Drills and Planning 

Now that I have given you something to think about and you're starting to understand how important planning is, I want to try make it a little easier. Although you need to be well planned, most of you probably have jobs and not a lot of time to plan drills. So, I am just going to discuss a few simple examples to get you guys started, and once you know your individuals and what needs to be worked on you will be a pro at modifying and extended your drills and ideas. If I am being honest, some of my best drills, I have completely made up by dribbling on scrap paper. It's not hard, but a key feature is ensuring there is a direct purpose of what you are going to teach in a drill and how long you will do it for. 

Passing is super important to soccer and you should try to focus on it for at least ten minutes every session. A simple yet effective drill is to have a circle or rectangle like above, keeping the ball off of one or two defenders in the middle. Instead of setting up a boring passing drill in a square, this will  increase the tempo and is beneficial for game day. To spice this up you can add more players in the middle, use a one touch pass rule and keep score of how many passes they can make which will always entice them. I know from personal experience that this will have the kids jumping with excitement while improving their essential passing skills. 

Number soccer is a great small sided game to improve your team and once you've got the basics down, you will easily be able to modify and come up with your own ideas. As shown in the above diagram, split your players into two even teams and number off each player per team. Ensure there is a matching number from team to team and no lonely numbers. Take turns in calling out the numbers and the kids will play one against one or you can do twos, threes or even all in at a time. Make a passing limit for when there is more than one player, encouraging passing and then sit back and let the games begin. A small game like this will basically run itself and all you need to do is call out the numbers. Oh, and maybe a little bit of coaching! Be here or fear missing out next week when I coach you all through your impacts.