Training on a set night is only long enough for the coaches to work on team play, shape and any obvious technical faults. To become good footballers however you will each have to develop your own skills, understanding and attitude. In order to help you do this the coaches will be devising 3 training plans to help you develop. We would like you to spend 30 minutes every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday working on the drills to help you become a better player.

IMPORTANT

Before starting any of the activity sessions please warm up properly. This means gradually stretching the muscle groups that you are going to use and getting your body ready for exercise. Why not try some of these:

• Walking on your toes
• Walking on just your heels
• Jogging slowly bringing your heel up to touch your bum each step
• Jogging slowly raising your knees as high as possible
• Skipping
• Zig-Zags from side to side
• Try to make as many quick steps in 1 minute as you can, keep a record and try to beat it next time

The programs will be focused on 3 areas Fitness, Skills and Mental Aspects. The coaches and your parents can help each of you work out which area you need to work most on each week.

Fitness

The best way to improve fitness is by gradual steps with frequent small increases. To start with we would like all players to spend 15 minutes in each of the 3 sessions straight after the warm-up working on speed, agility and quickness.

To start with find a safe flat piece of ground and make sure you have footwear that is not going to slip or cause you to get injured. Then put down a marker and measure out 10 yards, put another marker and then heading in the same direction measure another 10 yards and put another marker. Now you're all set.

Ask somebody to start timing your 15 minutes or start to time yourself if you can. Now sprint from the 1st marker to the middle marker and then jog to the last marker and back to the start. Repeat that 5 times and then sprint from the start marker all the way to the last marker and jog back to the start. Repeat that 5 times. Then side-step from the start to the middle marker facing one way and from the middle marker to the end marker facing the other, repeat this 5 times jogging back to the start from the end marker each time. Then start again with the short sprints. Count each time you pass the end marker and keep your score so you can try to beat it the next time.

Skills (using a learned technique under pressure)