The Girls’ Academy got back up and running after the Christmas break this week, and we welcomed a new girl.  Nicki, who is a pupil at Manor CE Academy and also plays for Copmanthorpe U13s, is someone we have been trying to get to join for quite a while and finally we succeeded!  She is a very brave and quick defender and we look forward to working with her over the coming weeks.

The theme for the night was defending under pressure or when outnumbered.  The main session started with one defender starting just in front of two attackers, all travelling towards the same goal.  The idea was to see how quick the defender could recover to a suitable position and how long she could delay the attackers.  We worked on body shape, position on the pitch and communication with the goalkeeper.

As a bit of fun we work on some quick finishing.  Six players with balls stood on the edge of a large rectangle.  The attacker stood in the middle and on the coaches’ instruction a ball was fed into the attacker, she could finish in either goal, but the moment she had taken her shot another ball was on the way.  In principle shooting a ball into an empty net seems easy, but when you are not sure where the next pass is coming from, it becomes much harder.

It was a great effort from everyone tonight, we worked the girls hard and they all showed great ability and perseverance, well done to all!