By Jebreel Bubtana
As always, making fitness exercises fun and adding an element of competition will make your players psychologically more willing to work hard, which will help to develop their fitness. The exercise below will try to do that.
Set up and instructions:
Split your squad into two teams and set up the field as shown below in figure 1.
The first player in each line will now dribble in and out of the cones in the direction as shown by the arrows. When they reach the end cone they now attack towards the goal (figure 2).
The players can only shoot on goal when they are within 20 yards of the goal. The first player to shoot and score earns their team a point. As soon as a shot has been taken, the next players in line can go (figure 3). Ensure that the intensity is high throughout the exercise in order to work on their anaerobic conditioning.
You can use the following dribbling variations to test your player’s dribbling ability:
- Dribbling using both feet
- Dribbling using right foot only
- Dribbling using left foot only
- Dribbling using the sole of the foot only
- Dribbling using the inside of both feet
These variations will allow the players to use all of the different parts of the foot that they would use in the game. This will also test their ability to dribble using that part of the foot quickly and under pressure.
[wpsharely id="1886"][/wpsharely]After each player has been five times, give them a 30 second rest before going again with a different dribbling variation. In order to maintain a high intensity and work on your players conditioning, you could add a little incentive for the winning team, for example, giving the winning team a 2-goal head start in the scrimmage.
Coaching points:
- Small and quick touches in between the cones
- When past the last cone, the player can take larger touches to build up speed and attack towards goal
- Ensure that correct shooting technique is used
- Ensure that the player’s body is facing towards the goal when shooting in order to make sure that the shot is on target
- Head over the ball to make sure that the shot does not go over the bar
Jebreel Bubtana
Director of Marketing and U8 Programs at BRASA Brazilian Soccer Academy
NSCAA Advanced National Diploma
NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma
Follow me on Twitter @jib1989
