out. Um, if I'm going to

be nitpicky here on this player's positioning at the moment, he's too square. He's flat. He's facing directly the teammate who's passing the ball.

Ideally, I want this player, especially in this drill, to be 45°.

I want their feet to be more faced in this direction so they can both see the ball coming and where they're going. But what we'll see here is this player has a

really good set of technique where he is going to initiate the move with his foot to open up. Not with his foot, not even with his knee. But what's important here

is he actually uses his hips. He snaps his hips open. And by driving this process from the hip and not the foot or even the knee, that's what helps bring

his torso around into the correct formation so that ball can come across.

So, let's watch that right here right there. See that snap of the hip where he does that? He's square onto the ball. He's on his toes. He's ready for

this ball to come. As that ball comes, he's snapping his hip open. And now he's able to turn. Now again, ideally, if he was at 45 degrees, the hip turn wouldn't

be so um dramatic, but this is an excellent way of showing where that hip turn comes from and why it's so important. Because now you can see this

player cuz he knows where he's playing this ball. He's playing it off to his right. That hip turn has allowed him to snap the ball open because his hip is

open. So his knee has gone in that direction and his foot has gone in that direction. And now he can pick his head up and see where the partner is by that

other cone and can play that pass. In a game-like situation, it's the same concept. He snaps his body open. He's received that ball quickly. He's disguised where he's going to go with

that because he's waited till the last second. And now he can play a ball in any direction. That's not to say that he can't take this ball and go back towards

the way that the ball came from. But in this situation, we're giving him all the options to do that because of that opening of the hips to push that knee

out to get that foot out to get into that 45°ree so he can see around the You can see there that's a little bit less of a uh dramatic turn, but his feet

position a little bit more on the 45 degree or when he receives us so he can touch that ball out and then step into it and play the pass forward.

What's also important here is a lot of players are lazy with their foot and they keep it on the ground. And what happens when it's on the ground is they

tend to pop the reception of the ball up. So part of this receive is to pick up the leg so that now you can see here the foot and the knee have been raised

up. Here's his knee. Here's his foot off the ground. So he's lifted his leg from that hip pulling up his knee. So now that this foot can contact the middle of

the ball, not underneath it where it would pop up. And you can see when this ball comes to this player, it's a very clean touch.

You can see here he's lifted his foot, but his toe is pointing down. The ball is inside of him. He hasn't really turned his hips. He's only tried to turn

his knee and his leg out in that direction. And because of that, the ball's going to pop up on him and he's not able to control it as well as he'd

like. Now, that ball hops up right before it gets to him, which is a little unfortunate, but again, if he was in the right position, he'd have more of his

foot in front of that ball or behind that ball, and instead it kind of hits off his toe and kind of flexes in the direction he wants, but gets away from

him. Whereas, you can see on some of these other reps, as the ball bounces at them, they're able to get more of the meat of their instep on that ball and

keep it from bouncing any further into the air. He does a better job there, right? All right. And there's our snap.

And away we go. All right. So, let's watch this in our first game situation here. Uh, we're going to have four passes here. And all four, you're going

to see my players take it on the back foot here. So, first we'll just run it through as it plays through. Let's kick off the beginning of the game. So,

there's our first. Here comes our second turn on a half turn. Third, and this one here, even though the player turns his back, that's still playing on the back

foot to protect that ball. So, let's take this back to the beginning and we'll look at each one in turn.

So, there's this first one. That's the player we highlighted in the drill video. You can see the hip snap, the knee come up, the foot in the middle of

the ball, good body shape. Again, body shape is really important when receiving the ball. Now, at this point here, he's already planning to play back to the

center back, but again, because of the technique, he's able to see this player.

He's able to see these players here.

Ultimately, the ball is going to go off screen, but he can also see out to his wide area. So, he basically has 180 degree degree view across this line

here. He could even play straight up to the striker if need be. As the next pass comes through, he plays it back to the center back who

takes it again opened up. He's already looking as the ball comes in to see what he has available. But again, because he's taking it on the back foot, his

body shape is open. He's able to basically now see everything in front of this line in front of him across the field, giving him as many options as he

needs to be. He's not closed down. He's not looking to one side. If he received this on his front foot and had kept his body facing the way the ball came, his

options would have been in front of this line, which would have been much more restrictive. He basically would have only had probably a play to the opposite

center back or maybe his keeper, but because he took it the way he did on his back foot, he basically has the whole field in front of him.

Now he plays back into my six who is ready and available. He's got his good body shape. You can see he's moving his feet and as he turns and takes it on the

half turn, look at his head come up and be able to look and see what's available for him again. now. But because he took it on that back foot,

he's now able to see everything in front of him. He's got options all over the place, including the one we don't see on the field that he takes, which is the

far winger. He plays that ball out to him. And now here, you can see how high that ball is bouncing. He turns his back. But now that he's turned his back,

his back foot is now the one he's receiving on. He's trying to protect that ball because he knows there's pressure coming on him. and he's putting his body between the ball and the player

coming at him. So, that's a great use of his body while still using the back foot to receive. If that ball wasn't bouncing so high and so difficult to him, he

probably at this point then just plays a simple pass back to the center back. But because the ball is just bouncing across the New England turf here early in the

spring and it's not the smoothest surface on the world, he does a great job just trying to keep it under control. Unfortunately, ends up out of bounds. So, a great example of in-game

where playing to the back foot is useful for again body shape and being able to have vision into the field, picking your head up and having multiple options to

play that ball. This Okay. And this last example is a great example in game. Here's an MLS next U15 game. Uh you'll notice a player highlighted. It's part of a a um

recruitment video for a player. But you're going to watch this sequence of playing out of the back. how many of these passes are played to the back foot

allows him to turn and open up. So, it's a great example. So, we'll just kind of let this play through without a lot of commentary, but you can see here um

there's the player that's being highlighted in this particular video, right? Pressure comes in, play kind of bobbles it, right? Technique's not perfect. One touch back open. That's the

back foot pass there. Looking for an option. Plays off to his center back partner. Opens up back foot. Able to see what's going on.

Just watch. Right. That player plays it with the inside of his foot. But same thing. Now player looks up. He's able to see that there's space in front of him

with that touch. Now he can play into a player. Plays off. And now we have a cross coming across the field. So you could see so many times how that back

foot pass allows them to just be able to see everything that's in front of them and give them all the options they need to have while they're playing out of the

back under pressure. Well, coaches, I hope you find that useful and instructive. Receiving technique, receiving on the back foot, opening up, that skill can be used almost all over

the field, and it's super valuable again for playing out of the back, for receiving under pressure, for making combinations with your teammates, all the things. It's so foundational. This

is a skill you could work on with youth players from honestly from second or third grade all the way through high school frankly uh if they haven't got it

cuz it's such a big part and a foundational part of the game that allows so much more to happen once you're able to master this. Is it the

only way to receive the ball? Do you always need to receive the ball on the back foot? No. That's not how the game works. But even watching a pro game,

you'll see 60, 70, maybe even 80% or more of the balls played, players are receiving it in that way because it just allows them to open up their chest, open

up their hips, open up their face, where they're looking on the field, and be able to see the next option as it presents itself. So, I hope you found

this valuable. Like, share, and subscribe. And until the next time, we'll see you out there in the fields.