Compete from the off

Organisation

• Organise your class into small teams of 5 players and make up challenges to hit the net !
• Players can be in lines and you can choose different ways for the players to hit the net
• Be creative, adapt to players abilities and make it a race to keep it fun and exciting – Remember young children love to be challenged!
• Players might throw it, kick it from the floor, volley it, into empty nets or nets protected by goalkeepers – first teams to score a number of goals wins – If only one ball per team, then players retrieve ball and pass it on

Ways to make the exercise easier

• Keep the challenges simple, throw the ball from shorter distances in two hands, one hand or from above your head

Ways to make the exercise harder

• Increase the distance of the shots / throws
• Add goalkeepers or blockers from other teams
• One whole team could each take a turn in goal, and team who concedes the least are the winners

 Great questions to ask the children

• Can you support and cheer each other when you score goals?
• Can you take great care to not miss the goal when you shoot?
• Can you race the other teams and make lots of noise when you finish?

 Safety Points

• Create safety zones between teams so no collisions

Organisation

• Organise a pitch with 4 goals, 3 teams in 3 colours who wait outside the pitch - spread around 3 sides.  When the coach calls 2 colours - 3players from each team runs onto the pitch and tries to score in any one of the 4 goals. Once a goal is scored, players leave the pitch and wait for next colours to be called.  Players in each team continually rotate.
• Teams can have odd numbers on the outside as only 3 will play at a time

Ways to make the exercise easier

• Use bigger goals
• Coach could throw two balls onto the pitch

Ways to make the exercise harder

• Add goalkeepers to each goal or moving goalkeepers who try and cover 2 goals

Great questions to ask the children

• Can your team be first to the ball?
• Can you take an early shot before the other team is ready to defend?
• If your team has to defend, can you block the goals and wait for the right moment to pinch the ball?

Safety Points

• Only call new teams onto the pitch when the pitch is clear
• Create a safe space to play

Organisation

• Organise 2 teams onto a pitch with 2 end zones, - play 5 v 5 in middle zone and in each end zone each team has a target player who must be passed to in order to score a point. The object of the game is to get the ball from one end to the other to score a point
• Combine as a team to get the ball to the target player - when the target players receive the ball they can then swap with the outfield player who passed it to them so that the target players continually rotate
• To win the game, score a number of points, or make a rule that every player must play as the target player before you can win, meaning that every outfield player has to make a point scoring pass to the target to win.

Ways to make the exercise easier

• You can start with throw and catch and each team has a ball each - make a race for every player to have a go in the end zone to win.

Ways to make the exercise harder

• Only one ball between the 2 teams
• Teams have to get to target player and back again to score a point
• Teams can only pass the ball by feet

Great questions to ask the children

• Can you recognise opportunities to make an early pass to the target player?
• Can you find ways to reach the target player with a clever pass?
• Can the target player move into spaces to make yourself more available?

Safety Points

• Create safe zones between pitches