This was the penultimate session in the school year for the Manor Futsal Club, and yet another roasting hot night in the sports hall.

It was Coach Suzy’s second night of being assessed and the topic she coached was transition. After a warm up of noughts and crosses, in which cheating was rife, she moved onto some possession in 1v1s.  Players were changed to keep the ball off their partner for as long as possible.  She coached points of body shape, keeping away from the side of the court and using your body as a shield for the ball.

Click here to see some images from the latest futsal session at Manor CE Academy

The main session was based around recovery transition.  To start, one player attacked one goal to score, as soon as the ball went dead, another player from this goal attacked towards the opposite goal, with the original attacker now becoming a defender.  The process continues from end to end of the court.  The players had to be switched from being an attacker one second to a defender the next.  This was progressed onto 2v2 using three-quarters of the court.  All the players worked exceptionally hard, as can be seen from the sweat marks on the shirts in the photos, and the attitude was amazing.

We finished with a 4v4 game in which, to start with, two attackers and two defenders from each team were locked into their own half.  Players were challenged to get the ball into the opposition’s half as quickly as possible.  This was then progressed so the team in possession could overload the opposition by moving all 4 players into the opposition’s half.  Players had to be careful not to give the ball away cheaply, and if they did the 2 defenders had a sprint to recover back into their own half.  Again, really hard work with lots of transitions and very quick changes of play.

This is a very difficult topic to coach as it involves a lot of running and hard work, Coach Suzy did extremely well to keep the players motivated and a huge thank you to everyone for not giving up, especially in the ‘cooker’ of a sports hall!

Girls’ player of the week – Ruby – this was the best performance we have seen from Ruby in a long time.  She is one of the most gifted players we have ever coached and tonight she was simply brilliant!

Boys’ player of the week – Sam A – he has been away for a few sessions this half term but came back tonight and worked extremely hard throughout all the sessions, fantastic attitude and very well deserved.