“Keep your body between ball and opponent” • “Use touch to keep opponent at arms length” • “Keep the ball close to your body”
Set up an area made up of 3 x 3 yards squares. Split your players into pairs and put one pair in each square with a ball.
The challenge is for the player with the ball to keep control of it for 10 seconds, using good technique to shield the ball from the other player.
30 seconds is a good amount of time for players to keep the ball so they can use it when outnumbered and waiting for team mates. Please experiment with times if players are finding it too easy or too hard
Try to pair players up evenly – you don’t want to have the biggest player shielding the ball from the smallest member of the group.
I was out walking on the local golf course where I live this week and in the distance I saw a child running from what seemed miles away at top speed. As the child got closer I realised that it was someone dribbling a ball. Of course on the fairways it was like being at Wembley on a well cared for football pitch! It was great to see a child enjoying dribbling a ball, chipping over the bunkers and swerving around the patches of heather that catch out an unwary golfer. MORE
Turning with the ball has always been a skill that draws names from the great players through the ages – think of the Cruff turn or Zidane spin turn. It used to make me wonder how players like Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Zinedine Zidane or Johan Cruyff could turn their opponents inside out, game after game – I now know it needs practice and from a young age. MORE
