Sunday, April 28, 2013

U4/5's practice week #1 - May 1

Find your number on the field and set up shop!  Ensure you grab a pop up net and figure out where the team you are playing at the end is located for a quick transition.
Don't forget to introduce yourself.
Remember to give water breaks between drills.
Remember that the 3 year olds may be done after 30 minutes.
It's okay if kids carry the ball around, instead of kick it, keep encouraging them to kick it.
Remember for many of these kids this is their first time participating in an organized sport, there will be different abilities to comprehend and do the drills.  Don't forget to demo, demo, demo what you want to see and have fun, because if you're having fun, they will have fun!  Be animated!!!

At 4:30ish the horn will go, indicating it is time to move to your games.  It is supposed to be 3v3, so you may want to have two games going with the other team (you can play 4v4 with one of the 4 being a goalie too).  Set up two appropriate sized fields and have a coach leading each game.  They won't know where the boundaries are, help them out by running around the perimeter with them and help them to understand what they are supposed to do.  If it goes out, just kick a new ball in, we'll introduce throw ins later on.  The game is not the best use of time at this age but it is good to begin to play and it is the expectation of the parents that they play the beautiful game.  It's okay to have more than one ball going to encourage more people to play and touch the ball.  At 4:45 the horn will go again indicating the end of the session & snack time.  **Don't forget to have a big cheer at the end of your game for your team and the other team and then go and high 5 the other team!!  VERY important....cheer & high 5's then Snack and social.

*Don't feel you need to do all the drills below
*Enthusiasm goes a  long way!

1.  Warm up - freeze tag no balls to start, if you get tagged, freeze until someone comes and unfreezes you (show them how to freeze, legs apart, arms up and out)....then move to playing with balls, if you get tagged person unfreezes them by passing the ball between your legs (demo this).  You are dribbling around until you get tagged.

2.  Superheros
Have all kids dribble (show them) around the grid and when you shout superman/woman, everyone dives on the ball (lie on ball so it's under chest) and puts arm up like superman/woman, when you shout batman, they put foot on ball and pretend to fly, when you shout Spiderman they put foot on ball and pretend to spin a web (spidyhands), when you shout Hulk, they pick up ball and squeeze it and roar like the hulk.

3.  Shark/British Bull Dog
15 x 15 grid or so.  Have players (fish/pirates) with balls on one end of the grid and coach (shark) in the middle, the players need to get to the other side of grid to get to the sunken ship/pirate ship or to safety.  If the shark tags you before you reach the other side (then you become a shark/it too).  First round play no balls just running, second round play that the players need to dribble the ball to the other side.
http://www.coachingsoccer101.com/tag1.htm

4.  Topple me Coconuts
(Active Start session 8 and there is video too)

Split players into 2 teams and have them line-up as shown below. Place balls on top of cones like coconuts. Ask players to alternate making passes/shots to try and knock the ball off of a cone. If a player is successful they can go and retrieve both balls and bring them back to their side. Encourage celebrations!
Alternatives
Easier (U4): Start with rolling the ball across a smaller distance.

5.  Jungle Run
see byte sized coaching under games or follow link below:
http://www.bytesizecoaching.com/secure/games/204_jungle_run_u46.php

Game time, cheer, snack


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