Week 9 of futsal at Manor CE Academy started with the girls learning some balls skills on their own. Each had a ball and we progressed from simple toe taps, tip tap toes, stepovers to more advanced skills. The girls really got down to concentrating on each individual skill and the results were very impressive. Pretty much all of them wanted to show either Suzy or Chris how they were doing, and even Mr Foster managed to handle a few of the new skills! Kim did her party piece at the end, much to everyone’s delight!

We moved onto getting the girls to playing 1v1v1 into one goal with the emphasis on shooting quickly and accurately. They rotated players so they had different combinations of opponents each time.

In the final matches we split the girls into three teams so there were fewer players on the court, giving them more space to play in. They were encouraged to try to use any of the skills that they had learnt and some really did give them ago. The girls are really getting to grips with futsal and it is a delight to coach them all.

Don’t fancy playing football outside in the dark, cold, wet, windy and snowy conditions? Then why not come and try futsal inside in the dry? Only £4.50 to have a go!

To see more pictures from the night please click here.

To get the boys going from the start we split them into two teams, with the help of Ruby, Katie and Kim, playing a full court match with normal rules. Suzy and Chris ended up in goal, not their strongest positions, but at least they tried!

We conditioned the match with various rules. To start with the players could not score outside of the goalkeeper’s area, encouraging them to try to finish with various techniques, like a toe punt. We then stopped the players from scoring again until everyone in their team had scored, making the whole team rota their positions, players were made to become defenders one minute and attackers the next – just like futsal! Finally, we limited the players to having only 3 seconds with the ball. They could have as many touches as they liked but had to either shoot or pass within the 3 second limit. At first the players started to shoot from a very long way out, so we added a shooting line that they had to be beyond before they could score.

The various rules helped the players pass and move much better than the week before. They are really starting to realise futsal is a game in its own right and keeping the ball moving really helps in creating good goal scoring chances.

Player of the Week for the Girls was Katie – she is normally a goalkeeper for her weekend football team, but her control and passing are really starting to look good and she could be a great futsal player.

Player of the Week for the Boys was Lee – he has been ever-present since we started the futsal club and since the start of this half term has really started to bring other players into the game, he is improving every week.