Physical
To use communication skills to help teammates when attacking and defending.
Thinking
To evaluate the quality of their own performance, including skills, use of tactical ideas and teamwork.
Social and Emotional
To lead an effective warm-up routine for a small group
Footballs
Cones
Bibs
Warm Up
Increase the area for children to move around in to support those who find negotiating space difficult.
Physical Competence
Children may work in similar or mixed ability pairs.
Adults may need to model the skills again for some groups individually.
Feedback and things to look for will need to be made clear to children and modelled to support lower achievers to give accurate feedback.
Children may set their own challenge based on their ability.
Decision Making
Space – make the area larger to ensure children have more time to think and clearer opportunities to pass.
Defenders may be more passive to begin with (applying pressure to attackers but not trying to take the ball)
Improving Performance
Give specific aspects to look for to help with feedback progress
Cool Down
Increase the area for children to move around in to support those who find negotiating space difficult
Ball Tag:
Children move continuously around the space at a good pace, changing directions and staying within the area. 3-4 children (bib) work together as a team and attempt to ‘tag’ others with one ball. Children who are ‘tagging’ must pass the ball whilst in a stationary position. They cannot throw the ball to tag. If tagged by the ball, children perform 10 star jumps and then join in again. Teacher led stretching of key muscles and mobilisation of joints.
Remind children of the skills they have covered in previous years and spend some time practising each with a partner or individually. See Teaching Points.
Allow children time to practise each skill in isolation (dribbling relays / stationary passing with a partner) before taking part in an activity which links the two skills together (see image below)
Children work in pairs to dribble and pass the ball through as many ‘gates’ as they can. Child A dribbles the ball to a ‘gate’ before passing it through to Child B. Child B must then dribble to the next gate and pass the ball through it to Child A.
Progression: A time limit and target scores may be added to provide extra challenge. E.g. How many different gates can you pass through in 30 seconds? Can you pass through 15 gates in 60 seconds?
Communication:
Play a 3v3 game. The attacking team must keep the ball away from the defender using a combination of passing and dribbling skills. The defending team must attempt to win the ball back either by stealing possession of the ball or by passing the ball out of the area. Swap attacking and defending roles every few minutes.
Model to the children how 3 defenders can work effectively against 3 attackers (maybe by marking one player each, maybe by teaming up in twos).
After a few minutes of playing, allow teams time to discuss their tactics.
Have attacking teams been creating space effectively as they have done in previous years/ units of work?
Children perform a general movement based cool down working from a faster to a lower intensity. Teacher to lead stretching and mobilising.
Keep head up and look ahead, keep ball close to feet, tap/push the ball rather than kicking and chasing after it and use inside, outside or sole of foot.
Keep eye on the ball, use arms for balance, use the inside/instep of the foot, swing foot backwards and forwards with a follow through, place non-? kicking foot at the side of the ball and aim to kick the centre of the ball.
Encourage the children to use communication skills to let their partner know which gate they are moving towards next. Pause the activity regularly and allow the children to discuss their techniques. Are they still passing the ball at the same standard as when they were performing this skill in isolation?
Ask defenders to think of how they can communicate with each other to help them catch the attackers. Ideas may include: communicating which direction they are each going to move, advising each other of what the attackers may do next or pointing in different directions to indicate their tactical movements.
Keep head up and look ahead, keep ball close to feet, tap/push the ball rather than kicking and chasing after it and use inside, outside or sole of foot.
Ask children to reflect on something that the feel they did well within the lesson. Encourage them to think a little deeper than usual, not to just decide on the first thing they think of, but to reflect on the different points of the lessons – physical skills, communicating, etc.