He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.
-George Best talking about David Beckham
After watching our teams out in Las Vegas this last weekend I noticed that we had difficulty with being able to settle the ball and strike it under pressure. So today I wanted to focus on us being able to settle the ball and hit a solid volley.
I) Throw The Ball Up To Yourself and Volley
I had the girls throw the ball above their heads, trap it with their thigh and volley the ball before it hit the ground.
We struggled with the footwork and how to trap the ball and hit the volley before the ball hit the ground. I didn't want the girls to hit the ball back up very high on their trap, but instead I wanted them to be able to move their feet quickly and step into the ball as it came to the ground.
After a while the girls started to realize that all the work they have been doing with the SPAT program was very useful in this motion. As they started to get the pattern down, the volleys started flying.
II) Partner Throw and Volley
Now we had a partner throw the ball up for the girls and they had to trap the ball and volley it before it hit the ground. Even though the I wanted the girls to hit the ball before the ball hit the ground, I told them that no matter where they trapped the ball I wanted them to volley it. That meant if they trapped the ball behind them, I still wanted the girls to hit the volley. Not everything is going to be perfect in games and while we will train to be perfect we have to be ready for the inevitability of the ball bouncing the wrong way. We should have the mind set that we can deal with any kind of ball.
Make It Competitive:
1pt for a good trap
2pts for a good trap and a volley before the ball hit the ground
3pts for a good trap and a volley on target
5pts for doing everything properly and putting the ball in the back of the net
Our Street Soccer today was fantastic. The girls played extremely hard and put in the type of effort I would like to see all the time.