Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That seems insane. We are playing contact games with one of Arlington's travel teams in early October.

Hmmm. Seems like a troll post. My DC plays for an Arlington travel team and they have been playing full contact games for weeks now.

Anonymous wrote:That seems insane. We are playing contact games with one of Arlington's travel teams in early October.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where I learned this drill, but it works well for passing without a partner, teaching correct form, and how to weight a ball.

Landing a spaceship:
Setup a set of four cones in a square for each player. Have the player stand about 8 yards from the box of cones. Explain that the ball is a spaceship and the box is a moon/planet. Let them name the moon or planet; they like that. They have to launch the spaceship and land on the moon.

At this point, you can teach correct form for a push pass.
Making sure they open their shoulders, so they can open their hips.
Make sure they are not swinging, but pushing the ball forward with the instep.
The chest should be slightly over the ball.
The momentum comes from the hips.

If they hit the ball too hard or too soft, the spaceship is lost.
Try to make sure they can land at least 3 spaceships with each foot. You can add a dribbling skill on the way back once they get the ball, like sole roles, sole taps, or any other technical dribble.

I've used this a lot and over time it is surprising how fast they pick up how to properly weight a good push pass. Also, they really like the imagination aspect of naming a planet and crashing their ships.

Hope this helps

This helps. Thanks.

I've had a number of conversations with the folks that run the Arlington Soccer Association, but to no avail. They seem to believe the virus can be transmitted from child "A" to soccer ball "A", from soccer ball "A" to soccer ball "B", and from soccer ball "B" to child "B". So frustrating.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where I learned this drill, but it works well for passing without a partner, teaching correct form, and how to weight a ball.

Landing a spaceship:
Setup a set of four cones in a square for each player. Have the player stand about 8 yards from the box of cones. Explain that the ball is a spaceship and the box is a moon/planet. Let them name the moon or planet; they like that. They have to launch the spaceship and land on the moon.

At this point, you can teach correct form for a push pass.
Making sure they open their shoulders, so they can open their hips.
Make sure they are not swinging, but pushing the ball forward with the instep.
The chest should be slightly over the ball.
The momentum comes from the hips.

If they hit the ball too hard or too soft, the spaceship is lost.
Try to make sure they can land at least 3 spaceships with each foot. You can add a dribbling skill on the way back once they get the ball, like sole roles, sole taps, or any other technical dribble.

I've used this a lot and over time it is surprising how fast they pick up how to properly weight a good push pass. Also, they really like the imagination aspect of naming a planet and crashing their ships.

Hope this helps