What Surprised Me at Practice - A Good 1 v 1 Game

I've been way behind and have so much I want to add to this blog. I have practice ideas, plans, notes on what worked and didn't. I will make this one a quick note on something that surprised me in a good way.

I setup a short / wide field with 2 small goals at one end. 1 v 1, the game started with a player kicking the ball from the goal end of the field to the far end of the field where the other player was located, she was the attacker. The attacker would dribble and try to use some moves to score in either goal. This gave the attacker some tactical advantage that surprisingly seemed to give the girls a lot of confidence on the ball. They were trying and pulling off moves I would never seem them try in a scrimmage. We need more of this. One note in particular, they wouldn't finish their moves with a burst of speed. They'd earn the advantage with a good move, but wouldn't turn on the afterburners. Their turn was over when the defender won the ball, a goal was scored, or the ball went out of bounds.

For today, I plan to setup a similar size field, but with 2 goals at each end. Play will start with a goal kick after every stoppage. The game will end after one of the players gets two goals. You can get a goal in the expected manner, OR, if the ball goes out on your opponents touch. This should be strongly discouraging of just kicking the ball away from the attacker AND wild shooting. The idea of this 1 v 1 game is to work on pressure and dribbling. With this special rule for balls that go out of play, controlling the ball will be the highest priority.

-Bill