Coaching Footy Coaching U/13s
- Thread starter jake17
- Start date
- Tagged users None
coaches often tend to do a lot of drills which involve nothing but skill and running. while it is important to have drills for players to develop their skills and think about it carefully, football is played against an opposition so players will be put under pressure. putting them under pressure not only helps their skills develop, but also develops their game sense and decision making. one of my favourite ones is the classic 3 vs. 2 handball drill. heres a poor diagram:
0---0---0
----------
--X---X--
----------
0---0---0
with 0 being players behind cones and X being defenders. a group of 3 players will have to simply work the ball by hand past the defenders and give it to the next group, who will do the same. remember to swap defenders every so often as they will get tired. you can extend the cones out and make it a 3 vs. 2 with kicking/marking included.
try to avoid just having a practice match though, as the best players usually dominate and it doesn't develop your entire team as a whole.
0---0---0
----------
--X---X--
----------
0---0---0
with 0 being players behind cones and X being defenders. a group of 3 players will have to simply work the ball by hand past the defenders and give it to the next group, who will do the same. remember to swap defenders every so often as they will get tired. you can extend the cones out and make it a 3 vs. 2 with kicking/marking included.
try to avoid just having a practice match though, as the best players usually dominate and it doesn't develop your entire team as a whole.
Michaels
Brownlow Medallist
- Feb 4, 2006
- 16,433
- 50,178
- AFL Club
- Richmond
that one is a drill i love using, however last night i changed it up. I made it 3 attackers v 4 defenders. Simply because there are a lot of times that you will be out numbered at a contest and you have to think your way through it.
At the start my guys (Under 14's) were thinking there is no chance of them getting past the defenders, but they took the 'game' on so to speak and attacked really well. they moved for each other, talked, blocked, and got the ball up and back heaps of times really quickly.
The other thing you can encourage is if the attackers manage to drag the defenders to 1 side and the handball is given to the guy on the far left cone for example, his first handball needs to be out wide to create spread and space, make the defenders work hard, once they start moving the ball from side to side, gaps will appear.
Great for decision making as Ghossien said.
It probably depends on what areas you think your team need to work on as well. If they are struggling with manning up, we play a basic keepings off game, everyone is given a direct opponent, the attacking team chip the ball around and maintain possession (if they turn it over, make them do 10 burpees or something like that), but then at random stages, blow your whistle. once you blow your whistle the attackers must stop where they are, and if the defenders dont have touch on their direct opponent within 2 seconds, the defenders get punished.
I have found that drill has helped a fair bit in recent weeks.
If your kids are getting sucked into the play and not holding position giving you no options to kick to when rebounding from defence, i have tried doing a game that goes the width of the ground, but divide the field up into 3rds. set your players up into two teams and have them go to position (forwards backs and mids). In each forward area, put a 3x3m square of cones. the aim of the game is to work the ball down and handball it to a team mate who gets inside that square (no camping in the square though)
However, the players need to stay in their own third and hold position within reason. By that i mean, if there is a 50/50 contest to be won or they are running with the ball, of course they can enter the next section, just use common sense with that part of it, but i found it helped my guys be more disciplined in not getting sucked into the contest, which allowed us to have options when we rebounded from defence!
If they need work on contested marking (which every team does just about) i just set up a basic drill, a 5 x 5m square of cones. the two players at the front of the line on the left hand side are attackers (markers) and the two on the right side are defenders. Stand around 5 m away and kick/handball the ball high into the middle of the square so a pack forms with the attackers trying to mark it, defenders spoiling.
Its basic but achieves good results in marking and spoiling. i found it worked better when i had 2-3 kids on each cone and maybe had 2 groups running at the same time, just so they get a lot more opportunities to mark and spoil, and so they arent standing around bored. swap roles every so often.
At the start my guys (Under 14's) were thinking there is no chance of them getting past the defenders, but they took the 'game' on so to speak and attacked really well. they moved for each other, talked, blocked, and got the ball up and back heaps of times really quickly.
The other thing you can encourage is if the attackers manage to drag the defenders to 1 side and the handball is given to the guy on the far left cone for example, his first handball needs to be out wide to create spread and space, make the defenders work hard, once they start moving the ball from side to side, gaps will appear.
Great for decision making as Ghossien said.
It probably depends on what areas you think your team need to work on as well. If they are struggling with manning up, we play a basic keepings off game, everyone is given a direct opponent, the attacking team chip the ball around and maintain possession (if they turn it over, make them do 10 burpees or something like that), but then at random stages, blow your whistle. once you blow your whistle the attackers must stop where they are, and if the defenders dont have touch on their direct opponent within 2 seconds, the defenders get punished.
I have found that drill has helped a fair bit in recent weeks.
If your kids are getting sucked into the play and not holding position giving you no options to kick to when rebounding from defence, i have tried doing a game that goes the width of the ground, but divide the field up into 3rds. set your players up into two teams and have them go to position (forwards backs and mids). In each forward area, put a 3x3m square of cones. the aim of the game is to work the ball down and handball it to a team mate who gets inside that square (no camping in the square though)
However, the players need to stay in their own third and hold position within reason. By that i mean, if there is a 50/50 contest to be won or they are running with the ball, of course they can enter the next section, just use common sense with that part of it, but i found it helped my guys be more disciplined in not getting sucked into the contest, which allowed us to have options when we rebounded from defence!
If they need work on contested marking (which every team does just about) i just set up a basic drill, a 5 x 5m square of cones. the two players at the front of the line on the left hand side are attackers (markers) and the two on the right side are defenders. Stand around 5 m away and kick/handball the ball high into the middle of the square so a pack forms with the attackers trying to mark it, defenders spoiling.
Its basic but achieves good results in marking and spoiling. i found it worked better when i had 2-3 kids on each cone and maybe had 2 groups running at the same time, just so they get a lot more opportunities to mark and spoil, and so they arent standing around bored. swap roles every so often.
* Include static skills which allow you to concentrate on skills technique and execution of your players. If you don't know how to teach the basic skills then get someone who does.
* Include dynamic skills without decision making elements
* Include dynamic skills with decision making elements (ie defender etc)
* Include hell of a lot of 'Game Sense' drills/activities.
With game sense you will find that if you have not dedicated time to static skills, then the players will not improve execution of skills in this type of training. They will however execute skills regularly, under pressure and with the element of decision making - which occur every second of every match they will ever play.
At 13s dedicate some time to warm-ups & cools downs.
Dedicate time to body presence.
Commence implementation of tactics and train for them.
Good luck !
evo
Let's hit the f*ken road!
Hi Jake. I take training for a U/13s side as well.
IMO the good ol classic circle work is a little underrated by a lot of coaches these days. I reckon it is, and always has been, a great way to get kids to run in groups and do hard running to receive in real time. It encourages a 'play on at all time' mentality and gets kids using a lot of voice and employing decision making skills. It's also a good way to spot the kids who like to bludge a bit.
Just make sure the circle is nice and big and that hopefully you have a few adults there that have played senior footy who a willing to participate in the circle work to demonstrate the hard running and voice requitred to make it really work.
As Ghossein says, it is important to also introduce an element of 'opposition' into the play so once they get more confident get the dads to perhaps become the opponents there to try and hunt down the ball. That way shepherding and better disposal decision making becomes integral to the exercise.
IMO the good ol classic circle work is a little underrated by a lot of coaches these days. I reckon it is, and always has been, a great way to get kids to run in groups and do hard running to receive in real time. It encourages a 'play on at all time' mentality and gets kids using a lot of voice and employing decision making skills. It's also a good way to spot the kids who like to bludge a bit.
Just make sure the circle is nice and big and that hopefully you have a few adults there that have played senior footy who a willing to participate in the circle work to demonstrate the hard running and voice requitred to make it really work.
As Ghossein says, it is important to also introduce an element of 'opposition' into the play so once they get more confident get the dads to perhaps become the opponents there to try and hunt down the ball. That way shepherding and better disposal decision making becomes integral to the exercise.
I am also a big fan of circle work especially if there is some extra parents helping out either as team mates or opponents or just to "wake up" those bludging in the shadows.
Try splitting the group into "coloured vests" versus "others" in circle work all working in the same clockwise direction. It not only assists the fitness/stamina/ball skills etc that regular circle work encourages but it adds some additional marking/tackling/shepherding into the training.
The biggest difficulty coaching kids around this age is balancing the massive difference in physical and mental development. An example being a medium build 5 footer who has exceptional ball skills but is hesitant attacking the ball or even getting close to a pack. And then there's the three and a half foot kid who is willing and able to obtain the ball at any cost, will lay the fiercest tackles even if they are illegal!
How do you get those under-confident players to get into the packs, lay HARD tackles etc and how do you get the over-confident to tone it down a notch?
Try splitting the group into "coloured vests" versus "others" in circle work all working in the same clockwise direction. It not only assists the fitness/stamina/ball skills etc that regular circle work encourages but it adds some additional marking/tackling/shepherding into the training.
The biggest difficulty coaching kids around this age is balancing the massive difference in physical and mental development. An example being a medium build 5 footer who has exceptional ball skills but is hesitant attacking the ball or even getting close to a pack. And then there's the three and a half foot kid who is willing and able to obtain the ball at any cost, will lay the fiercest tackles even if they are illegal!
How do you get those under-confident players to get into the packs, lay HARD tackles etc and how do you get the over-confident to tone it down a notch?
