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Finishing Defensive Heading Clear
Clear the ball with height, distance and width
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Defending
Set Pieces
Finishing Defensive Heading Clear is a 12-minute heading drill for 3-14 players, suitable for Under 12 to Adults at beginner, intermediate, advanced level. You need balls, cones. Below you will find the objective, the set-up, how to run it, coaching points, common mistakes, progressions, regressions and variations.
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Defending
Set Pieces
Technical Practice
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Full Squad
Minimal Equipment
Youth Friendly
Adult Suitable
Heading Guidance
Finishing
Duration
12 min
Players
3-14
Pitch size
30 x 24 yards
Ability levels
Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced
Pitch diagram
Finishing Defensive Heading Clear — Goalkeeping set-up — serve, save, reset · 30 x 24 yards
Step 1 of 5Server throws the ball into the zone for the defender to clear.
- 1. Server throws the ball into the zone for the defender to clear.
- 2. The defender heads for height and distance towards a wide target cone.
- 3. Limit each player to a small number of headers per session.
- 4. Every sequence starts with a pass out and ends with a strike on goal.
- 5. Goals score one, first-time finishes score two, and rebounds must be followed in.
- Cones mark the area
- Full goal
- GK = goalkeeper
- C = coach serving, S = second server
- Ball
- Cones mark the keeper's starting positions
- Dotted arrow = rotation between repetitions
- Keeper distributes back to the server
- Solid arrow = pass, thick = shot, dashed = run / dribble
Objectives
- -Clear the ball with height, distance and width
- -Attack the ball rather than waiting for it
- -Follow age-appropriate heading guidance on volume
Setup
- 1A defensive zone in front of goal with a serving cone 12 yards away in a 30 x 24 yards area.
- 2Set a goal at the end of the area with a keeper or a target zone if no keeper is available.
- 3Soft, correctly inflated balls only — keep total headers low.
Coaching instructions
- 1Server throws the ball into the zone for the defender to clear.
- 2The defender heads for height and distance towards a wide target cone.
- 3Limit each player to a small number of headers per session.
- 4Every sequence starts with a pass out and ends with a strike on goal.
- 5Goals score one, first-time finishes score two, and rebounds must be followed in.
Coaching points
- -Attack the ball with the forehead
- -Head through the bottom half for height
- -Eyes open on contact
- -Head up before the strike — pick the side, then commit
Common mistakes
- -Backing away from the ball
- -Too many repetitions in one session
- -Rushing the shot and leaning back over the ball
Where this drill fits
- More football heading drills
- More football defending drills
- More football set pieces drills
- football drills for U12s
- football drills for U14s
- football drills for U16s
- Football session plans built around this theme