Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Session 6 - Running with the ball

Pre Warm Up (5 mins)

On arrival players are given a ball to dribble within the full area as the wish, practicing turns, using different surfaces of the foot, change or pace and direction

90 seconds/2 mins dribbling, 90 seconds/2 mins passing squares, 1/2 mins for set up, demos, interventions

Adaptations (Progressions & Regressions):

Players work in groups passing within a square and follow their passes

Challenges, Conditions or Targets:

Can we use both feet, can we move away from the cone to add realism

Technical (10 mins)

Players now need to travel in across the grid as above

Re-enforce mechanics, explain drill and demo 1min, 90 seconds practice, 1 min switch, rest and intervention, 90 seconds practice

The above 5 minutes for the horizontal & vertical movements, another 5 minutes with the same timings for the diagonal and snake movements

Adaptations (Progressions & Regressions):

The 2 horizontal groups travel diagonally across the central area, the 1 vertical group needs to use slight changes of direction/like a snake through the middle but not leaving the 6 central markers 

Challenges, Conditions or Targets:

Can we keep our head up to avoid traffic, if a player is close can we use a body feint to move into space even if this is slightly off or orignal path

SSG (25 mins)

Teams need to travel to the opposite end zone to score a point, both sides defend one side and attack the other like a normal game

To score you need to stop the ball over the line in the end zone

Once scored the conceding team can restart as soon as they can to create transitions and a fast tempo to the game

Explain drill and desired outcomes 2 mins

Part 1 (End Zone) 3 x 3 min games, 1 min rest/interventions/progression or regressions

Part 2 (Normal game) 3 x 3 min games, 1 min rest/interventions/progression or regressions

Adaptations (Progressions & Regressions):

If players are playing direct and play longer balls rather than run with the ball we can add conditions such as a gate which can be run through to get double points 

Progress to a normal game condition by adding goals to create a realistic game situation, still look to encourage running with the ball as our first instinct

Challenges, Conditions or Targets:

Can we look to be proactive with our first touch, we can put a minimum touch rule to the game to encourage running with the ball being our first thought (Each player must have min 2 touches)