Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): Specialized Training 9: March 21, 2014

Juggling (15 mins)

General

Players in each grid have a ball at their feet and begin with Freestyle Juggling (allow a few minutes of this)

Specific 1st Group

1. Thigh Juggle

2. Laces One Bounce Juggle

3. Laces One Bounce Juggle (Alternating feet)

4. Thigh, Thigh, Foot, Foot (Alternating legs)

5. Free Style Juggling For Highest Score

6. Qualified Highest Scores (E.g. 5 or more) for final. Qualified players will get one chance in front of group, highest score wins.

Specific 2nd Group

1. Thigh Juggling

2. Laces Juggling (feet only)

3. Alternating Laces Juggling (Right, Left)

4. Feet, Feet, Thigh, Thigh (Alternating legs) - If they are struggling then can use Thigh, thigh, foot, foot

5. Bonus - Christmas tree (Foot, Foot,Thigh, Thigh, Shoulder, Shoulder, Head) - Alternating sides

6. Free Style Juggling For Highest Score

7. Qualified Highest Scores (E.g. 10 or more) for final. Qualified players will get one chance in front of group, highest score wins.

Transition:

Time of all drills adds to 80 minutes. Extend the part of the session that you feel is necessary. When transitioning between drills, players can juggle again or perform other skills.

1 v 1 Movement In Immediate Support (30 mins)

Setup:

In groups of 5 in a 12 x 12 yard grid. There are support players on each side with 2 active players working on each end with a passive defender in the middle to start.

How It Works:

Player with ball does 1 of the movements demonstrated by coach against a passive defender in the middle. After the attacker completes the movement, they play the ball to the player on the other end. The attacker then becomes the passive defender while the defender goes to open spot. The sequence continues again.

Players can alternate sides (i.e. 1st pass to left support, then right).

Rotate servers before moving on to next movement.

Movements:

1. Give and go (top left picture): Attacker has to commit defender and run on outside of player (some players will run on the inside).

2. Forward run, then check back (bottom middle picture): Attacker makes pass to support player looking for a give and go but passive defender drops off and the attacker checks back on angle. As you can see, the attacker actually receives the ball behind the original spot so that they have more time and space to receive. Once passive defender steps up on attacker again, attacker does one of the moves practiced to get away and make pass to other side.

3. Forward run, check back, forward again (top right picture): Attacker looks for a give and go but defender reads the run, then defender read check back so attacker runs around defender to receive ball.

Progression:

Same drill as above, but now defenders are live. Attackers can score 1) if they are able to get the ball to other end or 2) they complete 4 passes in a row.

If they are able to pass to other end then defender remains in middle and player on other side tries the same. If the attacker completes 4 passes with the side support then the defender allows for the attacker to pass the ball to the other side to begin the sequence again.

If the defender wins the ball or it goes out then the attacker becomes the defender.

Rotate support players every few minutes.

Progression 2:

If 2nd group is very successful then can limit the attacker to 3-4 touches.

Keys:

1. Change of pace to receive ball

2. Fakes to get away from defender

3. Watch ball and defender/read defender's reactions

4. Support players need to remember to play far foot.