All sessions Coaching Library Session 2 →
Session 1 · Week 1Teach

Everybody's First Touch

Ball comfort and belonging. Today has one job and it is not soccer: every girl leaves having touched a ball hundreds of times, learned four names, and laughed out loud. Get this one right and you have eight weeks. Get it wrong and you're recruiting for the rest of the season.

Kit — a ball each, 20 discs, pinnies in two colours, four cone-goals

0:008 min

Arrival — Sharks & Minnows (no-out version)

Everyone dribbles in a grid; two coaches are sharks trying to kick balls out. If your ball goes out, three toe-taps and you're straight back in. Nobody ever stands watching. Learn a name out loud every time you take a ball.

Ramp inSharks visibly avoid the newest girls for the first minute. Let them get away with it.Ramp upThese girls protect a partner's ball as well as their own.
0:0810 min

Ball Mastery — Toe taps & sole rolls

Own ball, own space. Toe taps, sole rolls side to side, pull the ball back, stop it dead with the sole. Twenty seconds on, ten off. Count out loud as a team so nobody's counting alone.

Ramp inAny contact with the ball counts. Praise the tenth touch as loudly as the hundredth.Ramp upEyes up the whole time — call out how many fingers you're holding up.
0:183 min

Water — in shade

Names again. Go around: name plus favourite animal. It's three minutes and it's the reason they talk to each other in Week 4.

0:2116 min

Skill Block — The Toy Box

Four small zones marked by cone colour, each with one task: toe taps, sole rolls, inside-outside touches, stop-it-dead. Girls roam freely with their own ball; you call the switch every three minutes. No lines, no waiting, no turns.

Say this — "Ball close enough to touch every step."  ·  "Find me and tell me how many fingers."
Ramp inBigger zone, slower pace, just push-and-run is a win. Stand with her and count her reps out loud.Ramp upWeak foot only, or ten clean reps before she's allowed to switch zones.
0:375 min

Water + Team Challenge — Team Total

Sixty seconds, whole team, count every touch out loud as one number. Write it on your hand. You'll beat it in Week 3 and they will remember.

0:4218 min

Small-Sided — 3v3 to Four Goals

Four cone-goals around a small grid, no keepers, three games running at once. Score in any goal. Constraint: after you score, your next goal has to be a different one — which forces heads up and finds the empty space.

Say this — "If a goal is busy, go find an empty one."
Ramp inMake it 4v3 for the side with more new players, and widen their goals.Ramp upMust beat one defender before scoring — no tap-ins.
1:0010 min

Scrimmage & Keeper Club

6v6 free play, no positions, no instructions. Put a pop-up goal at each end and let it be chaos — today is not the day for shape. Ask who wants two minutes in goal; take every volunteer. Cheer every save absurdly loudly and say nothing at all about goals conceded.

1:105 min

Huddle

Name one thing each girl did well — every girl, by name, today of all days. Question of the week: "Who made you laugh today?" Pick a team cheer together and use the same one for eight weeks.

Don't know an activity?

Every activity name above links into the Coaching Library, which explains all of them with a diagram of the setup, numbered steps, and what each one teaches. It also holds the season plan, the mixed-ability method, the 12-player rotation grid, and what the SBMSA rulebook actually says about 8U.

Session 1 · Week 1 of sixteen — part of the 8U Practice Book, built for a 9v9 SBMSA 8U girls' season with a twelve-player roster.