Midfielder training
Midfielders see it before it arrives. Scanning and passing lead your week. In Spatrian a player who sets their position gets these skills ranked first in every session, a drill for each of them that changes every week, and the puzzle that trains the position’s decisions.
Scanning
Looking before the ball arrives, and deciding off what you saw.
Colour-Call Rondo
Normal keep-away, except a colour gets called and the next pass has to go towards that colour.
Two-Wall Scanning Gauntlet
Continuous wall passing while reading and calling a marker behind you.
Three-Colour Agility Maze
Quick feet through a small grid, exiting through whichever colour gets called.
Midfield Pivot Scanning
Receive in the middle and move the ball to whichever of four gates gets called.
Scan Clock
Four coloured cones set like a clock face, the ball always moving, and a colour called at random.
Passing
Weight, angle and timing, against a wall or with other players.
Wall Passing (Solo) / Partner Passing
Stand 5-8m apart. Pass the ball back and forth using the inside of the foot.
Rondo 3v1
Three players keep possession against one defender in small grid.
Triangle Passing
Three players form triangle, pass and follow or pass and move.
Two-Grid Transition Rondo
Keep the ball in one grid, then break into the next one the moment it opens up.
Up, Back and Through
Pass in, get it laid back, then slide it through for the runner. Three players, one moving ball.
Blind-Side Check and Slip Pass
One player disappears behind the defender's shoulder; the other slides it into the gap.
3v1 Keep-Away with Split Passes
Keep-away where a pass played between the defender's legs or either side of them is worth double.
Weak Foot Only
Two minutes against a wall using nothing but the foot they avoid.
Kick-In to a Runner
Take futsal's kick-in from a still ball on the line, within the four seconds the Laws allow, and pass into a teammate's run along the floor.
Outside-of-the-Foot Wall Pass
Passes off a wall with the outside of the foot, the pass that disguises where the ball is going, from four steps back in a garage or a basement.
First touch
Receiving the ball so the next action is already set up.
Half-Turn Diamond
Check away, receive side-on with the back foot, and play forward on the second touch.
Wall First Touch
Pass into a wall and kill the returning ball dead with one touch, then play it back with the next.
Sole Stop and Wall Pass
Pass against a wall and stop the return dead under the sole, then pass again: the first touch a futsal player uses on every ball that comes to them on a hard floor.
Receive, Half-Turn, Pass
Play the wall, open the body as the ball comes back, take the first touch across the body through a gate and pass again: the midfielder's half-turn off a wall.
The daily puzzle: Through Ball
Weigh the day's pass. One a day, two levels, a few minutes, for the decisions the position makes before the ball arrives.
Greats who played it
From the Legend of the Week: a sourced story from each career and the move they were known for, with the drill that trains it.
Other positions
StrikerWingerFull BackCenter BackGoalkeeperDrills for MidfieldersAll drills
Train as a midfielder, week by week
Set your position in Spatrian and each week leads with the drills for it, read aloud by the Audio Coach and kept on your own training record, which your coach or personal trainer can read. The beta is opening to a small first group of players, coaches and families.