U7 attacking game

It isn’t always easy to teach young players how to play the game – often when you start a match one of the players will ask you “which way are we kicking?”.

So at training when you are coaching age groups like the Under 7s or 8s you need to work on what happens in the game itself rather than general coaching drills on attacking or defending. In this game players must look up and see the goal and dribble towards it.

1. Set up a 12 yard square area with a halfway line and a goal at one end. Split players into three groups of three. Number the players 1, 2 and 3 in each group.
2. In their groups, players start in one half of the area passing the ball to each other. As they play, they are listening out for the coach to call a number that they must react to. Make sure the players are passing the ball around.
3. When you call their number, the players dribble the ball into the other half of the area.
4. Once in the other half, players must get into the shooting position and get a shot on target.