Cops and robbers
This simple and fun game encourages your players to work as a team and develop their core soccer skills.

Objective:

To improve passing, defending and shooting skills.

Skill level:

Beginner.

Set up:

For a squad of 12 beginners, create a circular playing area about 20 yards across. Make it smaller for fewer or more skilful players.

Place a small goal (ideally with a net) in the middle of the circle. Split your squad into two groups with a ratio of three to one. If you have 12 players, for example, you should now have one team of nine and one of three.

How to play:

The team with the fewer players (the cops) defend the goal from the larger group (the robbers). When the robbers win the ball, they try to score in the goal. If they succeed, the player who scored joins the cops.

Who wins?:

The robbers win the game if they all become cops within a set time, say five minutes. The cops win if they can score a set number of goals in the same time.

A foolproof plan for your first coaching session
This session plan is designed for coaches setting up a new team between the U6 to U9 age groups and meeting the players and their parents for the first time. The objectives of the session are to provide a fun and engaging introduction to soccer to the children, and to encourage parents to sign their children up for your new team.

I am assuming the session will last about 60 minutes and will be held outdoors. I also assume you will not be choosing your players according to their ability. There will be an article on how to hold try-outs (trials) in a future edition of this newsletter.

Communication

The groundwork for a successful first session is laid several days before you meet the players. Parents need to receive information about the session at least a week before it takes place.

Make sure the parents know:

Where the session will take place.
The start and finish time.
What the children need to wear (boots, if the grass is likely to be wet, and shinpads).
That their children need to bring a drink.
What you will do if the weather is bad (provide your cell phone number).
Provide a consent form that they complete and bring with them.
You can download a customised consent form from footy4kids.co.uk

Be prepared

Make sure you have at least one ball for every player and enough cones to set out several small training areas. You will also need training bibs in four different colours and some portable goals (or poles/traffic cones). Ensure you have enough help on the day. Aim for a ratio of one coach to every eight players.

On the 'big day'

Get to the training ground early and set out several playing areas. You need one 20 yards by 25 yards area for every six players you are expecting.

As the players and their parents turn up, introduce yourself, ask them their names and offer the children a ball to play with while they wait for everyone to arrive.

When everyone has arrived, ask the children to put the balls back in the ball bags and get them together so you can introduce yourself and thank them for coming. Tell them what they are going to do (have fun), how long the session will last and (most important) where the toilets are.

The session

1. The warm up
Explain why players need to warm up before training sessions (to get their bodies and minds ready to play soccer). Then move the children to one of the playing areas. Demonstrate how you can move around the area with a ball - walking, jogging and turning - and ask the children to copy you. If possible, they should try to touch the ball with every step they take.

Then play Anatomy dribbling - it's a great ice breaker and parents love it!

Finally, ask the children to move around the area with a ball and then, on your command, get into groups of 2, 6, 9, 7 etc. Finish on a number that gives you four groups and tell the players they are now in their teams for the next game.

2. Let's all steal the ball!
Put all your balls in the middle of the same playing area. Place the groups at the four corners of the area. When you say 'go', one player from each group runs to the middle of the area, collects a ball and takes it back to their corner. Then the next player goes.

Repeat until there are no balls left in the middle. The winning team is the one with the most balls in their corner. Very young players can carry the ball. Older players can dribble with it.

After a couple of rounds, tell your players they have 30 seconds to steal balls from the other teams' corners. Again, the winning team is the one that ends up with the most balls.

3. Drinks break
You can relax too - it's going really well.

4. Now it's time for a dribbling race
Using the same playing area, your teams stand next to a cone on one of the touch lines facing a cone on the opposite line. Use one ball per team.

The first player in each team dribbles their ball around the opposite cone and runs back with it until they get within passing range of the second player in line. Note: With six-year-olds, this might be three yards. With eight-year-olds, it could be 10 yards or more.

As soon as they are within range, the ball carrier passes to the next player, and they run around the far cone. The first team to complete the race is the winner.

5. Play soccer
Hopefully, you already have four teams of three or four players. If not, you will have to split the children until the team size is four or less.

Now all you have to do is put goals at the end of each playing area. Give different coloured bibs to the teams and let them do what they came to do - play soccer! Don't even try to coach during these games. Applaud everything and let the children enjoy themselves.

6. Cool down
Take the children for a slow jog around one of the playing areas, shaking your arms and legs as you go. Chat with them while you're doing it. Tell them how well they've done!

7. Session review
At the end of the session, gather everyone together and review your objectives.

Did the children have fun? Of course they did.
Will they sign up for your team? I'm sure they will.
All you now have to do is hand out sign up forms to all the parents and look forward to seeing them again next week. Job done!

Work together to score
This simple game allows your players to improve their teamwork in attack and tackling in defense.

Objective:

To improve combination play, passing, receiving, decision making and tackling.

Skill level:

Any.

Number of players:

The whole squad.

Set up:

Create a 20 yards by 10 yards playing area for every three players in your squad. Have a cone goal at one end. Two players (an attacker and a defender) start near the goal. The third player (another attacker) is placed at the other end of the playing area.

How to play:

A ball is passed to the attacker opposite the goal. He dribbles the ball towards the goal and works with the other attacker to get past the defender to score. The defender scores if he can win the ball and kick it out of the playing area. A ball that ends up out of bounds leads to a restart of your choice.

Play the first to five points and then switch roles.

Progression:

Limit the attackers to two or three touches of the ball.
Increase the player numbers by trying 3 v 2 or 4 v 2.
Coaching points:

Do not interfere with your players' decision making processes while play is going on. Discuss the learning points when the game is over. To begin with, let them get used to looking up to find a target player.