We welcomed yet another new player to the younger group, welcome Molly!  After a break for Easter, we were not sure what state of mind the players would come back in, but we need not have worried, they were ready to go again!

With the younger group we did 1v1s across the whole court, keeping the ball off their opponent, whilst avoiding the other pairs.  We then threw Katie and Kim in to try to pinch the ball off anyone.  If they did, then the pair who had lost the ball, worked together to get it back as quick as possible.  Finally we added the goals so either player, when in possession, could score in at either end of the court.  From the photographs you can see this group gave everything and we had several ‘dead’ bodies on the court!

Click here to download a copy of this week’s session plan for the Younger Group

We moved onto a full court game, in which when you scored, the goalscorer had to grab a bib from one side of the court and put on the other side of the court before they were back in play!  Claire was on fire and grabbed a very quick hat-trick with some fantastic shooting.

We started the older group on some 6 player unopposed keep ball over the full court.  We were working on them moving after each pass.  The court was divided into 4 quarters and we asked each team to make sure they had at least one player in each quarter at all times.  We limited them to a maximum of 3 touches and when they were comfortable, we added another ball for each team.  This then progressed onto a 6v6 keep ball session over the whole court.  We worked with the players to open up their bodies and try to play away from the majority of the opposition.  There was some great little passing movements and great work from the players moving off the ball.

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

We had a small shooting session afterwards in which the players shot first time at Coach Chris in goal.  If he managed to save it, he was allowed to shoot first time at the goal at the other end of the court while the players tried to recover back.  This was used to teach the players to make sure they either scored or stopped the goalkeeper from starting a quick counter attack.  Top shots from Drew, Lily, Beth and Niamh – Coach Chris didn’t stand a chance!

Click here to download a copy of this week’s session plan for the Older Group

The older group finished with a full court game, with every minute one of the players swapped with a substitute.  We want them to get used to giving it everything and then having a rest before coming back on the court.  There was some great one and two touch play on the court tonight, the players really stepped it up.

Well, that was an amazing night, every single player gave 100%, superb effort.  This is why we chose to be futsal coaches, especially when you work with a group of players like this!  Huge thank you to each and every one of them!

Player of the week for the Younger Group was Molly.  She was new this week, but it didn’t stop her from getting stuck in and really showing what a good player she is.  She really did give it 100% tonight and we can’t wait to see how she improves over the coming weeks.  Great start Molly!

Player of the week for the Older Group was Robyn.  She is a very good footballer with loads of ability, and over the last few weeks has started to adapt her techniques to futsal.  We have high hopes for Robyn and can’t wait to see how she does in a futsal environment.  Well done Robyn, keep it up!