Coaching

This is my first attempt at blogging.

I've studied and taken part in football/soccer coaching with different age groups for around 5 years. This is just my attempt to pass on some of the things I've found to work well and others that are less successful.

Here's a drill I've found that work well with any age group above that of about 6 years old. It's based on the concept of passing.

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- Create a square by placing 4 markers on pitch. Lets say about 20 metres apart, a good distance anyway

- Get the participants to form a circle inside the square. Something like this(red circles are markers, x's are participants):

- Simple pass of the ball clockwise around the circle. Very simple and you should emphasise that. Its purely for explanation purposes.

- This is where the markers come in. After making your pass, participants must run to the nearest marker and then back to their position in the circle. This brings in the concept of passing and moving and increases the intensity a little.

- Assuming participants have the hang of what their doing, introduce a second football to the mix. This puts the particpants under a bit of pressure and they now need to pass and move a lot quicker to get back to their position in the circle in time for the next football arriving.

- Further progressions can include adding more footballs (this obviously depends on how many participants you have), changing it from clockwise to anti-clockwise (I'd recommend this as it promotes use of both feet) and adding in a rule of only being able to take one touch of the football. Balls will probably go flying everywhere but its a challenge for them.