Arlington Soccer Association for Arlington and Falls Church, Virginia Youth Soccer
ASA Coaching Clinic U10-U12 E-Mail Handout March 27. 2004 General Guidelines
U10-U12 activity rationale: This age group has become much more sophisticated than the under-6 and under-8 players. Their cardio-vascular systems are more mature and they begin pacing themselves rather than going 100% until they are overheated. Despite players’ physical and technical advances at this age group, practices should still use individual techniques at least as part of the warm-up. (Even the pros do individual skills at practices.) Small-sided games/drills should make up the bulk of the practices, since these challenge players with time and space constraints, and players get plenty of touches on the ball. List of activities: · Instruction-free game of possession. Coaches can learn a lot by giving the players a few pinneys, some cones, and letting them set up their own small-sided scrimmage for the beginning of practice. · Individual footskills in a 20x30 rectangular grid. May include stepovers, pullbacks, inside-of-the-foot or outside-of-the-foot “chops,” and other moves. · Knockout. Within the grid, every player dribbles but tries to knock other players’ balls outside the grid. When players’ balls are knocked out, they can juggle three to five times to get back in. Note: Make sure players are not eliminated from games permanently. It’s usually the least technically competent players that get eliminated first—and they are the ones who need the most work. · 1 v. 1 in a box with three cones as goals. Set up 10x10 grids, with 4 cones, sufficient for the players to pair up and each pair to have a grid. Players should pair up. Each pair has one ball. Players stand by cones diagonal from each other. The player with the ball passes the ball to the other player and becomes the defender. The player receiving the ball, touches the ball to the direction s/he intends to go (or to deceive the defender) and attempts to dribble to any of the other three cones (not the cone from which s/he began). The player with the ball can use any and as many moves as s/he wants and change direction as often as s/he wants. S/He scores by reaching one of the cones. Once the player scores or is dispossessed, the players switch roles. This activity refines first touch, dribbling, 1v1 ability and confidence with the ball, which are foundations of the game and critical to continued success in the game. · Sequence passing. Groups of four or five, one ball per group. Players number off within groups. 1 passes to 2; 2 passes to 3; 3 passes to 4; 4 passes back to one. All players are moving constantly. After each pass, the player must move into space away from the ball. Once the groups get into a rhythm, coach can add “spies”, or extra players who try to mess up teams’ sequence passing. · 2 v. 1 and 2 v. 2 in a 15 x 25 grid. Players must stop the ball on the endline of the opposite team to score. · 2 v. 1 buildup. Divide team into two groups…one group of defenders next to one of the big goal posts, the other group of players are attackers, standing 30 yards out from the goal. Attackers start play with two players moving the ball downfield; one defender comes out at the beginning. This is 2 v. 1. When the attackers pass the ball, another defender pops off the post and another attacker joins play. The numbers are now 3 v. 2. With each pass come extra players; the numbers build up until all players are on the field or until the ball goes out of bounds, in which case the play starts out again at 2 v. 1. Coach can add two small counter-attack goals for the defenders. · Scrimmage. If the coach has worked on passing for the bulk of practice, maybe he can add a condition to the scrimmage that allows players to receive points for a certain number of passes in addition to scoring goals. Additional Resources
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