juvenile ladies coach

new2dis

Hi Im currently training the U12,14 &16 girls football teams in my club as volunteers in this area are very limited unfortunately. I have played football for lets say 15+ yrs and give up this year to concentrate on underage. I need some tips on training to keep it exciting and interesting. I want to make sure i am giving them the right drills to develop their skills and abilities. We are a new team at Underage level- U12&16 started last year and U14 this year. Any hints, tips,advice would be appreciated

rebel girl 15

Wow, fair play to you for taking on three teams, I had three last year and it was extremely difficult on my own - is there someone around to sort the organising side of it for games? I was coaching U14 and U16, and organising matches etc for those two teams and the juniors!

http://www.dublingaagamesdevelopment.ie/training-drills has some good drills online.

First thing is to identify where the girls needs to improve, you can see from training and games things that they need to improve on - that forms the basis of the next session. For the under 12's it is important to have fun and try and learn the basic skills of the game - one huge thing is to encourage them to use both hands and both feet in the drills. Best way to demonstrate the skills is using the head, hands feet method. Breaking it down for a solo,
- head - looks at the ball
- hands - ball goes from two hands, to one hand the same side as the soloing leg
- feet - toes curled (for the younger players, I get them to bring their foot up to the ball, as they practise, they will end up dropping the ball down to their foot

Break it down all the time for all players, under 12s especially. Demonstrations get the message across much quicker! That goes for drills as well - demonstrate a drill instead of talking through it

Try and have a fun element in all of the sessions, for example I used a tag game with my under 14's, basically all but two have a bib stuck into their waistband, and two are on to try and grab a bib, when they get one, the person who had the bib taken is now on, and the person who got it tuck it into their waistband and runs around. It may just seem like a fun game, but the hand action used to grab the bib is similar to the action used to flick the ball away from an opponent.

Since you have played you know the basic skills and drills anyway, if you have a look at the VHI cul camps website and go into the coaches section, there is a lot of material from the Fundamentals booklets that can help.

For every session, have a plan made out - but you don't have to stick rigidly to the time - make sure you end with a game as well. Be organised and on time for the sessions, and try and make sure that the sessions don't run badly overtime. Try and get there early to be able to sort the cones and equipment out. Always give feedback to the girls during the session, but try and give positive feedback first - say for example a girl soloing and is kicking the ball up in the air, but has the toe curled - you could say to her that the toe curling is excellent, but to ease back of the power and demonstrate what you mean - but praise her again before you leave her.

Under 12 - learning the basic skills and having fun
Under 14 - drills could be the same, but maybe a small but further in distance, still need a fun element, awareness of positioning and marking
Under 16 - mastery of skills, use of both feet, able to understand marking and positioning.

If I think of anything else I'll post it!

Gael85

http://www.vhiculcamps.gaa.ie/for-coaches/
http://www.totalgaacoach.com/
http://www.derrygaa.ie/index.php?opt...=66&Itemid=119