We woke up this morning to a layer of snow on the ground, but as we always say, it never stops futsal! Back to a near full house we saw some amazing players with some very special guests. Ladies’ players Lauryn, Ellie and Nikki were joined by York Futsal Coach and First Team Player Joe, to deliver a bit of masterclass for the girls!

We had a new girl come and try futsal for the first time – welcome Bluebell – we hope you had fun and look forward to welcoming you again very soon!

The session was based around some 3v1 attacking on half a court. The players were asked to think about how they created space and how they could finish the attack. This was progressed to a 3v2 and finally to two 1v1s at the same time, with this becoming a 2v2 when one attack finished. Joe gave the girls some real words of wisdom on how their movement could affect the other players. Lauryn spent time helping all the goalkeepers with their position in the goal and how moving forward could make it easier to save the ball. Joe finished with the oldest age group with a full court game that included every player starting with a 1v1 and as each ball went dead, they helped their team mates out – ensue utter chaos for 10 minutes!

Click the image below to download this weeks session plan

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Beth R – we challenged her today to try and run with the ball instead of just kicking it first time. At first, she was a bit hesitant…what if I lose it, but by the end of the session she had several good runs with the ball. Fab improvement, well done Beth.

2nd Session – Lena L – this young lady is a ball of energy, never stops running and always gives 100%. She is often first to answer questions, happy to share her ideas and an absolute delight to coach, top day Lena!

3rd Hour – Hannah B – back after an injury, Hannah is looking to be a top player, one the ladies will be keeping an eye on! Her size is always going to be an advantage, but she is working very hard on all the other futsal skills she will need and making great progress along the way. Keep this up Hannah!

4th Hour – Sophie T – this young lady will sign for the ladies and play her first National League Futsal game in early 2024, and we just can’t wait! I certainly don’t want to get int the way of any of her shots, they stay hit! The futsal future is very bright for Sophie, and we will support her all the way!

Final thoughts of a coach – I know before I have commented on the way the ladies’ team are inspiring the academy players to continue their futsal journey and how many of these girls are tell us and their parents, they want to wear the green of the ladies’ team. Well today, it ramped up one further notch when ladies’ players Ellie, Lauryn and Nikki all attended training. I think they were only going to stay an hour or so, but all stayed for the whole 4 hours, amazing support. The delight on the academy players and the way they raised their game today was incredible, an extra 10% was on show. I firmly believe that if we ask the academy players to go and support the ladies’ team in home matches, then the ladies must go and support the academy players. Today we saw Lauryn speaking to all the goalkeeper’s offering advice, Nikki and Ellie talking to players about techniques and play, but best of all was the smiles and laughs coming from everyone.

If that wasn’t enough today, we also had Joe from York Futsal drop in also to offer some assistance. I have had the pleasure of knowing Joe for several years and we sponsor him at York Futsal. Not only is he a top player, but also a top coach. It is brilliant for me to bounce ideas off other coaches and especially for me to learn more about the game from players who know what they are doing. We are very lucky in York that the 3 futsal clubs – York Futsal with Junior Roberti and Sambarca with Derek Hare, and us, are very welcome to sharing ideas but best of all just plain helping each other out. Junior once called futsal a family, well I can say in York this family is growing day by day and we are building something special for all the clubs…

On a final note, our first ever Christmas Raffle raised an amazing £700 that will be used to treat the academy players at the club. Special and huge thank you to Jo Block for organising every single part of this – legend in the making!

Coach Chris