We’ve been thinking about how to support our Coaches and Managers – and are trying a new approach to our existing training manuals. Have a look at this example of an online training plan.
Week 1
Warm Up, Ball Skills, Simple games
Equipment
- 1 Training Ball per child
- Warm-up & Skills: 15m x 15m Square using markers
- Game #1: 7m x 7m Square using markers, with 5m x 5m Square inside
- Game #2: 20m x 20m square and put a ball on 2 of the markers on opposite sides to each other.
Instructions
Warm Up:
- Set up a square about 15m x 15m using markers.
- Without a ball, have children running around in it, changing direction.
- Run around bringing knees up to chest.
- Run around bringing feet up behind.
- Side steps within the square.
- Dribble with the ball, changing direction and keep head up.
- Give children a chance to do some tricks with the ball whilst dribbling.
- Encourage them to use their imagination.
Ball Mastery Skills:
- Use the 15m x 15m square set up above for the following three activities.
Drop, kick, catch
- Aim to have the kids master this skill by doing one drop, kick, catch at a time. Then aim for two, then three etc.
- When they can do it 5 times in a row, do the same process, but use the knee rather than their foot.
Toe Taps
- Start kids doing toe taps in one spot. Coach then walks around and team follows.
- This teaches the kids to not look at the ball, but rather to keep their head up and control the ball.
Dribbling
- Start kids dribbling with a ball in any direction. Then the coach yells out a body part (head, knee, foot, chest) and the kids need to stop the ball with that part of the body.
Passing
- Set up two lines of markers 5m apart. Put kids into pairs.
- Put 1 child on each marker and give each pair a ball.
- They pass the ball to each other. Encourage them to use inside of foot, not toe.
- One of the partners then stands with their lags apart, and the other partner aims to pass the ball through their legs.
- Set markers 10m apart and repeat.
Games
Game 1:
- Set up a 7m x 7m square, then an internal square of 5m x 5m using different coloured markers. Put a ball at each internal marker and in the centre of the smaller square.
- Split the group into 4, and put each group on a corner of the outer square.
- The first child of each group moves to the inner square to start the game.
- They all run around the square, without the ball.
- When they get back to their corner they try to kick the ball out of the middle of the square, using the ball at their marker.
- After each child has had a turn, try running in the opposite direction.
Game 2:
- 1v1 (1 attacker and 1 defender). Down the track it can be used as a 2v1.
- Set up a 20m x 20m square and put a ball on 2 of the markers on opposite sides to each other.
- Split kids into 2 groups and put them on opposite sides of the square.
- The coach rolls a ball into the middle, and the first child on each side runs in to try and win the ball.
- That child then attempts a ball mastery skill to try and hit the ball off the marker with the ball that they have just won.
- Continue till all kids have had a couple of turns.