Before my aging brain forgets, I'm jotting down some notes:
- The U12 ODP girls were just fantastic to watch. Their ball control was unbelievable. They ran a practice that started with the girls (~12 of them) in a square and they did some passing drills requiring the players to observe the direction of the first touch and anticipate the next pass. Watching it happen reminded me of braiding rope. This progressed to a 2 v 2 game with outside players where points were scored with successful give and goes between the players in the middle on the same side. I've seen FC Dallas warm up with a similar game with more players in the middle in very tight space. It looks like a blast and very good training.
- I then saw a practice for some U6 boys that clearly are a step above their peers. Their practice started out with the standard dribble in the square, but the moves the practice were superb. Mostly scissors and a step over move. Then they did these same moves against a cone to learn the space required to make the move. Then they chained different moves together. Then the practiced some 1 v 1 keepaway. Then some 1 v 1 to split goals. Then 2 v 2. The emphasized using all parts of the foot to move the ball with "soft touches and little steps."
- Finally I saw a goal keeper training session that really opened my eyes to some basic skills that will go a long way toward making our keepers effective and safe. He had some good drills to make sure the keeper was in a ready position on her toes when the ball was kicked toward goal. He discussed keeping her shoulders square. Saving through the ball. Spreading the feet to allow her to get down to the level of the ball. How to safely stop a breakaway by getting low early and looking through her hands to the ball. Good stuff.
I may come back and edit this into a more readable format, but for now, I just wanted to brain dump.
-Bill
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