With a storm coming later in the day, the girl’s futsal was a whirlwind of delight to watch…too much??

We had four new girls come and try futsal for the first time – welcome Lily, Sofia, Bethany, and Amy – we hope you had fun and look forward to welcoming you again very soon!

We mixed up the groups this week, so it was always griming to be interesting to see what happened with so many new players in each group. We continued the work of defending out of possession, but this time with only 3 players on court plus a goalkeeper. Very hard work and at times a bit daunting for a lot of the players. That said they gave it their best and we got some really good results in every group. The desire to try and score every time they get the ball is something they need to think about, look after the ball, and work your opportunities – we keep preaching the ball is scared!

Click the image below to download this weeks session plan

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Raya S – a fantastic player to coach and one who always gives 100%. She didn’t think she had done very well today, so we had a chat and put her right, she was fab, worked so hard and never ever gives up. Top job Raya!

2nd Session – Imogen D – a seriously no-nonsense player who would run through brick wall if you asked her. Her physicality is as good as anyone in the club, and she is now starting to add that little bit of skill to her game. Great performance!

3rd Hour – Hattie Wells – another of our new players who has taken her time to settle, but today made a real mark on the session. Good touches, good passing, and an understanding of where she should be on the court. Keeping working hard!

4th Hour – Keira L – We like this player, she is skilful, fast and has an eye for goal. She has missed a few sessions due to illness but back last week, and this week back to her brilliant best, great to watch and one we are keeping an eye on…. futures bright for this one!

Final thoughts of a coach – any defending topic is hard for the players to understand, they just want to chase the ball and get it back immediately. Give them less players than the opposition, and then they need to think about what they are doing! Can we press, do we need to drop off and defend our half, or somewhere in between? I never give them all the answers, lead them along a path and get them to see how their choices reflect the outcomes. I love watching players go through the process of seeing how their choices affect what happens…

Today we had a player in tears because she thought she hadn’t played very well. OK, so we sat down with her, had a chat, and explained that learning is not linear, we don’t improve all the time at the same rate. Sometimes we don’t improve at all, in fact we can go backwards, and then the following week everything drops into place, and we jump forward. She said she was disappointed that her friend was better than her, and improving quicker than she was. We explained that every single player is different and currently her strengths were her tackling and desire to work hard on the court, her friend is a good passer and finisher. We had a conversation about what we would want to have in our ideal team, did we want every player to be the same, or is it good to have different players?

In the end, what started with a girl in tears, ended with a smiling, confident young lady, ready to come back next week and try again!

Coach Chris