Soccer Cleats Game - head, shoulders, knees and ball
Soccer Cleats will become an important piece of footwear for many children and hopefully for many years. This fun game called 'head, shoulders, knees and ball' is a fun warm-up game for the U5 age group.
Preparation
You will quite simply only need the children to have a soccer ball each at their feet and to surround you allowing for enough room to move a little.
Take a look at the diagram below.
Explanation
The children stand around you with their soccer ball close to their feet. They will not yet touch the ball in any way. You will say a body part and they will put their hands on that part of the body. For example, their head. As soon as you say BALL! the kids have to put one of their feet on top of the ball as quickly as possible.
Experiment with different parts of the body to make it fun such as the nose, ears and mouth. Get them to lightly stretch by saying their 'toes'. Using other words that sound similar to 'ball' can trick the youngsters and always gets a laugh. For example, 'back', 'belly' and 'bottom/bum'.
Progression
A nice progression here is when you shout 'ball' the kids do a dragback turn and dribble to the outside of the area as quickly as possible.
Another progression can be for the coach to shout 'SWAP' and the kids have to find another soccer ball that wasn't the one they were just using.
Coaching points
-> Make sure the kids are well balanced and use both feet on the ball.
-> See if the kids can change direction by placing the bottom of their foot on the ball and rolling it behind them. This will eventually turn into the drag-back turn. Do this step by step with them!
