Theme: Introduction to basic body and manipulative control
Physical Literacy: Collision Avoidance, Object Manipulation – Feet

pdf of Session #11: U5-U8 Player Development Sessions #11

Warm-up : Learning To Dribble Game (10 min)
Purpose: To get players smiling ☺ , sweating and to introduce dribbling with different parts of the feet.

– Everyone with a ball and is inside half of the field with a ball in a small area.
– Finally, have players focus on using all the available space to dribble their ball so that collisions are avoided.

??? Ask the players to tell you the parts of the foot that can be used to dribble the ball.

Galloping With The Ball
– Have the players Gallop around the area without a ball.

– The then players assume a stance behind the ball with one foot forward and one foot back.
– They rock/skip back and forth from front foot to back foot without touching the ball.
– They then begin to move around their area while touching the ball as they gallop forward with the inside and outside of the front foot.
– It is important that they touch the ball every time they place their front foot on the ground.
– Ask the player to make the ball move from side to side by getting their foot around either side of the ball.

Squirrels and Nuts Game (10 min)
Purpose: Soccer-specific body/ball management including dribbling.

– Divide players (the squirrels) into four equal groups (using colored vests or by the colors of their shorts or socks or hats, no hats).
– Each group is to stand in one corner of half a soccer field (the nest).
– Soccer balls (the nuts) are placed in the middle of the area.
– On the coach’s command squirrels scamper around the area.
– When coach calls, “Feeding time!” squirrels try to collect all nuts and bring them back to their nest (by dribbling one ball at a time).
– Squirrels can also steal nuts from other nests but are not allowed to stop other squirrels from taking the nuts.

Break The Line Dribblers (3 min)
Purpose: To practice dribbling and introduce the phrase ‘break the line’.

– Coach has the players dribbling within an area.
– When the coach says ‘Break the Line Dribblers’ the players attempt to dribble through as many gates as possible breaking the imaginary line between the two cones.
– At the end of 30 seconds the coach says ‘Slow Down’ and the players as they dribble shout out how imaginary lines they were able to break.

Scrimmage (30 min)