Name: 7v7 Soccer — Why I Ban Punting (And How to Play Out Instead) Playing Out: The Basics
Uploaded: 2026-03-10
Duration: 14 min 41 s
Channel: Coach KW
Description: Hi all - in this video we cover the basics of playing out of the back at 7v7 — why you should ban punting, how to set up your build-out shape, and the…

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Part of the series: 7v7 Topics, 7v7 Soccer - the 2026 edition

About this video

Hi all - in this video we cover the basics of playing out of the back at 7v7 — why you should ban punting, how to set up your build-out shape, and the second pass rule that keeps your team from collapsing when the press comes. Includes live game footage of a third grade team doing it for real. Part 3 of my updated 7v7 Soccer series. 00:00 Kick-Off 01:00 Do this before the build out line disappears 4:10 First Pass Movement 6:30 "Second Pass" Rule 7:58 What can happen if you move too soon 9:19 2 Short Passes gets you out of trouble 10:30 Real game example 1 & 2 11:03 Real game example 3 11:18 Bonus - Playing Backwards to your Keeper 12:07 Part 2 Coming Soon 12:43 Giving Players Context (Why they don't know this naturally!) 12:56 Primary difference between town & club players 13:48 Practice with Positional Rondo for technical skill building Full Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQkkm5iE_Xld9p49k7dlog?sub_confirmation=1 Buy an AI camera that doesn’t break the bank - and help out my town program at the same time! https://partner.reeplayer.com/soccercoachkw Amazon Coaching Items: Insta360 Ace Pro https://amzn.to/3Uj0diZ GoPro Tripod Mount - https://amzn.to/3JCtcJO 20’ Tripod - https://amzn.to/4bdSWI1 16’ tripod - https://amzn.to/4aTOi23 Tripod Weights - https://amzn.to/48z81WI GoPro Hero 12 - https://amzn.to/4aJfGzT GoPro Volta External Battery Handle - https://amzn.to/4aJfGzT 256Gb Micro Memory card - https://amzn.to/44gCNPY Insta360 X4 - https://amzn.to/4df7MQs 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’s Guide 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/4odNpIo - Two Versus One - I like how this book really takes a look at how you can break down attacking moves into focusing on creating and winning 2v1 situations - a great way to break down the concept for both novice and experienced players, with lots of drill set ups to consider. 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

Auto-generated captions — may contain the odd mishearing. Click a time to jump there.

Well, hello coaches. Welcome back. Coach KW here. New uh digs? Not really. Just changed around the office so I don't look like I'm in the uh whitest island

room anymore. And you can see a few more things and makes it maybe a little bit more visually interesting. It feels better. I feel like I have a little bit

more space. Today is video three of our refresh 7v7 series playing out of the back. And if you get anything from this, uh I'm going to say it straight up. I do

not believe in punting the ball. I actually ban it at 7v7 in our programs because there's no use for it. And I don't really let my keepers punt the

ball till sometime into 9v9. Lots of We'll get into that later on. But suffice it to say, if you've missed uh the first or second videos where I lay

out the 2-3-1 and then lay out all the positions and roles, make sure you get those videos in place. But what I really want you to get from this video is that

you can get third graders in their first game with a few practices to start on the basics of playing out of the back.

You will give up goals, but it's so vital that you start this process while you have the build out line because as soon as 9v9 hits, the fear's going to

take over. If they haven't learned the skills and the technical skills to do this at 7v7 when you get a little bit more space, I promise you it's that much

harder at 9v9 and come 11v11, it's almost impossible if you haven't started early. So, your job as a coach in 7v7 is to teach, not to win because eventually when you

teach winning soccer, you'll start winning games because of it. So, we're going to do some uh diagrams, show you the setup, show you how you can step

through it. We'll show you some practice video, some game video, and then we'll wrap it up from there. So, I hope you uh have hit the subscribe, like, and hit

that notification as I send out more of these 7v7 videos. We'll get to 9v9 again real soon, but I have plenty of content on there. So, let's get going now.

Okay, so here we have our basic setup of our 1-2-3-1 as we are setting up for a goal kick. I always like to tell our keepers, first

things first, ball in the center of the six. When teams put it on either corner, you're advertising what you're about to do or you're making the first pass much

more difficult if you then decide you want to play it back across your box, giving more time for that ball to be rolling, which means more time for

things to go wrong. So, ball in the center of the box. A lot of coaches I think just don't know that they can be actually anywhere within doesn't even

have to be on the line as long as the ball is stationary and inside the six, you may play the goal kick. You can see here I have my four and five just inside

of the 18, maybe a little bit ahead of the six, but depending on where your build out line is, in case you have that build out line

that sits here, you may want to drop those players back because distance equals time. That's something to remember here. If you need more time on the ball, those players can drop back

closer and closer even to the goal line to give themselves an extra second or two if that press is coming on too quickly. Our sevens and 11s are on the

paint as we like to say, paint on their boots. We want them on the touchline being able to move around. We want our eight equally spaced between the halfway

line and the top of the box. We don't care where the build out line is. We want them to equally space so they have the ability to move into spaces we might

want them to be. We want them to start outside of where we want them to get to so that they can move into spaces to receive a ball or to affect play. And

our nine, we don't the nine doesn't need to stay inside the build out line even if it's halfway. What the nine is looking to do is stretch the field.

There is no offside on goal kicks. And while it's 77 that really doesn't come into play because the keeper can't play that ball directly to that player most

of the time, it is something to remember. It's just like throw-ins and corner kicks. It's one of the three times that you cannot be offside. It's the one though that everybody forgets.

So, bonus note there. You want your nine being able to stretch the field, find where those last defenders are that are reachable, and get in a pocket of space.

So, when we start with this, it's very straightforward. We're going to take this first ball, and we're going to play it out to one of our center backs. Now,

notice what our nine did. Our nine made a run out to follow the ball. And the idea here is now they've completed a very large diamond between that center

back, the center mid, the eight, the wide player in this case the seven, and themselves. And this gives them a structure, so as the ball moves up the

field, they're an option, and they have them plenty of playing options all around them. You'll notice here that the four and 11 on the opposite side have not moved

yet, and that's for a reason we'll talk about in a second. Now, the five has multiple choices here. They can take their space and dribble. They can play

the ball off to the seven who's going up or down the line to find space. They may be able to play into the eight if the other team has left the center of the

field wide open. Heck, they might be able to play directly into the nine. But if things go wrong, we want them to be able to have the confidence to turn

around and play backwards, and that's why we're leaving the four and the 11 where they are right now. So, once that happens, the simplest piece there is

that the seven is going to determine do they need to come closer to that player?

Can they stay or go further away based on whether or not they're being marked?

And the eight in that helper position of that center mid of the eight, they now have the option to decide am I going down towards the box? Am I moving out to

the side? Or maybe have I moving out in the space? So again, we're giving our players agency to make decisions, but we're giving them a structure to play

in. The five now has those decisions.

Can I play out to the seven for that easy pass up and out? Can I take my space and then play a make a play? Can I

play directly to the nine? Or do I have to do something else?

So, we've got ourselves back set up and now we're going to go a little bit further. So, as we play this through, we're going to play that first pass out.

There's our restraining line. We've made that move. The nine has made our diamond. Everything looks great.

The simplest play at this point, if the five is starting to get pressure from the build-out line, is to look to the outside to play to that wide player.

Probably 60% or more of the game, it's the easiest pass to play because you can play up the line out to that player. They usually can find a pocket

of space either to run onto or they've come down to help. And away we go.

Watch though, once that second pass is made, that's the key factor. I like to use what I like to call a second pass rule. The four and the 11 on the other

side, they don't move until the second pass has happened. Once that happens, now they're free to move in position.

So, now we've got movement across all four of the back here going off to the right. The five is going to move out behind the seven as cover. So, if the

seven takes a bad touch or gets pressed right up against, the seven could turn around and play an easy ball back to the five because usually they're wide open

if they've slid in behind their wide midfielder. The one has slid in the direction of where the five was so that they are now connected here in case they

need to receive a pass either from the five or directly from the seven. The four has moved in to cover the middle space. They're now in defensive cover mode. They're coming

to the middle of the goal. So, if something goes wrong here with the seven, you now have both center backs and the eight in place to deal with the

issue. And the 11 here is starting to move up the field, but I don't want them running into the middle of the field. Maybe the edge of the

circle is about as far as I want. I want them to be the furthest player on the field cuz if this seven can play this eight, it's one more pass to the

opposite side of the field. You've switched the field. You've probably cut half of the other team right out of the play with one quick simple passing Here we're going to throw some defenders

on and in this case we're going to use Well, let Well, use the the closer build-out line. Like I said, my state mostly uses the half now, but we'll use

this for example. This is what can if those players, the four and the 11 on the other side, move too soon. If they move with the first pass. So, as we play

this first pass over, you can see the pressure starting to come in. And the issue that becomes here is if the four and the 11 move in too

soon, what we end up here in the middle is basically 4v4. Maybe if you're lucky 4v3 or 5v3, but now everybody is covered because if five plays back to the one,

they might have an option to play to the eight, but the eight is already covered and the one will have to take this ball out themselves to try and play out wide,

but 11's already vacated their position as well. So, this is why we like to say we want to use that second pass rule.

Everybody on the other side of the field from where the ball was played should remain in position until that second pass happens so this situation doesn't And finally here, let's look if we did

the right thing and everybody stayed in that second pass. So, we'll play this ball out. The pressure's coming in.

Maybe the five took a bad touch. Maybe our seven forgot to move into a space.

They should have stepped down to get in here. Our eight seemed to have fallen asleep. The eight probably could have come in between these two players for an

easy pass. Things have gone wrong.

Something's happened. But now, instead of this four and 11 being pushed into this middle and being covered by these players, now this five has an easy pass

to the one. Now the one has options.

Maybe this seam is enough to be able to play straight up the middle to the eight, bypassing these two players in one pass. Maybe even if you've got a

really strong keeper, maybe they can find this nine on the long ball.

Probably not. That's probably a hope and a prayer. But now it's a short pass to the four. The press now has to recover because everybody tends to follow the

ball. So, they've now gone to the left.

Now, they're having to redirect. And now, it's a simple pass out to the 11.

And now, at this point, we've cut half of the reds field players out of the play because now this 11 has options as they go forward. They have the eight,

the nine. They can dribble. If they get in the trouble, they may even be able to play that four who has slid in behind just so we as we said on the other side,

they slide in behind their wide midfielder. But, now they have a ton of options. Play forward, dribble forward, play centrally and switch. But, again, it's that holding on to that second

pass. So, if that first pass goes awry or the press is right on them, it's two quick passes in the other direction and almost always you can bypass that

pressure because pressure tends to go towards the ball like a magnet, leaving the other side wide open.

So, here's a live example. This is a third grade team. It's their last game of the season in the spring. You see we're set up in the center of the box.

Center back takes that ball, takes the space, and tries to play the far wide player. Just doesn't get that right. So, we're going to do it all over again.

You'll see the exact same setup, same everything. Center of the box, you can see that player on the left there trying to get super wide out to the paint.

The one on the right is the same way.

Same player. No reluctance to play back out to the same center back on this side. This time finds the pass until it gets uh tackled out of bounds.

Here again, we have another setup. This time we're playing to the left. It's actually the same center back. Our wide player steps in a little bit, but now

comes in. And now, look at all the space that's down the channel. As I've said before, I think before, if you can use the wide space in 7 v 7, you can have so

much success. And lastly, I wanted to show you this bonus uh piece because not being afraid to play back to the keeper even in third grade is such a superpower. You're going

to see here, the center back has pressure on their back. And instead of twisting and turning, they're just playing a simple pass out. Keep it just holds it calmly, plays it back out to

the same center back who kept his width, and now we get up the field and now have scoring chance.

Well, coaches, I think we'll stop there I hope that live action kind of gave you a little insight. Those are third graders playing. Yes, it was the end of

the spring season for them, but third graders, only one, maybe two club players on the entire field, so it's not like it's a stacked team in any way,

shape, or form. But, I hope you can see this is the starting point of what you can do with them, and it's going to pay dividends for you way into the future, and we'll

get to that eventually. This is just the basics. We're going to look into the next piece of it in the next video where we look at playing out of the back a

couple more {quote} {unquote} advanced options, but I want you to understand, make sure you heard what I said. When that center back has the ball, I didn't

say that it should go out to the wide player every time and we're a static, no decision. I said the choices are most of the time that wide player is the best

choice cuz it's the easiest play, but I also said take their space, play straight into the eight, maybe even play straight up to the striker every once in

a while. It's giving our players choices within a structure so they start to understand the game.

The reason we have to do that is our players don't come to the game understanding it because they don't watch it on TV, at least not with a

knowledgeable person. The difference between these kids and the same kids in club usually is the kids when they go to club have way more exposure to what it looks like in the

pro game, and the coach doesn't have to go through so many of these steps to say, "Hey, when we do this, this is what we do." Most of the kids who play club,

when they at this age go and do this, they kind of mimic what they see on TV.

They know the center backs drop in. They know the wide players drop in. They know the midfielder pulls in or comes up because they've seen it a million times,

and I know this for a I watch club players all the time. I see club practices all the time at the youngest ages. And honestly, they're not

necessarily technically better on day one, but they have way more knowledge of the game on day one because they watch it. So, stick with me. Next video we'll take a

look at what we do for some more advanced options in terms of mixing it up and how to practice that.

Do this sort of work with my favorite positional rondos. Stop the ball at the keeper. Get them playing out. Start sending pressure in. Then focus on those

technical skills they're going to need so they can pass and receive those 10-yard passes. So they can pass receive on the outside foot so they can turn and

scan. So they can dribble when they need to. But again, put them in the structure so they start to understand where and when to do all these things and why it's

important to work on those technical skills. So, till next video, I hope you're all well. We'll see you out in the fields. Bye-bye.