Training Review (16/09/2020) 

SESSION FOCUS - Reaction In & Out Possession 

Working on reaction times to game related situations both in and out of possession and how these help the team.

Great session Wednesday night with some excellent moments coming out from it. Doesn't always have to be about football...ask the children about the ants and geese, see what they say.

Box2Line is just a warm up created to get ball rolling time on arrival and slowly upping the tempo ready for training. The players dribbled around the box doing what they want, on the clap/key word they sprinted to the line and back to start the process again. 

The children absolutely love King of The Ring and I like dropping it in there now and again. It is great to see their competitiveness come out and it allows me to see where they are in their development in dribbling, space awareness and ABC movements.

MIDDLE ACTIVITY - Match 

Selecting teams in a way to allow 'stressed situations' on the pitch, enables the players opportunities to take on board the information I am giving them and put this into practice in game related scenarios.

• Out of Possession (Yellow Team): 
  Working together in pairs to gain possession and to stay compact (central) when doing this.
• In Possession (Purple Team):
  Keep the ball by exploiting the space wide whilst communicating and moving to assist teammates but ensuring we keep shape (positions)

Result 1-1 Draw

Most of the yellow team have cracked this 'drill' over the three games played (drawing two and winning one) and really where most of these players are, compared to the purple team, they shouldn't be anyway near them in these matches. Of course I have moved a few players around, but our strongest 4-5 have stayed the same and most are really struggling to understand that you just can't dribble anymore, we need to pass and they need to create space to receive.

I was speaking to them all during drink breaks, asking leading question etc and they know the answers. It is just getting them to see these pictures in the game to enable them to get the rewards they want.

However, one player has stood out and he is really understanding this format by creating angles, talking and sometimes 'starting again' ensuring the team keeps possession.

I am likely to select similar teams for this weekend's cup fixture against Frampton as it will be a test for both teams coming up against different players not known to them.

END ACTIVITY - Knock Out Penalties

Always good to practice these, as it is a pressure for players within games when taking them. By making it fun and having a reward, the children forget about the pressure...so, hopefully this transfers into games because of the repetition in training.

Phoenix won the last two and was rewarded with x2 Haribo and we will have a final with the last three players at the start of the next session to decide the winner for this week. 

SPECIAL MENTIONS

• Charlie Rush - Absolutely brilliant, breaking up play against some very talented boys and getting his first touch and head up.
• Eley-Mae Haines - Pulled off some big saves both in the match and penalty shootout. Improving every week. 
• Alfie Simmonds - Really reading the game well at the moment, worked very hard and communicated well.

#purplearmy #developingfootballers