Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Soccer Start Week 5 Dragon Adventure

Warm-up (10 Min) (10 mins)

Set-up: Balls start in the middle of the field. 

3 Min: Welcome the players and introduce today's adventure. Players are dragons on Magic Dragon Island. Have the players run around the field. Have them flap their arms like dragon wings. Ask the players if they can make turns and change speed without running into other dragons. Can you keep your head up and scan for obstacles? 

3 Min: Bring the players to the middle where their balls which are dragon eggs. Let players pick their own "dragon egg" and have them sit on it to make it hatch. After a few moments, have the players put their ear to their egg and ask if they hear anything. (some will say yes, some will say no) Tell them sitting on the egg didn't work, so they will have to try toe taps on the egg. After a few moments, players will listen again. The baby dragons are still not ready, so the players will need to do tick tocks with the egg. After a few moments check again. Tell the players you think they are almost ready. Doing sole rolls should do the trick. Have the players switch feet. Listen one last time and pretend the dragon jumped out of your hands and it alive and ready!

3 Min: Have the players dribble around with their baby dragon eggs. Ask them if they can go fast/slow. Can you stop with your foot on the top and wings out and say, "Stop, baby dragon!"

Coaching points/tips: Keep your baby dragons close to your body in order to control your wild dragons. Through out the session if players are struggling to keep focus, you can have them sit on their dragon eggs to keep them warm. No Hands! Remind the players the baby dragon doesn't like it when they use their hands. 

Activity 1: Don't wake the Sleeping Dragon (10 mins)

Set-up: All the "dragon treasure" from the previous activity will be put in a 10x10yd space on one side of the field. The big dragon(coach) is laying or crouching down pretending to sleep in front of the dragon treasure. 

Instructions: Players and their dragon eggs start at one endline of the field, and have to dribble their ball and be sneaky to steal back their dragon treasure while the big dragon is sleeping. If the dragon wakes up players have to freeze so the dragon don't see them. If the ball is still moving have them start at the beginning line. Play until all the treasure is gone. Play a couple rounds. You can even have another player take a turn as the big old dragon.

Coaching points/tips: Head up to scan the field. Light taps to keep your dragon egg close and you can freeze quickly. 

1v0s to 1v1s to 2v2s (10 mins)

Set-up: All the balls are piled next to the coach. Two lines of players on each side of the coach. Each line will have a designated goal to go towards.

Instructions: 

   1v0s- Roll two balls out and one player from each line race to be the first to get their ball into their goal. . 

   1v1s- Roll one ball out and one player from each line compete to get a ball into their designated goal.

   2v2s- Roll one ball and two players from each line work together to get the ball into their goal. 

Coaching points/tips: Some players will not want to compete. These players can continue with 1v0s ask if they want high balls, low balls, or long balls. Feel free to add players up to 5v5 if you feel they are ready to attempt this safely. Try to match players with like abilities.