FineSoccer Drill 24

A fun warm up drill  that I have been using for a year or so is called rock, paper, scissors.  

If you are not familiar with the kids game rock, paper, scissors then this might be real confusing.  To explain it quite simply, two people stand two yards apart with a ball between them.  They say "rock, paper, scissors shoot and then each put out two fingers (for a scissors) a fist (for the rock) or a flat hand (for the paper).  Since a rock can break scissors, a rock will win that contest.  Scissors will cut paper so scissors wins that contest and paper covers a rock so it wins that contest.  Whoever  wins the individual contest can then try to kick the ball into the losers legs.  If they are successful in doing this, then they get a point.  The first one to five points wins.  If the player loses the contest, then the objective is to prevent getting hit with the ball by moving the feet as quickly as possible to avoid contact.

This might seem like a pretty stupid game that doesn't accomplish much but if you think about it, it works on decision making (the players have to try to react to the outcome of the individual contest to either avoid getting hit or to hit the opponent.  I have actually spoken with a couple of sports psychologists who say they use this game to work with kids on quick reactions.  Other things this works on is quick footwork and conditioning (if the winner of the individual contest kicks the ball at the other player and misses, both players must spring after the ball and start playing again right away from wherever the ball ends up.

The first time I saw this game was at a coaching course I was working at and I thought it was incredibly foolish.  However, the next week I was running a camp for keepers and was looking for a fun game as a warm-up.  I tried it and the players LOVED it.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Have a great day.

Lawrence