Exercices football U8
The football drills featured in this compilation are designed to captivate and excite young players under the age of 8.
Designed for beginners, these drills provide valuable additions to any youth football practice session.
It is imperative for coaches working with this age group to infuse practices with enjoyment and excitement, prompting us to assemble a list of football drills specifically tailored for U8 football coaches to incorporate into their plans.
These drills encompass crucial football concepts for the U8 age level, including dribbling drills, small-sided games, ball control techniques, decision-making skills, and fostering a passion for the game.
The selection of U8 Football Drills outlined in this article comprises: 1. Racing In Numbers 2. Cone Ball 3. Treasure Hunt 4. Bulldog 5. Dribbling Tunnel Tag 6. Pass and Move Competition 7. Dribbling & Passing Skills Corridor 8. Body Parts
1.Racing In Numbers Overview: Setup a pitch with players lined up on the outside of the pitch on opposite sides.
The coach calls a number, whatever number they call that number of players have to move through the SAQ equipment (ladders, hurdles etc) to enter the pitch and the coach then passes the ball to the first team that gets onto the pitch.
As soon as players have entered the pitch, they then play against each other in a normal small sided game.
Once the ball goes out of play or the game has gone on for too long, players return back to their lines ready for the coach to call out the next number.
Equipment: Footballs, Bibs, Cones, Goals, 6 Players Coaching Points: Eyes Up, Use Of Both Feet, Decision Making
2.Cone Ball Overview: Split a pitch into two with cones placed down through the middle of the pitch with a ball on top of each of them.
Organise two teams, with one team either side of each of the cones.
Players have one ball between two and have to simply strike to hit the ball of the cone in the middle.
Players get one point for every time they hit the ball off the cone and to make it competitive keep scores.
Rotate players regularly to play with different partners.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 4 – 12 Players Coaching Points: Passing Technique, Accuracy, Power
3.Treasure Hunt Overview: Players split into 4 equal teams, each starting in their own coloured corner.
1 player per team must run at a time to take 1 football from centre area to take back to corner.
After all of the footballs have left the middle area, the team that has the most footballs in their area wins.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 6 – 12 Players Coaching Points: Dribbling, Speed, Ball Control
4.Bulldog Overview: Players begin on one line of a rectangular area and must dribble their ball to the line on the opposite side.
The game begins with one ‘Bulldog’ who is the tagger, if they tag one of the players on their way to the other line then that player becomes a ‘Bulldog’.
The game continues until all players have been tagged.
Once tagged you must pass your ball out of the area or to the coach, taggers are only tagging others rather than tackling them.
Players must wait for the call of “GO” from the coach before running each time, to allow the ‘Bulldog(s)’ to reset to centre.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 5 Players Coaching Points: Eyes Up, Dribbling, Decision Making
5.Dribbling Tunnel Tag Overview: 15 yards x 15 yards area, each player has a ball except the playing who is the tagger.
Each player spreads out in space and tries to keep the ball away from the tagger.
If you get tagged you must hold the ball over your head until a player plays a ball between your legs.
The attacker must try and tag all the players to win the game.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 4 Players Coaching Points: Awareness, Dribbling, Change Of Direction
6.Pass and Move Competition Overview: Two squares set up 10 yards x 10 yards, 4 players on the side of each square creating two teams.
The coach will shout out a number of passes and the team that reaches the number of passes first will score a point.
If the ball leaves the square or the players don’t stick to the rules they start from 0 at any point of the game.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 4 Players Coaching Points: First Touch, Passing, Speed
7.Dribbling & Passing Skills Corridor Overview: For this we worked with 10 players, but this can be used with a minimum of 6 players.
2 players at each end with 3 players on each side working in pairs.
The players on the ends dribble vertical back and forth with the pairs passing the ball across.
The aim is for the dribblers to successfully get from one end to the other without any contact with the balls going across.
The passers must help this by making good passes through the gaps.
The practice progresses with the dribblers moving in a zig zag style or performing 1 v 1 moves.
Passing players can be challenged with the amount of passes completed.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones Coaching Points: Awareness, Dribbling, Passing
8.Body Parts Overview: Setup an area with every player having a ball each.
Players begin travelling with their ball around the area, the coach then calls out a body part.
As soon as that body part has been called by the coach, players have to place that body part on the ball and stop the ball still.
As soon as all players have done this, the coach calls ‘go’ and players continue to move their ball around the area waiting for the next body part to be called.
Equipment: Footballs, Cones, 4 Players Coaching Points: Ball Control, Dribbling, Reactions
Every U8/U9 coach knows that coordination training is important.
However, the coordination ladder or jumping over cones are not the right exercises to train coordination.
Catching games are much better!
Why?It's fun!
The children have to recognize opponents' movements (just like in a game)
They have to constantly react and act anew (just like in a game)
They act at top speed due to opponent pressure
"Switching-Tag" is ideal for this!
In the beginning, it will take some time for the kids to switch quickly.
But once the exercise is up and running, it really gets going.