Theme: Introduction to space
Physical Literacy: Collision Avoidance, Object Manipulation – Feet

pdf of Session #5:  U5-U8 Player Development Sessions #5

Looking for Space Game : Through the Curtains (10 min)
Purpose: To help players look for and recognize useful space in soccer.

– Players travel around inside an 20×20 metre area.
– As the players travel around they should be looking at the general space carefully.
– What they are looking for are big pockets or areas of space where no one else’s.
– As soon as they see an open space they should sprint into it.
– They sprint into it because everyone else is looking for space and it may become a race for whoever sees it first.
– After sprinting into an open space keep jogging around the area looking for other areas to open up and sprint into them.
– Progress to each player having a ball and dribbling.
– As they dribble around, they look for space and when they see it, they should accelerate with their ball into it, then stop their ball and begin dribbling at normal speed again.

Paint the Grass (10 min)
Purpose: To develop dribbling and changes of direction.

– Mark out several 10 X 10 metre fields.
– One pair practices with one ball on each field.
– Players imagine the ball as a paintbrush and they have 30 seconds to “paint” as much of the field as they can by passing the ball around the area.

Variation:
– A single player can dribble inside of an area pretending to do the same… likewise; a single player on ball can be within a large area with other players and pretend that they must paint all of the grass their colour while others are using their colours.

Clean Up Your Yard (8 min)
Purpose: To practice kicking, throwing and working together with other players.

– Using cones place a center line in the middle of your field, separating it into two halves.
– Put half of the players plus coaches/parents on one side of the field.
– Every player / participant begins with a ball.
– When the coach says “Clean Up Your Yard”, players will pass the balls on their side of the field to the other side of the field thus cleaning up their yard while messing up their neighbours’ yard.
– Players should be encouraged to keep the passes on the ground.

Variation:
– Bring full sheets of paper and provide the players with two pieces of paper each (or bring socks in balls etc) and have the players create balls from the paper.
– The players will throw underhand or overhand (always being aware and cautious not to throw at someone on the other side) to clear their yard.

Scrimmage (30 min)