First Soccer Practice Of The Year

Tonight was our first practice of the year. We have 25 players on the 2 teams (U12 coed and U12 girls) and 23 of them were present tonight. The only 2 missing were my own kids (who are with their mom tonight).

We started with a warm up, 1 lap dribbling followed by 1 lap jogging.

Next we did some more dribbling warm ups, right foot, both feet, left foot, inside of feet, outside of feet, etc. Dribbling across the field, when I blew the whistle they had to stop and touch the ball with their knee, then both knees, then knee-knee-head, then knee-knee-head-chest, then knee-knee-head-chest-butt.

After that we did some juggling, we are working on our OYSAN Skills Award patches this season. There are some video examples on youtube. Of the 23 players, 13 made the first goal tonight, 6 1-touch kick & catch.

Next was dribbling at a standing defender (coach or a cone) and making a move to go around it.

Then we worked on passing, with an assistant coach we had 6 groups of 4 and we played 3 v 1 keep away. We kept rotating and did this for about 10 minutes.

We then did one more fitness activity, "Recovery Runs" where we jog out in a straight line until I blow the whistle and then turn around and sprint back (as if the ball was stolen from us and we have to get back on defense).

Finally, we played "Full Field Keep Away" with 2 teams (orange and blue). Each team got a point for 5 consecutive passes. They also could earn 2 points by passing from their own half to a goalkeeper in the opposite half. This was too complicated for our first practice, as nobody completed a pass to the opposite keeper.