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Coming to the ball and not waiting... tips?

Hi I have a great bunch of under 9's, they are all quite small and light and I want to work on them coming to the pass and receiving it 1st. At the minute they are waiting for it and getting muscled out of a lot of games. Most are very good passers technically but need to increase their awareness and dynamic.

Coach, England

1 answer

ANSWERS

Scott Coach, Ireland

Focus your training on the subject of moving towards passes - simple passing drills involving the receiver of the pass coming forwards to meet the ball will over time if consistently made a coaching point in your drills become a more natural part of there game.

As they pick this up on the simple drills you can then get them doing this with fulse pressure ie a defender running towards ball to but not nessercarliy win the ball and advance as you feel they can, eventually moving to full pressure in game type situations.

But a constant reminder of meeting the ball rather than waiting on the ball in all your sessions will overtime rub off and they will start to naturally do it more and more. you need to remember there age also 8yrs is still young and your coaching and techniques will rub off in time there like a sponge at this age so be consistant and repeat important points in drills and they will pick it up.