It was raining and drizzling outside but the girls were all on fire, some fantastic defending, passing and movement today.

With another Sunday game to come, we were back to 3 hours of coaching and boy did the girls not let us down. We carried on the defending theme with some work on 1v1 defending – thinking about patience, when and where to tackle and body shape. The work rate from everyone was outstanding and we also got some pretty good goals as a bonus. The older group played a game in which they were paired up with one player and they were the only one who could tackle them – hard work but fun to watch. Overall we had yet another very successful day, and one the coaches left smiling at!

Click here to see all the pictures from the session

Player of the week for the first hour was Billie A – This young lady is one of the youngest in the club and each and every week she runs through brick walls for the coaches. She never stops running, loves a tackle and best of all does it all with a huge smile on her face. Keep this up Billie, you are a star!

Player of the week for the second hour was Funmi S – The coaches love the way Funmi is not afraid to ask a question. She is always checking she understand what is being asked, and then pretty much always goes and delivers it. Another young lady who has improved massively this year, fab session Funmi!

Player of the week for the third hour was Sophie T – What can we say about this young lady that hasn’t already been said…not much! She has had a few session training with the ladies team, and her understanding of the game is getting better and better each week. The coaches love to challenge her and she alway delivers, roll-on your 16th birthday, a debut for the ladies definitely awaits!

Final thoughts of a coach – Not a good start to the day, I forgot to bring the futsal ball…at least that was the worst part of the day! Defending is not a topic that most kids enjoy, they think it is very negative. The challenge for a coach is to provide ways of making them think they are really attacking. We always give defenders a challenge or a goal – when you win the ball, can you keep it for five passes, can you progress over the halfway line or can you pass the ball to the coach to score. Also, we try really hard to keep the tempo of these types of session very high, don’t let them dwell on their mistakes, just give them another chance to go again. Oh well, one more to go before the Christmas break, thank you for another fantastic session everyone!