Volleyball · August 24, 2026
The Butterfly
Six players minimum · full court · two balls · ages 12–18
Run it: Three per side: a server behind the end line, a passer in the back row, a target at the net. Serve down the line. Passer sends it to the target, target catches it. Then everybody follows their ball. Server jogs the sideline to become the passer across the net, passer moves up to target, target takes the ball back to serve. Run it for three minutes; count passes the target catches without moving.
Coaching point: The pass is won before the ball arrives. Get in ready position before the serve. Use step-hop footwork to find balance. Extend your platform directly behind the ball's path. Kids swing their arms; good passers move their feet and put the platform where the ball is already going.
Why it works: No lines, no standing. Twelve kids touch a ball every few seconds, and the score on the board — Schmidt's bar is 30 clean passes in three minutes — turns a warm-up into a contest. The rotation is the trick: nobody has to be told where to go next, because they go where their ball went.
Butterfly Drill — Tod Mattox, The Art of Coaching Volleyball · Coaches Insider · Read the issue →
Basketball · August 17, 2026
Pass, Cut, Layup
Two players · one ball · six reps each side · ages 8–12
Run it: One player at the top of the key, one on the wing. Pass it, then take one hard step away from the ball and cut to the rim off that step. Catch it in stride, finish. Swap. No dribbling.
Coaching point: The step away is the drill. A quick jab-step, or a couple of steps away from the ball, is what buys the half-step — and at this age a half-step is a layup. Cut from a standstill and you get ridden out of the lane.
Why it works: The youth default is pass and watch. Ten minutes of this and the kid who passes is the kid who scores — the only argument that ever gets an eight-year-old moving without the ball.
Read the issue →
Ice Hockey · August 10, 2026
Firefighter 1v1
One faceoff circle · 1v1 inside, six to eight ringed outside · 30-second shifts · 10U (Squirt) and up
Run it: Ring a faceoff circle with a firehose — sticks laid end to end or a rolled tarp work — so every pass in or out has to be lifted over it. Net on each side. Two players inside, everyone else on the ring with sticks down. The puck carrier can't just shoot: saucer it out, get open, take the return, then attack either net. Steal it and the same rule binds you. Thirty-second shifts, keep score, next pair in.
Coaching point: The hose is doing the coaching, so stop narrating. Say two things: lift the pass — top hand away from the body, roll it off the toe of the blade — and your feet get you open, not your stick. Squirts pass and then freeze. The drill lives in the two seconds between giving the puck up and getting it back.
Why it works: USA Hockey once put a stopwatch on this: at 12-and-Under, a player possessed the puck for 38.4 seconds across a whole 45-minute game. Ten minutes of this beats that, and every possession holds a pass, a change of direction and a shot.
The honest part: A team that has never saucer-passed will flub this for four minutes. Start the obstacle low — one stick shaft, not a full hose — and have ring players rotate a spot after every pass they touch. Only one net? Run USA Hockey's Tight Circle Game instead: page 19 of their free Small Area Competitive Games handbook.
USA Hockey — Small Area Competitive Games · Read the issue →
Flag Football · August 3, 2026
Angle Alley
15 × 10 yards · 1v1 · five reps per player · U8 and up
Run it: Cone off a 15-yard lane, 10 yards wide. Ball carrier starts on one end line. The defender starts five yards upfield and off to one side — never square, never directly in front. Carrier tries to cross the far line. Defender has to pull a flag. Reset immediately, next pair in. No whistles, no lines longer than four deep.
Coaching point: Attack the near hip, break down two steps early, and take the angle that drives the carrier toward the sideline. Two hands, both flags — one hand at one flag is where most misses come from. Chasing from directly behind means reaching for a moving belt at full extension. The boundary is your best defender. Use it.
Why it works: This drill takes four cones, needs no equipment you don't already own, and runs 40 reps in eight minutes. It is also the single fastest way to make a first-year coach look like they know what they're doing.
A flag pulling and pursuit variation · NFL FLAG — flag pulling drills · Read the issue →
Soccer · July 27, 2026
Four-Goal Game
40 × 30 yards · 4v4 · 4-minute rounds · U10 and up
Run it: Set two small goals on each end line, wide, roughly 10 yards apart. Each team attacks two goals and defends two. Play 4v4, no keepers. Score in either of the goals you're attacking. Ball out, next ball in from the coach immediately — no throw-ins, no stoppage.
Coaching point: Punish the ball-watchers. A team that attacks one goal at a time is playing 40 yards of a 30-yard-wide field. The rep you want is the player who receives with an open body, sees the far goal unguarded, and switches it in one touch. If nobody's head is up, shrink the field — don't lecture.
Why it works: Two goals means the defense can never be compact and can never be square, so every possession forces a scan-and-decide instead of a pass to the nearest teammate. It is the fastest way to teach changing the point of attack without ever running a passing pattern. If you rent the field by the hour, this is the highest reps-per-minute drill in soccer.
A 4v4 transition variation · Read the issue →
