Another week and another group of keen girls!  Coach Chris was fighting a heavy cold but in his own words, ‘I had to come, I can’t let the players down.’

We started the first hour with more on keeping the ball in play, not letting it go out of the court.  The girls have really taken this on board and we got to see plenty of drag backs and bottom of the foot control when they were really close to the line.

We then played 2 games across the court, one 3v3 and one 4v4 in which the players were challenged to have no more than 3 touches each.  This is always a debated subject at a young age,  but we can see advantages to the players development if it is done in the right way.  There are no free kicks if they take 4 to 5 touches, we are just trying to get them to think what they could have done different.  The games provided some well worked goals with a couple of excellent toe-poke finishes.

Click here to see some images from this week’s sessions

The second hour started with another couple of passing sessions.  This involved overlaps, second post runs, set backs and one touch finishes.  The girls did really well, and over time they will learn to time their runs to meet the ball at pace.

The main part of the session was playing the ball into a high player, who had their back to goal.  This player then set the ball for a support player to score first time.  We worked with the players getting the ball forward, with pace and accuracy as quick as possible to the high player.  We then emphasised the support play towards this player needed to be quick and in different directions, or the high player got isolated.  There was some really good quick and decisive play, with a couple of brilliantly worked goals.

A huge thank you to the parents for sorting out all the paperwork, payment and online app for all the girls, it really does make our lives so much easier!

Player of the week for the First Hour was Amelia B.  She has really improved from last season, especially in her tackling and winning the ball back.  Keep up the good work Amelia!  

Player of the week for the Second Hour was Ruby W.  This is one seriously talented girl, she has all the attributes to go a long way in both football and futsal.  We love being part of her development and can’t wait to see how her future develops!