Coaching Footy Competitive drills

[Michaels]

Hey guys and girls,

I coach a local Under 15 side in the top division of our competition, what I'm wanting to do this pre season though is turn them all into competitive beasts. I (like every other coach i guess) want them to be going in hard for the contested footy and making the ball the only thing they want (had a couple of issues last year with being more worried about the man not the ball)

Anyone got any drills that they have used to encourage fierce competition with going for the ball, or just anything in general that will make them more hungry to win.

I have a few drills written down, but the more variety the better!

 

[DeeWong6996]

Have you put down the one where you get assigned with someone your size and you have to win the footy 1 on 1 from an indirect kick? I'm not sure if it has a name or not, but if you boot it far enough it can train their short distance running, body positioning and most importantly tackling.

Keepings off (or however you spell it ) is a good one. This really motivates the players without the ball to apply pressure and ultimately win the footy back.

Hope this was helpful!

 

[Michaels]

Have you put down the one where you get assigned with someone your size and you have to win the footy 1 on 1 from an indirect kick? I'm not sure if it has a name or not, but if you boot it far enough it can train their short distance running, body positioning and most importantly tackling.

Keepings off (or however you spell it ) is a good one. This really motivates the players without the ball to apply pressure and ultimately win the footy back.

Hope this was helpful!

Yeah i have something like that written down already, i called it contested king.

basically you have the players in a line, kick the ball out in front of the line and the first two take off after it so its a 1 v 1 contest to get it back to me (like what you mentioned) but whoever wins stays on and goes up against the next person.

Kick the ball out, those two contest, whoever gets it back to me stays on and so on. if 1 player stays on as 'king' for 4 cycles the rest of the players have to do 10 sprawls.

Keepings off is definitely a good one, the boys will love that!

Thanks!

 

[Igloo]

Not sure what your coaching staff numbers or like, but you can always just use injured kids, or get a volunteer or two.

Players start down the bottom, and there are three zones in front of them. Each zone has a player in it. There are three people (the coaches/volunteers) standing to the side of the zones with a ball in hand.

The coach rolls the ball out, and the players have to make a contest with the guy already in the zone. Win the ball, and give it back, and move on to the next zone.
Has repeated efforts, contested ball, and by the end, the player going through the zones will have to deal with being a bit out of position, because there are no rests between zones.

Blue dot - person
red dot - footy

 

[Ghossein]

practice match where you can only handball, but set out a playing field that is reasonably small. big enough to fit everyone on it with some space, but small enough to ensure there wont be any free space where people can get easy touches. every touch will be under extreme pressure and the ball will be on the ground half the time, meaning a lot of going in hard and low for the footy.

the kids love it as well.

 

[evo]

Yeah i have something like that written down already, i called it contested king.

basically you have the players in a line, kick the ball out in front of the line and the first two take off after it so its a 1 v 1 contest to get it back to me (like what you mentioned) but whoever wins stays on and goes up against the next person.

Kick the ball out, those two contest, whoever gets it back to me stays on and so on. if 1 player stays on as 'king' for 4 cycles the rest of the players have to do 10 sprawls.

Keepings off is definitely a good one, the boys will love that!

Thanks!

I do one similar to that with my u/14s but I hadn't thought to let the winner stay on. Great idea!

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Anything that reduces the number of players in the contest.

In large scale drills (6+ players) your better contested ball players will win the footy and the lesser players (who are the ones you want to improve) will defer to them. That's the problem with games like the handball keepings off game. The good players dominate.

Isolate the players you want to improve.

1 v 1... 2 v 2... 1 v 2... 1 v 3... 2 v 3 etc. Lots of repeated small group activities.

Keep changing the scenario - ground balls, high balls, around goals, close to boundary line etc. Set up 2-3 different scenarios on different areas of the oval and your players can rotate though them.

As people have described, 'winning' the drill can be things like:

Force a stoppage or return the ball to kicker = win for the smaller group
Take a mark = win for the larger group

OR

Force a stoppage or return the ball to kicker = win for the smaller group
Kick a goal = win for the larger group

Ideally remove yourself (the coach) from the activity. Have players taking turns as the one feeding the ball, that the players have to get the ball back to. The players rotate in all the different roles and the drills can operate without you. That way you can float around, speak to the players and actually 'coach' without the activities having to stop. Less waiting around time for the kids too.

 

[Dustin Credible]

Anything that reduces the number of players in the contest.

In large scale drills (6+ players) your better contested ball players will win the footy and the lesser players (who are the ones you want to improve) will defer to them. That's the problem with games like the handball keepings off game. The good players dominate.

Isolate the players you want to improve.

1 v 1... 2 v 2... 1 v 2... 1 v 3... 2 v 3 etc. Lots of repeated small group activities.

Keep changing the scenario - ground balls, high balls, around goals, close to boundary line etc. Set up 2-3 different scenarios on different areas of the oval and your players can rotate though them.

As people have described, 'winning' the drill can be things like:

Force a stoppage or return the ball to kicker = win for the smaller group
Take a mark = win for the larger group

OR

Force a stoppage or return the ball to kicker = win for the smaller group
Kick a goal = win for the larger group

Ideally remove yourself (the coach) from the activity. Have players taking turns as the one feeding the ball, that the players have to get the ball back to. The players rotate in all the different roles and the drills can operate without you. That way you can float around, speak to the players and actually 'coach' without the activities having to stop. Less waiting around time for the kids too.

Excellent post Going to keep this last paragraph in mind when I take my next session.