This week we celebrated the FA Girls’ Football Week with an hour of girls only coaching.  In years gone by we have had some new girls come and try the club, unfortunately this year we had no-one new!

We worked on the same ideas in both the boys and girls sessions, concentrating on getting the players to work on the small movements they need to make to find space on the court.  We got them playing 2v1 in half a court.  The coaches demonstrated to the players how little space you needed to pass the ball between two players.  We set up a little idea with 2 cones and played a game of follow my leader.  This really showed to everyone how little movement you needed to make to make someone go the wrong way!

Click here to see some images from tonight’s session

The main session involved players wearing and hold a bib.  When in possession, after they completed a successful pass, they dropped their bib.  When ever member of your team had dropped their bib, you got a point.  If you lost possession, before you could tackle, you had to recover and pick up a bib.  We limited the boys to 3 touches, as today, they wanted to dribble all the time in every part of the court.  The girls did very well and worked out very quickly, get the passes in quickly, don’t wait for the opposition to get set.

We progressed this to using the goals.  After 3 passes you could go and try to score, with a 1 touch finish in the D.  We emphasised to the players to be quick with their transitions, and not let the opposition recover and pick up their bibs.  It is a hard session as there are lots to think about, it went OK, but definitely something we will revisit at a later date.

Click here to download a copy of this week’s session plan

The videos below show the girls and boys passing moves from one end of the court to other, dropping their bibs after a successful pass and the defenders recovering to pick up their bibs.

We have to be honest, it wasn’t the best session and the commitment from the boys was very poor tonight.  It is interesting to watch players have to deal with a mental task as well as a physical one, simply put, some of the boys struggled tonight with this.  The girls did well, and worked hard all session, great to see them develop.

Girls’ player of the week – Phoebe – Since ‘Bob’ came back to playing futsal, she has really improved.  Her control and passing are getting better each week!  Great start to the new half term, well done Bob!

Boys’ player of the week – Owen – In the Manor Futsal Cup and the sessions we have done since the start of the school year, Owen has been one of the stand out players.  He has realised that futsal is a passing and moving game, two skills he is beginning to master.  Fantastic play Owen, well done!