Dribbling Introduction (Under 9 and up)

Warmup: Introductory Dribbling Session With Phone Booth Tag

After a brief introduction, set up enough small squares using cones so that at least three players cannot pair up with a square. These squares are just large enough to hold two standing players side by side with their soccer ball at their feet. These squares represent phone booths and each phone booth can only hold two players at once.

Start the game of tag with two players in each of the phone booths. The rest of the players are outside the phone booth in free space.  This free space may be restricted within a rectangular boundary.  Every player has a ball at feet.  Select one player to be "it". This player will start with their soccer ball in hand.  The object of the game is for the "it" player to tag one of the players in free space with his/her soccer ball in hand.  Once the tag is made on another player, this player becomes "it".  The players can only move around the space with their soccer ball at their feet.

What makes the game interesting is each one of the phone booths is safe and can only hold two players. Also, any free player may enter any phone booth along with their ball.  Once this player enters a phone booth, they are safe, and one of the other two players must leave the phone booth into the unsafe free space.

Since we are concentrating on certain specific dribbling skills, you may decide to restrict the movement around in the free space to one of these moves.  For example, dribbling in free space is done using top rolls only.  This game may be found in "The Baffled Parent's Guide TO Great Soccer Drills" by Tom Fleck and Ron Quinn.
 
 

Shooting the Gap With Gates (Multi-Goal)

• have the player visit as many gates as possible by dribbling through,
• restrict the dribbling to top rolls only during a fixed time limit,
• repeat the above and challenge them to do better,
• relax the dribbling restriction by allowing the players to shoot the gap between the cones after top rolls around in free space,
• remove the cones and have the players "shoot the gap" between players in open space instead of cones,

Crows and Cranes Progressed to Team Breakaway

Have the players pair up (with a friend). In the pairs, one player will be red and the other will be blue.  All red players will eventually form a team as well as the blue players.

Line all red players up facing their corresponding blue player. Each player, both red and blue will have a ball at their feet.  There should be a fixed distance between the red and blue players.

   ________________________________________________
   |                                              |
   |                                              |
   |     Y         Y        Y         Y           |
   |     o         o        o         o           |
   |                                              |
   |                                              |
   |     o         o        o         o           |
   |     X         X        X         X           |
   |                                              |
   |                                              |
   |______________________________________________|

The coach will randomly call out either red or blue (crows or crane). Lets say red is call first.  Upon calling red, the red player is to draw or turn with their ball toward the side line at their back.  In the mean time, the blue players are to ignore their ball and attempt to tag the red player before they cross the sideline with their ball.

Change the game to enable the players to dribble randomly within a restrictive area in the middle of the space.  Place goals at each of the corners. Again the coach calls out a color and that colored player attempts to dribble to any of the goals before the corresponding player of the other color tags the player. Again, the players of the color not called will leave or ignore their ball.

• instead of going to any goal, restrict the red team to two of the four goals and the blue team to the other two,
• replace the four goals with just two goals, one on each end line, and restrict to the red team to one goal and the blue team to the other,
• at any time in the above, change it so instead of tagging the player with the ball, they are to attempt to steal the ball before the player reaches the goal,
• change the rules so that any member of the team without the ball may prevent the other teams from going to goal,

Game: Regular Two Goal Soccer Game

 
         ___________________________________________
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |    Y                                      |
        |                                           |
        |                       Y                   |
       _|      X                               Y    |_
      | |                                           | |
      | |                                           | |
      | |    Yo         X                           | |
      |_|                                           |_|
        |                                           |
        |                                           |
        |                                      X    |
        |                                           |
        |               X          Y                |
        |___________________________________________|
 
 

Warn Down: Homework Dribbling

Review the inside top roll, shooting the gap, and inside top roll to inside chop.  Challenge them to work on getting their age in juggling touches in the air before the end of the Winter session.