Training 5/14 Be Conscious Of Your Surroundings

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day. Such is the salutation to the dawn.
-Sanskrit Proverb

I. Spat Training
Today we really focused on proper turning technique.  We focused on what foot should come down first depending on which way you are turning and where your weight should be distributed.

II. Give and Go Exercise
-The first red player dribbles towards the first cone and passes to the blue player who is checking to the ball.

-The blue player one touches the ball back using the far foot from the passer.
-As the red player receives the ball she dribbles as fast as she can around the flag and to the back of the orange line.
-The orange player goes.

Key Points:
At first we really struggled to complete the give and go because after the red player would make the first pass she would run in a straight line.  By running in a straight line the blue player would have to make a perfect pass for this to work at speed.  After a couple of minutes we stopped and talked about the benefits of curving our runs away from the ball after the first pass it gives the passer more room to complete the pass while at the same time allowing the runner to receive the pass facing where she wants to dribble.

III. 6v6 Play It Wide: Be Aware of Your Surroundings
For this we played the same game that we have been playing the last couple of training sessions but with a new twist that Mark did with the U11's yesterday.  What he did, when it was their time to scrimmage, was he put up the little triangle cones that are about a foot high all over the field and the girls had to play through the cones.  He then had a point structure for the scrimmage:
+1 For a shot on goal
+3 For a goal
-1 If you pass the ball and knock over a cone
-3 If you knock a cone over while you are dribbling
-5 If you knock over a cone while running without the ball

Getting to work with other coaches is one of the best things that I like about Bangu and I get knew ideas like this all the time from other coaches.  This simple modification worked incredibly well as the girls all commented on how much more they kept looking around all game so they would be sure not to step on a cone.