[Val]

9th Exercise
Wallball. Great game for developing leg strength and power. You need a big wall (I've had people tell me that a couple of benches laid on their sides work as well, but they're never tall enough for my kids and we spend way too much time chasing balls). Players line up maybe 10-15 yards from the wall, first player in line has one ball, He dribbles once and then strikes the ball firmly and goes to the end of the line. Next person in line has to get to the ball and hit it back against the wall before the ball stops. If that player can't get to the ball or his strike fails to hit the wall, he gets the letter W (for wall) and goes to the end of the line. You get an additional letter for each miss, until you spell out WALL, and then you have to sit down. Last person standing wins. Progressions: get a total of 2 touches and then move up to 1 touch wall ball. Once the kids get the hang of "being difficult": trying to have the ball softly hit the wall or strike it at an extreme angle, so to make the following player really have to run, this becomes the most cut-throat game. Lots of fun. I will move my 2nd practice to a different location just to find a good wall. This is also one of the few games that I've been able to have my kids play without me for long periods of time.

10th Exercise
Good passing movement and communication here. I use the following as my pre-game warmup. Big circle or square (the center circle works well for this). 2/3 of your team lines up outside the circle/square, with the remaining players inside said circle/square with a ball each. They each look at a person outside the square, call his name and pass the ball to him. Then they run to space to receive the ball back, and then go look for another person to pass to. This game teaches movement well, good receiving motion, and it seems to be the one game that I can use to get the girls to talk and communicate.

11th Exercise
This is a game that I call Wimbledon, so of course no one in America knows the geography... But a good game to teach players because sometimes they'll play by themselves. Best for small numbers, say maybe four or five players max. One keeper, everyone else out in the field, but the game is like the basketball game 21, everyone against everyone. Keeper plays the ball out, and it's a free-for-all. First player to score two goals sits, then the next player to score 2 sits, until there are only two players left playing 1v1. Loser sits as everyone else goes into the next round. Now it is the first player to score three, and the elimination continues. Each subsequent round, another person sits until you have the winner. Winner goes into goal for his well-deserved rest. Lots of 1v1 play is emphasized here and each player gets a break, so you can play this all day long. Which brings me to...

12th Exercise
And lastly, 1v1. I have done 1v1 drills before, but never down at the U10 (U11 for girls) ages before. I dunno, just seemed too advanced, but obviously I was wrong. I'm going to do a lot more of this. Fairly simple to set up a 10 yard wide channel maybe 15 yards wide. One player serves the ball to the other, than he plays defense -- approach the ball/player quickly to slow the player down, then move in control to challenge the ball -- while the receiving player is going to try to beat the defender and stop the ball on the opposite end line. For younger kids, keep it simple. I only teach two or three moves: the aforementioned Stanley Matthews move, the push and a simple stepover (maybe because those are the only three I can do). But the best progression comes from the defensive side of things in that you can teach approaching the ball and start to work on first-man defense.

And that's it. Most practices will be a combination of these drills. I haven't had to teach offsides lately, so that is missing, and I've found my girls especially need the repetition, so there's not a lot of time spent on formation or tactics here, just lots of touch, lots of pass and receive.