One-Two Wall Pass Combination
Runners work a one-two with the near passer, then a second one-two with the far passer around the middle player, and send the ball back the other way.
A one-two is passing and receiving ground balls at game speed — play the wall pass, run around the defender, and take the return in stride.
Starting at Core — your team is set to mixed.
15 min tonight · A rotating line, plus stationary passers and two middle players
- Ages 9+
- A rotating line, plus stationary passers and two middle players
- 15 min as the drill is written
- Cones, pinnies, balls
Grab Cones, pinnies to tell the passers from the runners, and balls.
Build Stagger the cones into the shape of a parallelogram about 10 yards deep and 20 yards long — the diagram shows the layout.
Place A player at each of the two inside cones — they will not be passers — your stationary passers in red at their cones, and the rest lined up in yellow with the first player on the ball.
- 1
Organize the players
Put a non-passing player at each of the two inside cones, your stationary passers in red at their cones, and line the rest up in yellow — first player in line starts with the ball.
“You two in the middle — you're the defenders we're passing around. Reds, you're the walls. Everyone else, in line.”
- 2
Show the jobs
Walk the pattern — the first player in line plays a one-two with the passer at the cone nearest his side, then a one-two with the player farthest from him around the second middle player, then returns the ball to that player, who follows the same format in the opposite direction.
“Pass, run around, get it back — then again with the far wall. Then it goes back the other way.”
- 3
Play
Keep the drill flowing as one continuous passing pattern — only the yellow players rotate positions with each turn. Push for clean, crisp passing with movement off the ball timed to the pass, and keep speeding up the combination play.
“Crisp passes! Time your run — go as the ball goes, not after.”
Look for The timing — the runner moving with the pass so the pattern flows continuously, never waiting on a run.
- 4
Switch and repeat
Switch out the red passers as needed, every 5 minutes or as desired. For harder rounds, play every pass one-touch, or expand the distance between the cones and play longer balls in the air.
“New walls in! And this round it's one touch — keep it moving.”
If the pattern keeps tangling, freeze it and ask — which wall is next, and which side do you run around? Let them answer, then play on.
Go deeper · 2 notes
Why it works
The walls never move, so the pattern isolates the two things a one-two needs — a clean, crisp ground pass and a run timed with it — and the continuous flow keeps speeding the combination play up.
What they learn
Passing and receiving ground balls, and the one-two — the wall pass around a defender — with clean, crisp passing, movement off the ball timed with the pass, and ever-faster combination play.
Where does this come from?
SoccerXpert — their published drill library.
A published drill library. Useful and widely used, but not a governing body — so it fills gaps rather than leading.