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Soccer netball

Age group: All ages

Set up: This is a small sided team game (3v3 4v4 or 5v5) that uses netball-style play to develop soccer (football) skills.

Set up a goal at each end of a small square, circle or triangle. The shape of the playing area doesn’t matter, in fact an unusual shape makes the players think a bit more. The size of the area depends on the age and number of players. Just make sure they have plenty of room to play. For ten year olds, I would suggest 40 by 30 yards.

How to play: The aim of the game is to pass the ball among your team WITH HANDS, keeping possession and working up the field in order to score a point. Each team scores by placing the ball (or throwing the ball down) in their opponents’ goal or on the end line.

Alternatively, teams score by making a successful pass to a team mate who is stationed on their target end line.

Players pass the ball by throwing it. Once a player receives the ball they cannot run, they are frozen (or can take a limited number of steps depending on their age and ability) and then must pass to a team mate.

The opposing team can only intercept between passes – they cannot grab the ball out of players’ hands. If the ball goes out of the playing area, award a throw in to the opposing team.

When a goal is scored, the team that scored must try and keep possession and can’t score into the goal. If they do, the goal is disallowed and a goal kick is awarded.

If the other team equalise and make it 1-1, either team can then score to make it 2-1. To win the game, the team in the lead has to keep possession until the final whistle.

Coaching points

You may need to mark a ‘no entry’ zone a few yards from the end line or enforce a 1 or 2 defender rule. If you don’t, defending players tend to just crowd around the goal area.

Two ball soccer

This small-sided game, called “Two ball soccer”, will improve your players’ ability to keep the ball as a team. To succeed, they will need to support each other, communicate effectively and pass the ball accurately.

It will also improve their ability to play with their heads up and press their opponents quickly and effectively.

Age range: U8s to U14s.

Number of players: 3v3 (for eight to 10-year-olds) up to 6v6 (11 to 14-year-olds).

Equipment required: Some flat cones to mark out the playing area, four balls, training vests.

Set-up: Create a quarter pitch size playing area, e.g. 20×15 yards for eight-year-olds, 40×30 yards for 14-year-olds.

Divide your players into the appropriate size teams and give them training vests to aid identification.

Each team is given one ball.

How to play:

Both teams attempt to maintain possession of their ball and, at the same time, try to capture their opponent’s ball.
When a team has possession of both balls, the game is stopped and the team in possession is awarded one point.
The captured ball is returned to the team without possession and the game restarts.
Play for a set time or the first team to X points wins the game.

Note: If your players struggle to maintain possession of the ball, add a neutral player who supports either team or add two “safe zones” – small, coned-off areas where a player under pressure can take the ball and stay for up to five seconds without being tackled.

Progression

Increase the intensity of the game by reducing the size of the playing area.

Reduce the number of touches. Three-touch for younger players, two (or even one-touch) for older players.

Variations

Add two more balls. Now each team must keep and try to steal two balls. Award a point when one team possesses three balls.

Younger players can play Two Ball Soccer as a tag game. If the player in possession is tagged the ball goes to the opposition.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

4v4, no keepers

Objective: improve players’ decision-making skills, passing, receiving and dribbling.

Set up

Use a grid marked out with flat cones with a small goal in each corner.

The size of the playing area depends on the age and ability of your players. Can vary from 30 yd x 20 yd up to 40 yd x 25 yd.

Generally, the younger or less able the player, the bigger the playing area should be.

How to play

The players play soccer with no goalkeepers. They score in one of two ways: dribbling the ball into one of the goals or by stopping the ball on the end line betwen the goals they are attacking.

You can award one point for a traditional goal and two for a controlled stop on the end line or vice versa.

Coaching points

Players need to get their heads up and see the ‘big picture’. They need to pass, move and make decisions quickly to take advantage of the unguarded goals.

Stuck in the mud

Age group: 3 year olds and over

Objective: To improve your players’ dribbling skills.

Age group: Three years old and upwards.

Number of players: Whole team.

Set up: create a 30×40 yard grid. Every player except one has a ball.

How to play: Select one player who is “it”. Each of the remaining players should be standing in the grid with a ball waiting for the coach to blow a whistle.

On the whistle, the players with a ball dribble round the grid trying to avoid getting tagged.

If a player is tagged, she must pick the football up, hold it over her head and stand with her legs apart.

Frozen players should be encouraged to shout ‘help!’ as loudly as possible.

To release the “frozen” player, an ‘unfrozen’ player must pass her ball through the spread legs of the “frozen player”.

Once the player is “unfrozen”, she resumes dribbling in the grid. If a player dribbles the ball outside of the grid, that player is “frozen”.

Key soccer coaching tip: if the tagger is finding it hard to catch the other players, add another tagger or two.

Coaching points:

Players must dribble and keep close control of their ball.

Players should keep their head up and see where the “tagger” is located.

Players should dribble away from the “tagger” and dribble toward teammates who need to be “unfrozen”.

Small group defending

Warm Up 5 – 10 minutes. Activity level – Mild, increasing. Space: General. 1 – 2 Players per group.

Pressure

Groups of three, one ball per group. Player A rolls the ball (receiving ground balls) or tosses the ball (receiving air balls) to either player B or player C. In this example, player C must control the ball and get a completed pass to player B. While this is occurring, player A immediately challenges player C and tries to win the ball back. After successful pass, player C would then pick up the ball and repeat the activity as the defender. The defender is awarded a point for winning the ball back and gets to throw again.

Coaching Points

Encourage defender to pressure quickly after the toss. Defender needs to work hard at closing down the space while the ball is in flight.
Receiving player’s first touch should be away from the pressuring defender.
Player receiving the pass should move to create a clear passing lane.
Do not allow the receiving player to one touch the incoming toss. This is a receiving drill, as well as a drill that serves as a good warm-up for practices dealing with defenders.

Small Game 20 – 25 Minutes. Activity level: Medium progressing to high. Space: Defined space “smaller”. 3 – 5 players per group.

Pressure / Cover Defending

2 v. 2, with goals marked out in the corner of the grid.

Have a regular game with periods of about 2 – 3 minutes in duration.

Have plenty of extra balls ready to keep the game flowing

Coaching Points

Defending principles of play
Pressure on the ball, do not let the first attacker’s head to come up
Second defender must cover the goal as well as be aware of the second attacker
First defender tries to channel the attacker into the sideline and away from the second attacker. (This is easier to do since the goals are in the corners of the grid, the sidelines come up quicker.)
When first defender has made the play predictable, second defender tries to double team.
Make sure the defenders stay balanced, that they do not become too spread out, enabling the attacking team to make “splitting passes”.
As soon as the ball is won, can they shoot? This is the best time to do so because the attacking team is not in a good defending posture.

Four Goals – End Line

The Game

4 v. 4. Each team defends two goals and attacks two goals. Having the goals on the end lines makes this game more realistic as it forces the attacking team to have more of a direction to their attack.

Coaching Points

Defending principles

Defending become particularly challenging since the defending team has two goals to defend, essentially turning this into a 6 v. 4 game.

It is a good idea to allow each team to decide by themselves, at first, where they are going to try to win the ball. In other words, are they going to challenge the ball all over the field, or will they hang back and try to only defend the space close to their own goals?

Can they “channel” the ball into certain areas of the field to gain possession.

Can they apply enough pressure on the ball to limit the first attacker’s options, and make the play predictable.

Team Game 30 Minutes plus. Activity level: High. Space: Defined for the game = larger space. 7 – 11 players per team.

Four Zones Game

The Game

A regular 11 v. 11 or 8 v. 8 scrimmage. Break the field into 4 horizontal zones. Award the defending team points when they win the ball back in a chosen zone. For example, the Blue team might be given 3 points for winning the ball back in the first zone, two points for the second zone, one point for the third zone and no points for the fourth zone. This can change depending on where the coach wants the team to try tp force the play

Coaching Points

Try to get the players t work together, collectively, as a unit, with all 11 players aware of the defensive plan.

Can the defending team control the attacking team, making them play the ball in a certain area of the field, and then winning the ball there.

Make sure you give defending agendas to both teams.

Warm Down 5 – 10 Minutes. Activity level: Low ramping down. Space: General, No specific boundaries. 1 – 2 players per group.

Two Sided Goal Game

The Game

A 2 v. 2 game played to a two sided goal. Goals can be scored from either side. The game is a continuous flow game that is best played for 2 – 3 minutes.

Coaching Points

A good warm-up or cool-down game to teach defending and attacking skills.
Defenders must make sure they cover the goal as well as the attacking players.
Defenders must work at channelling the first attacker away from their support.
Attacking team must be good at combination play to unbalance the defence.
As soon as the ball is lost, defending team must get goal side.
Try to attack immediately when the ball is won.

Slow soccer

I have played Slow Soccer with children aged from eight to 15 but some players couldn’t do it, no matter how hard they tried, and some found it easy.

The one thing it did was make every player really think about what they were doing!

Objective: To play football thoughtfully, to plan ahead.

Age range: U8s and upwards.

Set-up: Play a 4v4 or 5v5 “match” on a small pitch. For U8s, 30×20 yards is a good size.

How to play: Tackling, shooting, scoring and passing as in normal football.

There is only one condition – running is not allowed.

When the ball goes out of play, the game can be restarted in a number of ways:

A normal throw-in.
A kick-in.
With a goal kick.

Note: Speed walking is allowed in Slow Soccer but if anyone breaks into a run, even for a second, a free kick is awarded to the other team.

Progression: After five or 10 minutes, lift the “no running” restriction and allow your players to play normally.

Why this works: Not being able to run to get back in defence or chase after a misplaced pass, makes young players see the importance of accuracy and anticipating what might happen next. And, believe it or not, it’s great fun!

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

The right way to coach youth soccer?

There is no “right way” to teach football to children.

Youth football coaches come from a wide variety of backgrounds, coach football for different reasons and have different personalities. So it would be unreasonable to expect all coaches to conform to one particular style.

However, there are a number of tried and tested best practices that all coaches should consider when planning their coaching sessions and when deciding on their personal “coaching philosophy”.

1. Set up situations where the players can learn by playing the game

“The game is the teacher” is a bit of a coaching cliche but it’s also true – children won’t learn how to play football if you put them in lines and make them share a ball.

They learn by being given the freedom to play, to experiment and make mistakes. The coach’s job is not to instruct. It is to set up games that create the situations that she wants her players to experience and then help them find the answers to the problems they encounter.

2. Encourage creativity and ball skills, not tactics

For children aged from four to about nine, football is not a team sport. It is the time when they should be developing their individual relationship with the ball. The fact that younger children are made to play in a “team” is not their fault so don’t demand that the more confident players share the ball. Encourage them to be creative, dribble at defenders and to take on the world!

Enjoy watching your players express themselves without fear of failure and work at getting the rest of your players to the same level of confidence and comfort with the ball that your “best” players enjoy.

3. Never say “never”

Coaches should not tell their young players to “hold their positions” or to “never” do something.

Children should be encouraged to dribble the ball out of their penalty area, to pass across their six-yard box or throw the ball backwards instead of “down the line!”

If they try something that results in the opposition scoring a goal, great. Talk about what happened at your next coaching session and see if they can learn from the experience.

4. Set age appropriate goals

Most of the discipline problems coaches experience stem from expecting their players to master particular skills that are not appropriate for their age.

For example, children up to the age of about 10 may lack the physical ability to lock their ankle, a skill that is necessary to strike a ball with power and accuracy so there’s not much point to get frustrated with an eight-year-old who can’t hoof the ball from one end of the pitch to the other.

Coaches who coach six or seven-year-olds should also bear in mind their players are very egocentric; they see the world only from their perspective. As a result, they are not going to want to pass the ball to their team mates. They’re worried they might never get it back!

Also, very young children lack the ability to “look ahead” and see what is about to happen. This is a limiting factor that coaches need to bear in mind when teaching how to attack the ball at corner kicks, for example.

5. Get feedback

No matter how good a coach you think you are, it’s important to find out what your customers – the players and their parents – think about you.

Players should be asked occasionally what they like and don’t like about your coaching sessions and parents should be given feedback forms to fill at the end of every season.

Ask questions like these:

Does your child enjoy coaching sessions?
Do you feel your child has progressed as a player?
Did your child get a fair amount of playing time on match days?

Leave spaces for parents to explain their answers and act on what they tell you!

6. Walk away

If you have been coaching your team for more than three years (or if you have a child on the team) you should consider passing the team on to a different coach.

“Oh no”, I hear you say, “I can’t leave my team”.

But they are not “your” team and they never will be. Players and parents have their own expectations and needs and it is very likely that they have less confidence in you than you think.

Staying with a team for too long also leads to a coach developing a sentimental or overly optimistic view of the players’ abilities and the prospects of the team.

This can lead to the coach excusing poor performances and settling for less than 100% effort which, in turn, can result in coaching sessions that lack drive and energy. And if the coach doesn’t set challenging objectives, players will often lose interest, misbehave or simply leave the team.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coach Weekly.

Six surface shooting

This soccer coaching game is good for practising kicking the ball with all six parts of the foot – the toes, sole, laces, inside, outside and heel – and showing your young players which ways of kicking are the most accurate and powerful.

Younger players will find it difficult to shoot with their heels and outside of their feet, but it’s good practice to let them try. Older players should be able to use all parts of their feet to kick the ball.

Set up:

Place a row of flat cones across the middle of a square playing area. Balance a ball on top of each one. Divide your players into two teams and line them up on opposite sides of the cones.

The distance from the players to the cones is determined by the age and skill of the players. The players on one of the teams have a ball each.

How to play:

The object of the game is to knock the balls off the cones by using different parts of the foot to strike the ball.

The team with the balls shoot first. Count the number of balls they knock off the cones. The balls are then reset and the second team shoots.

Each team’s players have five attempts at knocking the balls off the cones with each of the six surfaces of their feet (30 shots in total).

The team that scores the most ‘hits’ wins the game.