Football Training Drills - Stuck in the Mud!
Football training drills such as this one are great to help the kids practice their dribbling skills and turns. Stuck in the mud is a simple drill that kids will love.
Preparation
Have a look at the straight-forward set-up for this drill below. All you will need is the kids to have a soccer-ball each and a coned off area big enough for the amount of kids you have to dribble around comfortably.
One child will not have the ball and will be the mud monster.
Explanation
Stuck in the mud is a simple drill. You will need one child to volunteer as the mud monster and the other kids to have soccer balls at their feet and dribble around the area.
Once you say 'go' the mud monster will try and tag the other kids with soccer balls. Football training drills like this put real emphasis on shielding themelves away from opposing players.
Once a child has been tagged they pick-up their soccer ball and hold it above their head as shown in the center of the diagram. The kid who has been tagged will then shout 'help, i'm stuck in the mud'.
To rescue the kid who has been tagged, another child must kick (pass) the ball between the players legs to free him.
The game continues until the mud monster has tagged all players and no-one can therefore be rescued.
Progression
There are plenty of little things you could add to make football training drills like this suitable for your own team. You could say that the mud monster has to kick players balls out of the area in order to make them stuck, with the kid collecting their ball and returning.
If the kids are struggling to rescue people becuase the mud monster is too quick, offer a safe 'no-catch' option. If a child is stuck in the mud they can hold their ball in one hand and offer there other hand to a kid who's not yet been caught.
Once the two kids are holding hands neither can be caught and the free kid then passes his ball between the legs of the caught player.
Coaching Points
-> Make sure the kids use little touches and demonstrate what happens if you kick the ball too far in a game.
-> Make sure the kids use the inside and outside of their feet whilst dribbling - not their toes.
-> Make sure the kids focus on accurate passing and do not get too flustered once the mud monster comes.
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