On coach Chris’s birthday, he is adamant he is still only 25…ish, we had another large turn out to training.

The first group re-visited looking after the ball, how brave could they be in standing still with the ball before trying to move?  Some great play from lots of the girls.

We split the group into 4 teams and played 2 games across the sports hall.  The girls played 3v3 with a goal being scored by stopping the ball on the opposition’s goal line with the sole of your foot.  But the catch was, if at any stage you kicked the ball out of play, you lost all of your teams goals.  It was interesting to watch how the girls changed the way they played, especially when they had scored.  They were desperate to not put the ball out of play.

A great session from the younger girls, great to watch and they are getting better each week, there is some real potential here!

Click here to see some images from this week’s sessions

The second session started with a passing square in which players followed a set pattern around a marked area.  Needless to say, what looks easy on paper, isn’t in real life.  It took the girls a good 10 minutes to get the pattern, and then Coach Chris introduced more balls and kept changing the direction of play – chaos ensued!  One to come back to we think!

The main part of the session was a re-emphasis on recovery runs.  The players played normal 5 minute matches with one key difference.  If your team put the ball out of play, you had to send two players to stand by the opposition’s goal until the ball was back in play.  The outcome was two-fold: create a 5v3 overload in favour of the team in possession, but also cause two defending players to make long recovery runs.

The attitude of the players was amazing and we saw some near full court sprints time after time, with not one player complaining.  This second group is really starting to come together and we are so impressed by how they conduct themselves, brilliant to coach!

Player of the week for the First Hour was Emily-Sue.  She is one player who consistently uses futsal techniques when playing the game, from using the sole of her foot to protecting the ball to keeping it play.  Definitely one for the future, keep up the good work Emily-Sue!

Player of the week for the Second Hour was Niamh.  Since we started futsal she has gone from strength to strength each and every week.  She highlighted her commitment with a full court sprint in the last-minute of the session to prevent a goal.  Fantastic attitude Niamh!