Teaches Speed Dribbling with Both Feet, U4 and U6, and U8 as a race or Tag
Comments:
Easy set up, every kid has a ball, and lots of exercise. Because they are dribbling in a group, they will get used to traffic and getting bumped and falling down. You can also play this as a U8 game by just making it a race or a tag race.
Teaches:
Speed Dribbling with both feet.
Set-up:
Use 4 cones or pieces of cloth to make an imaginary square that is 5 or 6 of your steps wide. Every kid has a ball.
The Game:
Start with your best dribbler on one side of the square and all the other kids on the opposite side in a “flock”.
The one kid is going to chase the other kids who are Sheep and can Baaaah like sheep if they want to.
On “Go”, All the kids dribble in the same direction and go around the cones (demonstrate). They should stay outside the cones but if they shortcut some or run over the cones don’t worry about it – just don’t let then run straight across – they should stay together as a “Flock”.
Do 2 laps and THEN choose another kid to Chase the Sheep (ask “Who wants to Chase the Sheep?”)
The Second Time, reverse direction so the kids are turning in a different direction – that will teach them to use both feet because they will be using a different foot to turn every time they are going in a different direction.
The Third Time, reverse direction again, etc. (reverse direction every other time).
Do this 3 or 4 times. If all the kids who want to be the Chaser didn’t get a turn, promise the other kids that they can do it at the next practice.
Encourage the Sheep to not let the Chaser catch them by saying something like “Go fast or he will catch you.”
You can have the Chaser be a cartoon character if you want to, but don’t scare the kids.
You can also play this as a U8 game by just making it a race or a tag race if they are too old to be Sheep.