Coaches need to pay attention to the details of the process too.

I am constantly reading, watching and learning about the game of soccer. Over and over again I am struck by the smallest of details in the process of coaching and playing the game. Today I want to look at the technical aspect of this by taking a well known exercise and tweaking it just a bit to enhance it.

I do not recall exactly when I first saw this exercise although it seems to me it was at a licencsure or diploma course from my early days in coaching soccer.  The exercise is typically called the Dutch Diamond and is employed as a warmup. It's the simple type of exercise that offers repetitive touches and serves to develop muscle memory.  Like any exercise worth the time to use it comes with coaching points. In this case, preparing to play, quality of first touch and the correct execution of a push pass.  There is also movement after the pass although it is not necessarily game related in the simplest version of this exercise.

Using four cones set up a 20 yd x 20 yd grid and divide the players between the four cones.
Begin with one ball being passed around the outside of the grid. 
The touch sequences are all 2 touch and begin coutner clockwise with right / right,  then right / left. Change directions to clockwise utilizing left / left and left / right touches on the ball.
Pass and follow.

Simple and useful exercise when executed properly.  The coaching points listed above can help improve upon it. The video linked below illustrates a very simple means to drive those coaching points home even more effectively.  It's a quite simple tweak of the exercise.

Breaking Lines  (Thanks to Randy at soundsoccerdotcom)

I add 2 cones to each corner forming a "L" or "V" shape dependent on abilities. In this manner we can perform all 4 sequences without resetting. By adding two cones to each corner a greater emphasis is placed on preparing to play (receiving across the body) and quailty of first touch (pushing the ball across and break the line to lead into the second touch)

The after pass movement portion is still not as game related as I would like it to be so I continued tinkering with possible progressions.  What I came up with was to have the passer make a diagonal run through the center of the grid instead of following their pass (a sometimes useful play in-game, but one we over-emphasize in skill exercises, imo).  For the purposes of this warmp exercise that the players will be merely exchanging positions between two diagonal corners as opposed to circling the grid matters little as the touches are the same at all four corners.