Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): 2012 GIRLS OPDL - Civic Holiday Session (Start Time: 2025-08-04 19:30:00)

Warm-up: Tic Tac Toe (10 mins)

Tic tac toe:

1. Set up the cones as shown in the video. a 3 x 3 grid, a small square of two differing colors in front of the 3 x 3, a starting cone for each team, and a pile of comes for each team in the color corresponding to the small box color. 

2. Each team will have 1 ball and work as a team. The first player will grab a cone of their color in their hand, take the ball, dribble into the square of their color and stop the ball leaving it in the square

3. The player will then place their color cone on top of one of the cones in the tic tac toe grid

4. The player will then go back to the square, get their ball and dribble all the way back to the line where the next player will go

5. First team to get tic tac toe wins

Make it Harder: larger distances between the grid or between the start of the line and the box. Allow them to stack cones until someone wins if all the spots have already been filled and nobody has won.

Make it Easier: make everything closer together. Have a coach stand in the tic tac toe board helping them choose where to place their cones.

1v1 + 2 (Progress to 2v2 + 2) (10 mins)

Starting Simple with 1v1 + 2 

1. Players try to unmark themselves (central) to create unopposed path to play the opposite target/bumper. Continuous Unmark and transition the ball. Play, Unmark and Repeat.

2. Players can play target to transition/keep possession OR they SCORE by playing target THROUGH GATE.

Progress to 2v2 + 2

3. Create 2v2 in the middle plus 2 on the outside. Continuous Unmark and transition the ball. Play, Unmark and Repeat.

4. Players can play target to transition/keep possession OR they SCORE by playing target THROUGH GATE.

Coaching Points/Questions: To lose your defender, what movements must we use? Hide behind him and then move into space.

Why hide him behind him? So now he has to be aware of the ball in front and player behind.

Do we always do this movement to unmark? No, you can come from behind and in front of (check in) to receive the ball, and turn to beat the defender or shield.

D-N-G Progression (15 mins)

Dead - Next - Go

*** Progression *** The game of DNG is the same as before. The difference is that you place the 3rd player at half (opposite sides for each team). So that the first pass when a team enters to "GO!" they must play the diagonal pass to immediately start higher up the field. 

*** The defending team must adjust now (potentially down 3v2 until the player recovers from touching the post) and figure out how to deal with and manage the overload.

Game is designed (and begins) as a 3v3.

Team 1 (BLUE) begins attacking 3v3 in attempt to score. If the ball remains in play (including goalkeeper save) play continues until a goal is scored or ball goes out of play.

If/when the ball goes out of play and/or a goal is scored, the defensive team "GREEN" (in the half the ball went out) goes off the field. They are replaced by a new 3 attackers that enter from the endline who attempt to GO and score quickly. 

While this transition occurs, the last player to touch the ball on the attacking team (BLUE in this scenario) before it went out must touch the attacking post (even if it was not a shot or goal - could be just a simple ball out of play and/or giveaway out of bounds). This will leave us down to 2 defenders against the 3 new attackers.

Simply put, when the ball goes "DEAD" in your own half, the "NEXT" team of 3 is up to "GO!"

This is a constant 3v2 transition game which pushes the tempo. Set realistic expectations of timing (start with 4 minutes, work to 6 minutes, etc). Provide adequate rest.

Coaching Points (both teams)

- reinforce cues of when to press, when to be patient and drop off

- positioning and communication to close field space and make the field smaller

- reinforce body positioning, field positioning and communication, when to press and win the ball