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Spot the space

Objective: Spot the Space helps young players get into the habit of moving after they pass the ball. It’s also a good warm-up before a coaching session or a match.

Set up: Create a square playing area about 30 yards across. Split it into four with flat cones so you end up with four squares.

Divide your players into three teams of three wearing different coloured training vests.

If you have spare players set up another game of Spot the Space or adjust the size of the playing area and/or the number of ‘spaces’. If you have 12 players, for example, use four teams of three and divide the playing area into five spaces instead of four.

Each team has one ball.

How to play: Each player occupies a square but only one player from each team is allowed in any one square – you can’t have two players in the same team in the same square at any point in the game.

On your command, the players with a ball pass to a team mate and run to the square that doesn’t have one of their team mates in it.

Coaching points:

Make the game competitive by challenging teams to perform the exercise at pace and without making a mistake for two minutes.

Look for players calling for the ball, passing accurately and moving quickly. No walking!

Progression:

Restrict the number of touches to two or, for advanced players, one touch.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

World Cup

Objective: To encourage communication and taking scoring chances quickly.

Age group: U8s and upward.

Set up: Play this game in half a small-sided pitch (about 30 yards square) with a regular-sized goal at one end.

Split your squad into pairs and let each pair choose the name of a country.

Use bibs to differentiate the pairs of players.

How to play: All the teams of two play against each other in the playing area.

If you don’t have a spare player, you go in goal.

The first team to score is awarded five points, the second team to score get four points, the third get three points and so on.

When the fifth team has scored, the sequence begins again.

Play for a set time or until one team reaches a set number of points.

The winners lift the World Cup!

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Compound

Objective: To improve ball dribbling skills.

Age group: U7s to U10s.

This is how to set the game up:

Set out quite a large area. To save using too many cones, use a full-size pitch penalty area (44×18 yards) using the lines as the boundary.

Split the players into three teams of five or six.

Place 18 cones, of three different colours, EG. six red, six yellow and six blue randomly in the playing area.

Three of each colour face upwards (normal position) and three of each colour face down.

Each team is assigned a colour and players are lined up down one side of the penalty area. They each have a ball.

How to play:

On command all the players dribble into the area and go to the cones.

They either turn their own colour the right way up and/or turn the other two colours upside down.

This helps them learn how to dribble in a congested space, dribble at speed and keep the ball under close control.

Then shout “Stop. Compound.”

The players pick up their own ball and run back into a compound, which is a coned-off area alongside the main playing area.

The cones are then counted.

Each team is given two points for every one of their own cones that is the right way up. Then deduct one point from the team whose final player is last to get back to the compound.

Play first to X number of points wins the game or for a set time.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Keepers keepaway

Objective: To improve short passing/receiving, communication, shielding the ball, teamwork, goalkeeping.

Age range: U7s and upwards.

Difficulty: Easy.

Set up: Divide your players into groups of five to seven. Create a 20-yard square for each group.

How to play:

One player in each group is a keeper.

The rest are numbered 1 to 4, 5 or 6 depending on how many you have in each group.

The numbered players pass to each other in sequence.

The keeper tries to intercept the passes using his/her hands or feet.

Note: Players in possession of the ball cannot be tackled by the keeper.

Give the passing players a relatively easy target to begin with. With U7s, this might be to make three passes before the keeper touches the ball. With U12s, you could start with 10.
Once your players have experienced success, gradually increase the target.
Make the game competitive by challenging groups to make more passes than the other(s).

Progression:

Make the groups smaller. This makes it harder for the passing players to keep the ball away from the keeper.
Reduce the number of touches passing players are allowed.
Add a second keeper.
Coaching notes: If your players find this game difficult, make the playing area bigger or give the passing group an extra player.
Encourage good communication. Players should shout their number or “I’m here!” when it’s their turn to receive the ball.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Keepaway wars

I like keepaway games. They are great for improving ball control, shielding the ball, supporting play and communication.

But straightforward keepaway quickly bores young players – there’s not much fun and no end result.

Keepaway Wars, however, is fun to play and it can get very competitive. My players love it!

Age group: U7s to U12s.

How to play:

Divide your squad into teams of four and assign them an area.
The players in each team choose a number and begin to pass the ball around in sequence, 1 to 2 to 3 etc.

Tip: Encourage your players to move into spaces and use all of their area.

Call a number. The players with that number “invades” the adjacent area and tries to win the ball.
The three players who keep their ball the longest win a point.
Once all four players have defended, the team with the most points wins the game.

Variation: To make the game more realistic,’ place a goal or two just outside the playing area.

When invading players win the ball they can score a goal.

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

Keep the ball!

This is a practice drill designed to improve your players’ ability to keep possession. It is suitable for players with good ball skills.

Warm up

Split your players into two groups wearing two different coloured bibs, e.g. red and blue. The players jog around in half a small soccer pitch, passing the ball from red to blue to red etc.

Progressions:

Add a second ball.
Introduce a defender who tries to block the passes.
Introduce a second defender and, if your players are still finding it easy to keep the ball from the defenders, add a third.
Place a goal at one end of the playing area. The team in possession can shoot once they have put five passes together.

Small-sided game 1

Play a small-sided game with the condition that players can only have three touches before they pass the ball. All restarts are by the goalkeeper who has to roll the ball out.

Progression: move to two touch.

Small-sided game 2

In this small-sided game, use uneven teams. For example, 5v2 or 6v3. The team with the most players has to complete five passes before they can score. The team with fewer players can shoot as soon as they get the ball.

Progression: increase the number of passes required and/or make the playing area smaller to increase the pressure.

Coaching points

Stress the need for constant movement – no standing still admiring your pass!
Encourage players to find good angles of support– get out of the defenders’ shadows.
Key messages: Keep the ball! Relax, get your head up and support your team mates.

Can you play too much soccer?

I had an email from a parent concerned that his children (one U8, the other U10) were playing soccer four or five times per week during the off season, with their teams and in various clinics and that this was perhaps too much.It poses the question, is there such a thing as ‘too much soccer?’

My view is that playing four or five matches and/or training sessions per week is too much at any time of the year, let alone the off season!

For one thing, you have to consider the physical strain that such an amount of exercise exerts on a growing body. Over-training does not allow enough time for minor injuries to ligaments and joints to heal and serious, long-term injuries can result.

Young children are particularly at risk because their bones and ligaments sometimes grow at slightly different rates, causing an imbalance that makes it even easier for small “niggles” to turn into long-term medical conditions. Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome or MTSS) is an example.

Interestingly, research by the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS) has shown children are only likely to sustain stress-related injuries if they play too much organised football – they can play with their mates in the park all day, every day without any problems.

This is probably because in the park they can stop and rest when they want to. There’s no coach urging them on from the touch line.

In addition, too much organised football can simply take the fun out of the game. We all need a break… even coaches!

If you want to keep your players active in the off season, why not set up a few goals in your local park and let the children play without any coaching or instruction from adults? Free play is an essential part of a child’s learning process and we shouldn’t be afraid to let go of the reins occasionally.

Inside out

Objective: To encourage your players to use the whole width of the pitch.

Age range: U9s and older.

Number of players: Nine (but can be easily adapted for a different number of players)

Equipment required: Flat cones, training vests, six small goals (or traffic cones/poles as goal posts), one ball.

Set up: Place three goals at each end of 30×20 yards playing area.

Divide your players into two teams of four, plus one neutral player.

How to play: Both teams defend and attack three goals.

They score one point for scoring in the centre goal and three points for scoring in one of the outside goals.
The neutral player plays for the team in possession.
Play for 10 minutes or until a set score is reached.
When the ball goes out of play, the game is restarted with a kick-in from the line.

Progression:

1. Points are scored by dribbling the ball through a goal instead of shooting.

2. The neutral player is restricted to two or three touches.

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