Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Various Exercises

Exercise #2

Longer service to flank area for service in the box

Organization:

-Player B starts with balls and combines with player A to get the ball back and play longer service to Player C.

-As the combination of Players A and B is happening, Player C is making a double movement to create time and space for themselves to receive service from Player B.

-Player C will then play service into the box (2 mini goals). 

**If have more than 3 players you can have runner in the box to finish service from Player C or extra players in the role of Player C, to get more reps in.

Rotate roles after 3 services from Player C. Make sure to get reps from the left side as well.

Progression:

-Player A can hit opposite diagonal service to broaden their range 

-When Player B is combining with Player A, can give the "turn" command and have Player A distribute as well

-Crossing service from Player C can be varied (early bent ball in, driven on the ground, lofted ball back post, etc)

Keys:

-Focus on the timing of run and quality/precision of service both in flank and in box.

Exercise #4

Defensive Heading in Threes

Organization: 

-Place players in groups of three, standing in a line with 5 yards between them.

-Player A throws to Player B, who heads the ball over Player A to Player C. Player C controls the ball and returns it to Player A. It then becomes Player C's turn to head the ball. Players rotate every 2 mins.

Progressions:

-Increase distance between the players.

-Look to increase the height of the clearance.

-Introduce run, jump and head with players to head the ball standing a further 5 yards back from the server to begin (use yellow cones as the starting position).

-The next receiver (in the above example Player C) must move to one of the two cones, at the point Player A serves the ball to Player B, so as to make a target for Player B to head the ball to.

-The server, having served, becomes an opponent, and tries to intercept the ball, to include with his hands. If successful or, if the player heading the ball fails to head the ball beyond the receiving players two red cones, the server swaps places with the player heading the ball (in effect, piggy-in-the-middle).

Keys:

-To develop defensive heading technique.

-Player heading the ball:

 -stands with feet apart and uses the ground for leverage

 -attempts to strike the bottom half of the ball to gain height

 -uses his arms to pull the chest forward to add power to the contact

 -keep neck and body muscles firm and is aggressive

 -have feet apart

 -be ready to adjust feet according to the flight of the service in order to shift his body