Mon. May 10, 6PM, ULP
In our first practice will be concentrating on the skills of:

Offense
touch
ball control
dribbling
passing
shooting
All our practices will be divided into sections for: individual skills, team skills, and game play.

The structure of the practice will be (approx.):

Parent talk

Juggling - bounce the ball off your knee as many times in a row as you can.
 Space - talk about our space/their space or good space/bad space

Square Dance - Everyone dribbles within one 15 yd. square.  Keep moving
and use all parts of the foot.  Try cut backs, pull backs, and different fakes against
imaginary opponents.  Keep your head up to not bump into teammates.  Don't
lose the ball.
1. Dribble to open space - try to stay spread out.
2. Move to open space - tap the ball into an open space, quickly follow and
continue dribbling.
3. Attack!: All players protect their ball while trying to kick others outside of the
square. If a player's ball is kicked out of the square they leave the square and wait
for the round to end.

180 dribbles - 4 lines around a small square, each player has a ball.  Go - the first player from each line dribbles until their ball just crosses inside the square, then executes a 180 by pulling back on the top of the ball with the bottom of their foot.  Dribble back to the end of their line.

Meatgrinder - same setup as 180s, except each player dribbles through the square and goes to the end of the opposite line.

 Rule of 3's - we always want to be aware of 2 other teammates - 1st and 2nd pass choice or 1st, 2nd and 3rd defender

Triangle keep away w/ overlap- groups of 3 players with one ball pass the ball among themselves while one D player tries to steal the ball.  If D steals, then last player to touch the ball is now in the middle.

Passing by numbers - Everyone inside the square with one ball.  Each player gets a unique number 1...  While moving around the ball must be passed from player 1 to 2 to 3,  etc.  Communication!  After one ball is mastered, add a second.

 1 v 1 w/ gates - half the players wear pinnies,  each player gets a partner,  yellow vs. orange, each pair with a ball.  a bunch of cone goals are placed throughout the field.  Go - yellow has the ball.  Score by dribbling through a gate,  players keep score.  Cannot dribble through the same gate twice.  Orange may steal the ball and score.  Play 1 min. periods.  Keep heads up!   Variation 1 - play yellow vs orange with 1 ball, 4 min periods.  Player must pass ball through gate to a teammate to score.  Coaching point - after 1st period, explain that they must work in 3's: 1 ball carrier and 2 others who get open on either side of a gate.

 Rules - out of bounds, gk, ck,  fouls, offside

3 man give and go - 3 lines between the 18 and mid-field.  ball starts at middle cone.  Go - all players start to move.  Ball carrier passes (gives) to one of the open players.  Both open players Go and one receives the next pass, shoot and score.  Var 1 -  start ball at outside cone, Var 2 - add D, Var 3 - add overlap: player 1 passes to 2 and overlaps 2.  2 quick passes to 3 who passes back to either open 1 or 2.
Zone Passing - Divide the large rectangle into two equal zones with 5 players on each of 2 teams (one with pinnies).  Gold  starts with the ball, all 5 players in one zone plus two of the other  players.  FIve successful passes in a row scores a point.  If the ball goes  out of bounds or Red intercepts, Red gets the ball and passes to their zone.   2 Gold players follow Red to their zone and the game continues.  Can't be the same 2 players every time.
 Goalkeeper work - each player stands opposite their partner and rolls balls back and forth while partner saves.  First roll, then bounce, then throw.

 Half-Court with Support - Field is slightly larger than the penalty box. One goalie, 2 teams of 4 players, and one support player at the top of the box.
Normal soccer rules apply except:
1. The support player can only move side to side at the top of the box  providing support to the team with possession.
2. A team, after winning possession, must make at least one pass to the  support player before attacking the goal.
3. Innacurate passes to the support player results in a restart by the  support player to the other team.
4. The keeper must throw or kick (goalkicks also) to the team which did  not have possession before he touched the ball.
5. The keeper cannot throw or kick to the support player.
6. Players can throw-in to the support player.
Tips: Encourage teams to attack from the wings and switch the point of  attack using the support player. For younger teams it usually works better  if the support player is a coach or one of the better players.
var 1) use different number of players in the game.
var 2) use more than one support player (perhaps assigned to a specific team).

Next Time: We will vote on our team name!

A trick to practice at home ... Hold the ball with both hands. Lift your knee, drop the ball and bounce it off your knee, then catch the ball. Try to do that ten times in a row. If you can do that, then try to bounce it twice off of your knee!

Other home practice ideas:

pass back and forth with your Father, Mother, or friend.
Try to shoot and hit a target like a cone or a tree. See how far away you can be and still hit the target.

 Next practice: Wed May 12, 6P, ULP
 
< bc@bjb.org >