U10 Practice Plan - Receiving and Opening Body to Field

Set Up:

• Make fields of 20 x 10 yards. Place small goals on each endline.

• The players go 2 v 2 on the field. On balls put out of play, use a throw-in or kick-in to get ball back in (coach's choice).

• After a goal is scored, play is restarted with a goal kick

Coaching Points:

• None. Let the players play and make mistakes. Only intervene if it is taking too long to get ball back in play.

Set Up:

• Four pairs of players start with a ball, and each team has two gates to use during the drill.
• Players have to pass the ball through the gates to their partner on the other side in order to score. Once a gate has been passed through, the pair has to pass through a different gate to score another point.
• Play for 45 seconds. Teams keep their score and try to beat their own score in the next round.

Coaching Points:

1.  Take your first touch towards the intended target.

2.  Touch the ball off and immediately run to the next spot.

3.  Use one touch passes to increase the speed of your attack.

Progressions:

1.  Teams can be assigned two colors to use during the game. 

Set Up:

• Spread a series of small goals around the grid, using cones that are 2 yds. apart.  
• Split your group into two teams.
• Teams can score on any goal by passing or dribbling through the goal. Once a goal is scored, they must go to another one.
• When the other team wins the ball, they go on the attack immediately. If ball goes out of bounds, it is a kick-in to the other team. Keep score and play games to 11, win by two.

Coaching Points:

1.  Open your body when receiving the ball so you can see more of the field.

2.  Look over your shoulder before receiving a ball to check for what's behind you.

3.  Take your first touch towards to next goal that you want to go to.

Progressions:

1. Goals can only be scored by dribbling thru the cones.

Set Up:

• Place two 10 yard goals at each corner. Each goal will have a goalkeeper. Play 5v5, with a 3v3 on field. Each goal counts as 1pt. Normal soccer rules, except no corners. Use goal kicks instead of corners. Goalkeepers are used by the attacking team to play backwards and help keep possession.

Coaching Points:

• Encourage players to be aware of their surroundings. If one goal is crowded with defenders, can they look to go towards the other goal?

• Take a look over your shoulder before receiving.

• Open body to field.

• Encourage players off the ball to get wide and offer better passing options.

Set Up:

• Play 5v5. If your numbers are short, decrease size of field to 30x20 and play 4v4.

• Cones for goals are 5yds wide and use goalkeepers.

Coaching Points:

None. Just sit back and let them play. Help remind them of the rules for their age group: offside, thrown-ins, goalkicks and corners. Place a few cones down to divide the field into thirds to mark the ‘Build-out Line,’ and show them what they need to do when the GK has the ball.