animal ball

my thanks to FineSoccer.com for this heading, defending and shooting drill

Animal ball is a game that works on aggressiveness, winning balls in the air, passing,
defending and finishing. It can be done with as few as 8 players or as many as 18.

The field should be approximately 30 yards long and the width of the 18-yard box (44 yards wide). A full sized goal is on each end line with a keeper in each goal. There are two teams on the field. A server starts out wide and serves balls into the playing area in the air. Whichever team wins the ball tries to score by shooting into EITHER goal. This means you have two teams trying to win the ball in the air, and get a shot hit as quickly as possible. If the first team that wins the ball then loses it to the second team the second team then tries to score in either goal.

Animal ball works on winning the ball in the air (if a team doesn't like to win balls in the air you can put in a requirement that if the ball hits the ground from the initial serve without a player touching it first, it is a "dead ball" and a new ball gets served in it's place) and getting to goal quickly. While there is some passing in this game, it's more about the willingness to take a chance and shoot rather than passing the ball around till the perfect opportunity arises for a shot. This game is more about finishing than it is about shooting (when you work on shooting you frequently work on proper technique and placement of the plant foot etc but when you work on finishing it's frequently a case of being willing to put any part of the body on the ball to get it on goal).

First team to score 10 goals in Animal Ball wins the game.