Pre-season fitness and warm-up routines can be very demanding on young players, so amongst all the hard work it’s important to remember to add some elements of fun into your sessions. A bit of fun can transform the attitude of your players when they turn up for pre-season – it can make the difference between them just coasting and really putting the effort in.
For younger age groups, fun games are an ideal way of getting players to repeat techniques and skills that will be needed when they start playing matches. My two favourite at Under 7 and Under 8 are Star Gates, which gets teams working on passing and forward play with first touch and possession skills to the fore, and Bumper Cars, which covers dribbling the ball and running with it while keeping it under control.
Another excellent source of games for pre-season can be found in the EasiCoach Curriculum sessions for different age groups. Games like Dribble the ball 5 yards and turn are great fun and help develop your players as they get ready to start the season.
For the older age groups, I play games like Shrinking goal, which creates equality between teams no matter who you pick on each side. It is a game that focuses on skill and accuracy, which is vital for pre-season.
Finally one of the games that professional teams use with their players to get their skills up to speed is Soccer Tennis. I love this game and so do my players, we play it long after the training session is over because it is such fun and it develops skills, so it’s a win-win situation!
This is a great game since it provides a natural handicap that makes even the most unequal of teams (in terms of player skill) equal. So let your players choose their own teams, if necessary, and enjoy the game’s effect! MORE
Get those soccer brains ticking over with this great game that covers dribbling, running with the ball, accurate passing, changeovers, first touch into space. MORE
In this game when you say “go”, each dribbler aims to dribble his ball from the big square into one of the smaller squares. The three middle players must try to win the balls from the dribblers. MORE
A soccer tennis drill is an excellent way of developing juggling skills and first-touch for your young players - and the big bonus is that it’s great fun to play as well. MORE
We had a meeting this week at my club, where we were discussing the changes we face in a few months time. My U10s team goes from 7v7 into 9v9 and that means we are facing offside decisions. So how does a coach go about preparing for that? MORE
As coaches we are all obsessed with keeping possession of the ball... of course we are the best teams all do it and if you've got the ball the opposition can't score. And there is just that other coach called Pep Guardiola who swears by it... MORE
Fast is a word I like to use when my teams are attacking. Do it with speed and watch the opposition shrink away from it. It makes life difficult for your opponents and helps your team to dominate when in possession of the ball. MORE
The season has suddenly taken off again after 4 months of Coronavirus lockdown. I've been coaching for 14 hours for the last two weeks in an attempt to get the players back into some kind of shape for playing matches. It has its benefits but also it has a downside. Two of my players picked up injuries, one an ankle injury and the other had what he called "tired legs". Find out how we got on... MORE
