From: The Myers Family [myer@sgi.net]
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 9:09 AM
To: board@pleasanthillssoccer.org
Subject: First Winter Indoor Session for the Under 8s
Pleasant Hills Soccer Association
Winter Session 1, January 7 - 13, 2003

`Dribbling Introduction (Under 8)`

Suggested Winter session for week 1 of the Under 8s. The theme of the Winter session is dribbling and shooting as described in the introduction. As with all the Winter sessions, we will begin with the introductory dribbling skills associated with this session. Since this is our first session indoors, there will be relatively modest expectations.

`Warm-up: Introductory Dribbling Session With "Ready-Get Set-Burst`

Go over each of the dribbling skills with the players having their own ball.

After a brief introduction, set up two concentric circles using cones. The small inner circle should hod all the players with their ball in a somewhat confined area. The larger outer circle should be about 5 to 8 yards from the border of the inner.

Start with all the players dribbling within the smaller inner circle. Upon the coach's command "Ready-Get Set-Burst" the players are to quickly dribble to the outer circle and stop with the ball under control. From the outer circle, the coach again commands "Ready-Get Set-Burst" and the players dribble with speed into the inner circle.

challenge the players to move quickly and stop immediately in the circles with the ball under control,
change the run to start in the inner circle, burst to the outer circle, and back into the inner circle,
change the run to go out, back, and out again,
finish with an out, back, out, and back again.

This game may be found in "The Baffled Parent's Guide TO Great Soccer Drills" by Tom Fleck and Ron Quinn.

`Cone Safe`

Distribute a number of cones throughout the playing area. Place enough cones so every player will have a cone. Have the players dribble around within the space, weaving in and out of cones. Upon the coach's command "cone safe" each player is to go to a cone with their ball under control and touching the edge of the cone.

after several sessions, restrict the it so only one person is allowed on a cone at once. Again, play several sessions.
remove enough cones from the area so at least two players will not have a cone to go. After the "cone safe" command, and knowing that only one person is allowed at a cone at once, there will be players without a cone to touch with their ball. Have these players do something silly or funny as a kind of punishment.
remove some more cones and do the same as the above,
continue removing cones until all but one cone is left. The last person is declared the winner.

`North-South-East-West`

This progression of North-South-East-West is met to move the players toward playing team regular two goal soccer.

Divide the players into two teams and place all the players into a rectangular area. The coach and possibly an assistance coach will have a set of ball near him/her for distribution and service into the playing area.

The object of the game is for the team to attempt to dribble the ball under control to the specified side line of the rectangular area. In order to distinguish the side lines, you may refer to them as North, South, East, or West. However, I usually place a different color playing vest at each side line and refer to it by its color.

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

o o o o
Coach o o

First allow the teams to dribble the ball to any side line. If the ball is not dribbled across a line under control, no point is given. If the ball is just kick out of bounds, the coach immediately serve another ball into the playing area. Keep track of points scored with each team and continue serving balls into the playing area to various locations to encourage the players to spread out. You may alternate between coaches service when there are more than one coach on the side lines with balls.
Next identify a particular side line as you serve the ball into the area. This requires the players to look up and determine the direction they must go and dribble in that direction toward the side line with support.
Now require the players of one team to dribble to one of two side lines and the other team to dribble to the other remaining side lines in order to score.
Finally, specify one team to dribble to one particular side line while the other team must dribble to other opposite side line. Effectively, we now have a game of Line Soccer with coach's service of the ball.

`Game: Regular Two Goal Soccer Game`

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

Warn Down: Homework Dribbling

Review the inside top roll and magic hop and encourage them to practice this at home.