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Fitness levels in my squad

How do I improve the fitness levels of my under 9s team.
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rob lingCoach, England

2 answers

ANSWERS

Steven PortplanOther, England

Hi Rob,

I think as your team are quite young, the best way to incorporate fitness is to keep it really simple and fun. Base it on small games so they are still getting some skill training but also a good run around at the same time. This is also important to reduce negativity surrounding a `boring` fitness session.

Split the team into teams of 4 or 5 and play a small sided game in a relatively large area of the pitch. This will force them to do a lot of running and also help them understand the importance of createing space. Tell them that they all must be running constantly and enforce fitness based `punishments` for those who do not run. It works really well if you have 3 teams so one is sitting out resting. Once a team has dribbled over the base line 5 times the winners sub out for the resting team. This therefore forces the teams to work hard to get the `goals` so they are rewarded with a rest.

Hope this helps!

rob lingCoach, England

Thanks mate will try this. Think one of our problems has been in the winter we only have a small piece of ground to train on so kids don't have as much room to run therefor are not as mobile/fit.
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