Objective: To improve passing accuracy, spatial awareness and fitness.
Age group: U6 upwards.
Number of players: Whole team.
Equipment: One ball per player
Set up: Use the penalty area of a normal sized pitch or mark out a 30×20 yard area with cones. All players are in the playing area. One has a ball. The rest of the balls are lined up just outside the playing area.
How to play: All players jog around inside the area.
The player with the ball is a ‘hunter’ and he attempts to hit one of the other players below the waist with a killer ball.
(Note: do not allow the hunter to aim above the other players’ waists. A firm side-foot pass is what you are looking for.)
If a player is hit, he collects a ball from the side of the playing area and becomes a hunter. The winner is the last player to get hit by a ball.
Key football coaching points:
- “Hunted” players are not allowed out of the penalty area.
- A player who is a hunter must retrieve his own ball if it goes out of the playing area.
- Hunters can pass to each other.
- Encourage accuracy not power.
- Encourage hunters to work as a team, to hunt in packs.
- Encourage thought processes and tactics.