Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): SAQ / Conditioning w/the Ball

4 Color Flags (10 mins)

The Session:

4 teams of 4 players in a 20yd x 20yd square

At each corner a flag of the color of each team:

Yellow, blue, sky blue, red

Each team uses a ball, or each player with a ball for technical ball skills.

Progressions:

1) Pass only by hand

2) With the head

3) With the knee

4) With the inside of the foot...

5) Technical foot skills: each player with a ball dribbling & vary type of touches (dribbling left, laces, inside/outside, rake & cut, toe touches, pendulums, turns, etc.

At coaches signal each team must go to its correlating team corner flag

The last team arrives has a challenge (3 pushups, frog jumps, sit up - something quick)

**Progress to having 1 player from each team run to a flag on coaches command.(forces players to pick up heads & check for teammates)

Coaching Points:

-Wining Mentality

-Communication

-Head Up/Scan the Field

SAQ - Tag your IT (10 mins)

The Session:

12 x 12 yd squares. # players 1-4 to make teams of 4. 3 v 1 keep away using hands. Goal of defender is to either win/catch the ball or tag the player who has the ball & gets a point for every time they taga person or 2pts for winning the ball. Defender stays in middle for 30 sec. Red players play keep away from the defending player. Teams count up points at end of game to see who won.

Progressions:

1) Make area smaller/bigger in size to increase/decrease the challenge

2) 2-3 steps only for players with ball.

Coaching Points:

- Quick feet

- Compete

- Quick Change of direction

Field 1 - Agility Ball Mastery (10 mins)

THE SESSION:

4 teams. Balls start with players in the corner. Goal is to get all balls into middle circle first. 1st player sprints to red cone & then checks back in front of the dummy player to receive & turn to dribble to leave ball in the circle. Upon leaving the ball they sprint back to the back of their teams line. As soon as they have left the ball in the middle, their teammate goes.

PROGRESSION:

1) w/no ball. All SAQ, sprint to cone, check back in front of dummy, then turn & sprint to circle & then back to team.

2) Add ball w/pass upon checking to.

3)Once all the balls have been placed in circle, players can 'take' balls from circle zone and dribble/run with the ball back to their group. Play for 30 seconds and see which group has the most balls.

Only one player from each group can go at the same time.

KEY POINTS:

First touch into the space.

Laces part to run with the ball.

Keep ball under control and not to far away from your body.

Head up to drive into the space.

Different tricks/turns when getting the ball in the middle zone.

Conditioning Game

Organization:

-2-30x40 yard grid

- 3v3 games

-4 Goals (can use cones to mark goals)

-5 minute games

-Objective is to dribble the ball into either net using dribbling techniques (Messi, Ronaldo, Henry)

-Kick-ins for restarts, no offside

Coaching Points:

-Attack open space

-Allow play to flow, players can problem solve inside the 5 minute game

-Confidence and Creativity