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Thunderball

“Thunderball” is a great game for getting children to run at speed and shoot at a target. It’s ideal to use as a warm-up to a session on shooting/passing or as a stand-alone game.

Age group: Five to Eight-year-olds.

Number of players: Whole squad.

Equipment required: Four or five conical (traffic) cones, one ball and a marker cone for each player.

Set-up: Four or five conical cones are placed in the centre of the playing area as targets.

Divide your players into two or more teams.

Place a cone/marker for each player in a circle around the targets.

Make sure that the marker cones are placed close enough to the target cones so that your players can be expected to hit them but not so close that the game is too easy.

How to play

On your command, all the players leave their balls at the cone and race around the playing area and back to their own cone.

Tip: Before you start, tell your players which way to run round the circle.

When they get back to their cone, they try to knock down a target with a pass/shot.

Award the teams five points for each target they knock down. The first team to score 20 points is the winner.

Variations

Run the other way round the circle.
One team runs clockwise, the other anticlockwise.
Run with the ball round the circle.
Shoot/pass with your weaker foot.

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

Turn the cone!

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 Coach Weekly.

I need a doctor!

“I Need a Doctor!” is a fun game for six to eight-year-olds. It improves their co-ordination, dribbling skills and ability to make decisions.

Set-up: Create a 20-yard square with two 4×4 “hospitals” marked within the square with flat cones.

Divide your players into two teams. Every player has a ball.

How to play: One team dribbles in the playing area while the other team of attackers attempts to hit them with their ball below the knee.

Players who are hit become “patients” and call “doctor!” while holding their ball above their head.

The dribbling team has two “doctors” who are based in the “hospitals”. They can save any of their patients by leaving the hospital and touching them but if either doctor is hit below the knee by a ball, the game is over and the attacking team wins.

Play two minute rounds. If the doctors aren’t hit by a ball, the team with the least number of patients when time is called is the winner.

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

Cone hunt

This game is pure fun and it’s so simple that even four and five-year-olds can play it.

And players up to the age of 15 will enjoy playing it too!

Objective: To improve shooting technique, passing and communication.

Set up: Use a circular playing area with a 20-yard diameter.

Place a flat cone with a ball balanced on top of it as a target in the middle of the playing area.
Mark out a five-yard exclusion zone around the cone.
Divide your players into teams of three or four.
Use three teams per playing area.

How to play: Each team tries to score a point by hitting the target.

Players cannot enter the exclusion zone.

The first team to hit the target five times wins.

Progressions:

Add a goalkeeper or a defender to work in the exclusion zone protecting the target.

Reduce the number of touches each player is allowed.

Reduce the size of the playing area.

Play with two balls.

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

Keepaway in a box

Objective: This is a fun game helps younger players of all skill levels improve their ball shielding skills and understand the principles of individual defending.

Age range: U6s to U9s.

Difficulty: Easy.

Set-up: Pair your players up in a relatively small playing area. For ten U7s, 10 yards square is ideal.

The playing area should not be so big that the game turns into running and chasing. The objective to protect the ball in a confined space. One ball between two.

How to play: The game starts with both players in each pair placing one foot on the ball.

When you say “GO”, they both try to take possession of the ball.
The player who gets the ball must try to keep it away from her partner.
The ball must not leave the playing area. If it does, that pair is out of the game.
The winners are the pair of players who can keep the ball in the playing area the longest.
Switch partners after every round or two to build confidence in newer players and to challenge the more experienced players.

Coaching note: An alternative to eliminating players who let the ball go out of bounds is to make them wait for a few seconds before returning to the game. But that means that no one “wins” and, as Steve says, the game is so fast and over so quickly that no pair of players is out for more than a minute anyway.

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

Quick! Pass!

Young players find basic “keepaway” games rather boring.

But they are really good for improving ball control, shielding, supporting play and communication.

So you need to find a way to make keepaway fun!

Quick! Pass! is great fun to play and it can get very competitive. My players love it!

Age group: U8s to U14s.

Set-up: Split your players into two teams of between four and six and give the players numbers, 1 to 4, 1 to 5 or 1 to 6.

Create a 20-yard square. This is a good size for experienced players but if your players are inexperienced or find the game difficult, make the areas bigger.

How to play: Use one team per area. To begin, your players pass the ball to each number in order, i.e. 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, etc.

Make sure players move after passing (no playing statues!) and they use the whole of the area.

After a minute or two, call a number.

The players with that number run into the other team’s grid and try to steal the ball.

Whoever steals the ball first gets a point for their team.

Progression: Call two numbers so two players on each team try to steal the ball.

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

Steal the ball

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

But “normal” keepaway quickly bores young players. There’s not much fun and no end result.

Steal the Ball, however, is fun to play and it can get very competitive. My players love it!

Age group: U6s to U10s.

Set-up: Create two playing areas. For team sizes up to six, 20 yards square is OK. If you have more than that (or your players are inexperienced) make the playing areas bigger.

Split your players into two teams and give them numbers 1 to X (P1 to P4 in the image below)

One team per playing area.

How to play: To begin with, your players pass the ball to each order in number order: 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 etc.

Tip: Encourage your players to move immediately after passing and tell them to use the whole of the playing area.

After a few minutes, call a number. The players with that number run into the other team’s playing area and try to steal the ball. Whoever steals the ball first gets a point for their team.

When all the numbers have been called, the team with the most points wins.

Variations:

Call two numbers.

Play with two balls in each playing area and require the ball stealers to knock both balls out of the playing area to get a point.

Award a bonus point if the ball can be stolen in less than five seconds.

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

Out!

This is a fun way to practise attacking and defending skills. It also helps develop football “vision”, communication skills and tactical awareness.

Age group: U6s to U14s.

Equipment required: Some cones to mark the playing area, two small goals, training vests and a ball.

Number of players: Whole squad.

Set-up: Create a 30-yard square with a small goal on opposite end lines.

Split your squad into two teams (the Rs and the Bs in the image below).

Each team stands next to you on the edge of the playing area.

Tell the teams which goal they need to score in.

How to play: Throw a ball into the playing area and shout a number.

That number of players from each team run into the playing area, compete for the ball and try to score in their allocated goal.

As soon as a goal is scored or the ball goes out of play, shout “Out!” and the players return to their teams.
Then shout another, different number.
Vary the numbers from one to the total number of players in each team.

Progression: Play with a goal in each of the four corners. This encourages your players to keep their heads up and switch play to the open goal.

Allow your players to choose the number of players who will compete for the ball. First, team R chooses then it’s team B’s turn to choose.

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