Session Plan · Skills Club
Week One
First session of the block. Build the athletic base, then straight into a dummy-half tip-on to sharpen hands and support lines. Bring boots, a water bottle and a good attitude.
① The Athletic Section
- Footwork & Multi-SprintsSharp changes of direction and repeat short sprints — the base for beating a man and backing up in support. Full effort, full recovery: quality over quantity.
- Ladders & CoursesAgility ladders and a cone course for foot speed, balance and body control. Light feet, eyes up, hands ready.
② Skills — Dummy-Half Tip-On
Tip-On Shuttle
Hands & Support
Up and back. The dummy-half feeds the 1st receiver, who fires a short King-style ball to the 2nd receiver off their shoulder. The pair carry it up the screen, turn at the top, and come back down — taking the next ball from the dummy-half at the other end. Every ball is square or back; continuous work — quick hands, square shoulders, support at pace.
Coaching points: hit the receiver at the line, not behind it · pass early, pass flat · the 2nd receiver runs onto it — no standing and waiting · talk on every ball.
③ 2-v-2 XL Basketball
A small-sided game we play that resembles 2-v-2 basketball — but under X-League rules. Keep it tight, keep it fast, keep your eyes up.
- Backward passing only — every pass goes back or square, never forward, just like the real thing.
- An X-League tackle is a turnover — get touched/tackled with the ball and it's a hand-over. No second phase, no ruck — ball's the other team's.
- Small court, two on two: it rewards support lines, quick hands and a good change of pace. Score, turn it over, go again.
④ 20 Plays — Beat & Draw
Beat & Draw
3 Defenders + Full-Back
Beat the line, draw the last man. Markers for three defenders and a full-back (FB). The ball-player attacks the line, beats the front man, then carries at the FB to draw him — and slips S (support) into the space behind for the break. Target: 20 successful breaks, then rotate.
Front three are the line to beat; the full-back is the last man to commit and pass around. Every rep: fix a man, draw the cover, put support away — reset and go again. Rotate roles so everyone runs ball-player, support, and the read.
What Is It
The Extra Session That Builds Players
Skills Club is a supplemental session that sits alongside match day — a lower-pressure space where X-Leaguers get the reps, the room to experiment, and the coaching that a game alone can't give. Match day tests you; Skills Club develops you.
- Develop IdeasTry things, break them, keep what works. A place to invent a move on the whiteboard and run it before it ever shows up in a game.
- Build a VernacularJack, King, Ace — a shared language so a single call means the same thing to everyone, and combinations click without a word wasted.
- Sharpen SkillsPassing, footwork, support lines, decision-making — the core skills, under repetition, until they hold up when the pressure's on.
- Develop as AthletesMovement, conditioning and confidence — the athletic base that carries every one of the above onto the park.
Big crossover with 7PXL here: the plays you drill in the Club are the very same calls in the game — head to The Playbook to see Jack, King and Ace break down a 2-v-2.
The Playbook
Jack · King · Ace
Three foundation calls, each a 2-v-2. Defenders A & B up top; ball-player BP and runner down the bottom. Watch how each move manufactures space.
Defender (A · B)
Attacker
Ball-carrier
Pass · path
Jack
The Switch
Switch of play. BP angles across to fix both defenders one way; the Jack runner loops underneath and takes the ball back against the grain — into the space the drift left behind.
King
Down the Middle
Short ball, middle. BP drags A across to open the guts, then a short pop puts the King runner straight through the middle gap.
Ace
Classic Overlap
The classic overlap. With the extra man out wide, BP takes on B to commit him, then draw-and-passes to the free runner — the Ace — outside for the two-on-one finish up the touchline.
Combos
Stringing Calls Together
Where it gets fun — chain two calls into one shape so the defence solves the first just in time to be beaten by the second. First up: the Early Jack → Ace.
Early Jack → Ace
Combo · Jack + Ace
Jack early, then overlap. BP runs the classic Jack switch — but earlier than usual — flinging A the wrong way and popping the ball back against the grain to J. Then both runners arc out to the right into an Ace overlap: J carries to draw B, and puts BP — now the free man outside — away up the right touchline. Every ball goes square or back.