youth football (soccer) coaching: key objectives for 8 to
10 year olds
Key objective 1: getting used to a dynamic warm up
Dynamic (or functional stretching)is warming up the
muscles specifically for the movements that will be used
in the activities of the training session.
Each of the exercises below should be performed over a
15-20 yard area with a walking or jogging recovery.
Lunge Walk - loosens
up the hips. Lunge walk is when you take large steps
keeping the chest up, looking straight ahead and moving
the arms and legs together.
High Knees - for hip flexor and ankle strength.
Extend up to the toes and lift each thigh to a parallel
position with the ground as you move forward.
Calf Walk - for lower limb strength and Achilles
flexibility. Extend the ankle on each step will warm up
the calf muscles and Achilles tendons.
Sideways running - for lower limb strength, agility
and flexibility.
Backwards skipping - same as above and works on
strengthening quads and calf muscles.
some
more warm up activities
Key
objective 2: developing a good first touch
There are two key elements of good ball control:
a) The receiver's first touch should protect the ball from
challenging players and not give them a chance to regain
possession,
b) the receiving player should play the ball into
available space to allow for the next touch and to gain or
keep momentum.
A poor first-touch will risk taking the momentum out of
play and increase the possibility of losing possession.
Some players at this age make the mistake of killing the
ball dead and not concentrating on getting it out of their
feet. The first touch should ensure that a time wasting
second touch is not needed to get the ball out ready for
the next action.
read the rest of this article on footy4kids
Procedure: An area approximately 60X60 yards square
is used; four small goals are placed at each corner.
Goalkeepers do not play; each team defends two goals at one
end and attacks the other two at the far end. The players play
possession soccer and attempt to 'pull' the bulk of the
defenders over to defend one goal before switching the ball
suddenly towards the less well-guarded goal and trying to
score there.
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