under age football drills

[BennyHarp]

I totally agree with Zulu and Lynchboy - conditioned games are the best form of honing skills with a focus on the kids who are performing the skill correctly rather than blowing up every mistake that is made. For example after teaching the "lift from the ground" its advisable to really praise the kid who performs the skill well during the game than call a foul for the kid who makes the mistake. This can often demotivate them and interrupt the flow of the game! Its amazing how quickly the kids will learn by watching others do it correctly and its best when they decide for themselves to perform the skill rather than doing it because they dont want to give away a foul!

I found this site very useful for older players;

http://www.dublingaagamesdevelopment.ie/resources/footballdrills/fs.php

[GrandMasterFlash]

Good info folks.
  We've coaching tonight and my plan is in the game at the end to award points for players who correctly pickup, hand-pass, catch the ball etc. This is to try and not stop the game for every mistake that's made but to promote the skills and getting them right. It both praises the players who are doing it correctly but doesn't demotivate/humiliate the players who are struggling.

[cahill wicklow]

hi people,

as i have said i'm only new at this training and everyone has been great,

i found the dublin gaa site very helpful, they have alot of specific drills and more importantly they have some game play ideas too.
if anybody has tried it could you post here what ya's thought of the site

cheers 

CW

[Zulu]

I rarely do drills for any age group from U10 upwards, but when I do it is between games, so a session would either be like this;

1. Warm up game             or                   1.Warm up game
2. Drill                                                    2. 2 V2 or 3 v 3 games
3. Game                                                 3. 4v 4 or 5 v 5 games
4. Drill                                                    4. 2 games for weak and strong players
5. Game
6. Game  


                                                                    WARM UP GAMES for U8-U12
 
Circle dodge ball:

Description:
Circle seven metre diameter (approx). Slipt panel into two teams, one outside the circle and the other inside the circle. Players outside circle handpass at those inside. Each player "hit" is out. Teams exchange positions when all players are out. After the ball hits a player or leaves the court, the ball is "dead" and may be picked up. Score a point for every opponent hit. Team that scores most points in a given period or reaches a certain score first wins.

Variations:
• If ball is caught, player remains in game
• Balls may be used by attackers
• If a players catches a ball, he can bring back a player
who has been hit
• Player hit by opposing team remains in game


Scout

Description:
Create a pitch, size depentdent on numbers/age/skill level, divided into two halves. Players position in opposite halves of pitch with at least one ball each. Two or three player's from each team acts as scouts in the opponent's area. The object is to get the ball into the hands of the scout in the opponent's court by kick passing. Points are scored for passes received by these scouts. Scouts may pass to each other but these do not score. Team that scores most points in a given period or reaches a certain score first wins.
No running with the ball.

Variation:
The ball may be kicked or handpassed

Pickle

Description:
Create an area with cones and all players stay within this zone, players numbered in pairs in scattered formation. One player kicks a football up and calls a number. The two players with the number try to field the ball. If marked, procedure is repeated, otherwise player calls "PICKLE". All stand still and player with ball attempts to hit them with handpass. Ball may be dodged without moving feet. Player hit restarts game.

Variation:
Call two or more numbers and all those pairs contest for the ball.

                                                                                    SMALL SIDED GAMES

If you have the coaches, start with playing 2 v 2's or 3 v 3's to work on whatever skill you want, increase the numbers to 4 v 4 and 5 v 5, finish with 2 games (one for the weaker players and one for the stronger ones).

The one mistake I feel many coaches make is to focus on too many skills when they should just work on a few skills that are suitable for the age group. Small sided games will offer the chance for kids to work on many skills but you can modify the game to focus on certain skills in particular. Remember a 10 year old kid doesn't have to have all the skills by the end of the year he has to have them by the time he is 22. So each coach for each age group should have 4 or 5 skills which is focusing on and developing for the year.

[the green man]

WARM UP

Piggy back race or wheel barrow races

Skills

General skills. Kick passing. pick up. high catching.

GAME.

Set out the game as normal. Any fumble, the players team go down for 10 press ups.

thats what i'd do

[BennyHarp]

WARM UP

Piggy back race or wheel barrow races

Skills

General skills. Kick passing. pick up. high catching.

GAME.

Set out the game as normal. Any fumble, the players team go down for 10 press ups.

thats what i'd do

You'd make under age players do press ups if they fumbled the ball??

[the green man]

or laps of the pitch

[BennyHarp]

or laps of the pitch

It'd put a bit of manners on them anyway! 

[Zulu]

I pm'd this to CW but it was still in my outbox so I thought I'd post it here as well

1. 5 goal game.
Set up Mark out pitch (size dependent on numbers) with 4 small goals at each corner and one small goal in the middle of the pitch.
Each team defends the two goals at either end of the pitch but the goal in the middle of the pitch can be scored into by both teams.
Start with a team just having to hand pass through a goal to score and develop to having to carry the ball through the goals and onto hand passing to a team mate through the goals. For the second two scoring systems the team that scores retains possession.

Pitch layout:

x   x                     x   x


            x   x


x   x                     x    x

Concept: The middle goal prevents teams falling back infront of the two corner goals.
              If you want to work on fitness play a no hop/no solo game
              If you want to encourage more tackling, narrow the pitch

2. Across the width of the pitch game
    This is probably the best small sided game you can play, basically set up goals (slightly narrower that full size goals) at either side of the pitch with the side lines being the end line and the 45.
Allow full rules at some point but you can modify to work on specific things, for example no hop/no solo, kick pass only, must kick pass after recieving a hand pass, 3 second rule (player can only retain possession for 3 seconds - brilliant for encouraging fast use of ball), can't pass backwards, must attempt a score after 4/5 passes or 7-10 seconds of possession, every player must touch the ball before a score can be attempted, points only, goals only, etc.

If your short numbers or want to encourage more tackling and breaking of tackles you can narrow or shorten the pitch. You'll need plenty of balls as you want to keep the game going but this simple game can cover all the bases in a real game-like situation. So if you have a panel of 24 set the game up on two parts of the field and play 2 6v6 games. Point scoring is one thing that coaches don't work on enough, so I set up an arc around each goal, outside of which you must attempt your score (size dependent on age/ability).

Pitch layout:


                                      end line                                                                         


x                                                                                                                              x

x                                                                                                                              x



                                                           45                                                           



These games are more suited to U14 upwards but would certainly be fine for u12's as well, though you might not use all the modified rules for U14's or lower. For example you wouldn't use the no hop/no solo game as you want them to practice this and you're not concerned with developing fitness too much, also the pitches would be smaller. And you would give them more time on the ball than 3 seconds. But small sided games are the best way to teach kids the skills, yes use some drills to develop technique but the kids will self-teach through games and will also learn decision making footwork, balance, agility etc. And of course only allow them to use their weaker foot and hand (often forgotten) for some portion of the games.

[cahill wicklow]

well people,

with all the advice and training i've been approached for to coach u-12's tooso all is going well.

my original u-16 team are now in there first county final already so all is going very well.

cheers people..  some graet advice out there from ya's

[Zulu]

Good stuff CW, congratulations and well done on being proactive in seeking advice and help with your coaching, too many fellas just repeat what they did themselves as players. If you're coaching the U12's make sure to spend plenty of time working on the weaker side, though this doesn't mean you have to spend 20 minutes of each session working onm the weak side. You will actually improve on the weak leg/arm/side by working the stronger leg/arm/side.

[Zulu]

Came across this today on youtube, it's a series of clips showing a number of different drills from a session in Ulster (I presume), I haven't gone through them all but some of the ones I have are pretty good and the coach explains why the players are doing the drills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfkJHXv3oLI&NR=1

[the Deel Rover]

Good stuff CW, congratulations and well done on being proactive in seeking advice and help with your coaching, too many fellas just repeat what they did themselves as players. If you're coaching the U12's make sure to spend plenty of time working on the weaker side, though this doesn't mean you have to spend 20 minutes of each session working onm the weak side. You will actually improve on the weak leg/arm/side by working the stronger leg/arm/side.

what age would you get Kids to start working on their weaker side Zulu ?

[Zulu]

As soon as you get them DR, there is a window between 6 and 8 yeras of age in which kids will pick up skills far more easily than at other times. IMO you should have the majority of the hard work with respect to the weaker side done by the time they are 12. But that doesn't mean you have to do 5 minutes with the right leg and 5 minutes on the left leg type of thing, if you're doing a 5min kicking drill for example, do 4min on the strong side and 1min on the weak. The way I look at it is you'll have as much time with the kids between 6 and 12 (6 years) as you will between 12 and 18 so I try to work on the fundamentals of teh game between 6 and 12, kicking, hand passing, soloing, bouncing, catching, tackling, agility, balance and movement (left and right side for all skills).