With a number of the girls off ill or involved in school activities we had a very select few at training on Monday night!  The weather was absolutely freezing, even though the sun was shinning.  A nice surprise was Chloe J coming to watch, and her not using crutches was a really good sign!

We started with an Arsenal first team reaction drill that has been all over the internet.  Needless to say the competitive nature of the girls came out and nobody wanted to lose.  Denva came out on top as overall best, we think Alexia is still wondering what went on…

First drill was  dribbling through a random set of cones and then a shot at Nicky in goal.  We got the girls to reduce the dribbling pace at first and concentrate on not hitting any cones, before making sure they shot as soon as they were clear.  We keep using the words ‘match craft’ or ‘game related’ in sessions now i.e. what would happen in a situation if this was a match?  In this practice we asked what would happen if you took a long time to take your shot once clear of the cones?  To speed them up we added a defender and gave the girls the choice of either shooting or beating the defender.

Click here to see some photos from the session.

After a drinks break we set up two sets of identical cones in an offset pattern. Through one set a player ran with the ball and tried to score, the other set a defender ran without the ball to stop a goal being scored.  We worked with the attacker to go at pace and drive towards the goal as soon as they could, creating the half a yard of space to get their shot away.  We also worked with the defender to cover the ground quickly and recover to slow the attacker down, good body shape and sending the attacker away from goal.  It was a hard exercise with not many players but everyone did really well and definitely gave 100%.

Special mention goes to Nicky in goal who made some fantastic saves, it’s not easy being a goalkeeper on a sand based astro.