
Traffic lights cones ball mastery Set area out with enough gates for each child (i.e 10 red 1o yellow 10 green) Kids dribble throught throught the gates using lots of little touches keepin gthe ball close to their feet. Coach introduces colours of cones and skills relating to that colour 1 by 1. Red: Player must dribble to the middle of the red gate fast as they can and stop the ball using sole of their feet. Yellow: Players must get to the middle of the cones stop the ball and does ten tick tocks (knoking the ball inbetween both feet) Green: Stop the ball in the middle of the green cone gate and player does 10 toe taps (tapping the top of the ball with alternating feet).
Looking where they are going so they don't bang into each other (spatial awareness) and decision making. Look for space to move into rather than the crowd of other players. Little touches and lots of them, keeping the ball close to their feet not kicking the ball and chasing this, really praise anyone who uses little touches with both feet. Balls of feet for running on. Tick tocks: Balls of feet keeping the ball close to feet with legs slightly bent, not stiff legs. do the tick tocks as if they were running using arms to run and legs mcing with them. Toe taps: encourage using both feet alternating between the two left, right etc. Balls of feet again. Encurage to touch the ball when tapping on the top many kids don't it's all about controlling the weight of the touch so the ball doesn't roll away.
This practice has no coaching points
This practice has no progressions
in more ways than one
Deliberate heading is now out of U11 grassroots matches. Here is how to coach chest, thigh and foot control so your players still win the ball in the air.
Long-range goals doubled at the 2026 World Cup as teams sat deep. Here is how to coach when to shoot from distance, the technique, and the follow-up.
Under FutureFit, your Under-9s stay at 5v5, your Under-11s stay at 7v7 and your Under-13s stay at 9v9. Same pitch, same numbers, one more year. Here is how to make sure that year feels like a step forward rather than a repeat.