Coach Chris was away this weekend, so Aide and Paul took over this Sunday’s morning sessions, with help from Suzy, Katie and Ruben.

Following on from last week, both coaches carried on focusing on defending. The youngest two groups concentrated on getting behind the ball and keeping the ball in play as much as possible. In matches they got extra points for successful passes in their defending half. They tried really hard to not kick the ball out of play which meant they teammates had to move and support and, boy, the passing and control of these young players was out this world! 

The older groups started with some 1v1 defending. Working in groups of three, a player passed a ball to the attacker, whose aim was to turn and dribble to the other side of the court and stop the ball on the line. There was a defender behind them working hard to stop them from turning. We talked about patience and body shape and picking the right moment to tackle and try to win the ball.

In games, the third group played 3v3 games on a small court and had to recover to their goal line every time they had a shot. This progressed to 4v4 on a slightly bigger pitch, recovering to their own half after every unsuccessful shot and to the goal line after scoring. Needless to say, as there were plenty of goals, each and every player worked their socks off. Parents could therefore look forward to a very quiet afternoon at home!

Click here to see all the pictures from the session

To challenge the oldest group a bit more, in their games, the team that scored had to work hard to recover but also lost a player in the process. A player who was farthest from the attacked goal had to run off the pitch through a set of cones in their own half and re-enter higher up on the pitch. We challenged the remaining three recovering defenders to delay and wait for their teammate to come back.

Player of the week for the first hour was Isabelle S – Chosen by Aide – She worked her socks off to recover and also constantly looked to drop in to be a safety, top job from a fab player, well done Isabelle!

Player of the week for the second hour was Sienna S – Chosen by Aide – A new player to futsal who showed brilliant recovery and some great last ditch defending – great start to your futsal journey Sienna!

Player of the week for the third hour was Martha P – Chosen by Paul – She did did really well with the technical side particularly the shielding which Aide used her to demonstrate what she had been doing, awesome play from a fab young lady!

Player of the week for the fourth hour was Esme R – Chosen by Paul – she did well in the technical game. We spoke to them about putting pressure on the attacker and Esme picked it up straight away. I thought I could see a big improvement in her 1v1 defending – one definitely for the ladies!