South River Youth Athletics

The emphasis in the Tots program should be individual ball control. 4 year olds are not ready for passing--they're only beginning to understand the idea of getting the ball and keeping it. Hence, spend most of the time having the players dribble in every drill or game. 1v1 is very advanced for the first couple of weeks for 90 percent of the players. After that, add in another player to go 2v2 and finally 3v3. The added players mainly offer more obstacles while dribbling rather than teammates for support/passing.

Games to Play

• Bear and Bees: players (Bees) dribble balls around trying to sting the coach (Bear) with their balls.
• Simon Says: players dribble ball according to coaches commands: dribble, dribble faster, stop ball with bottom of foot, turn with inside of foot, turn with outside of foot, etc. Variation: coach has three different colored pennies and ask which color is held up at various intervals
• Freeze tag: one/two players (without balls) tag other players trying to dribble away. Players who are "frozen" stand with legs apart and hands above head. Other "unfrozen" players try to dribble/pass their own ball between "frozen" players legs.
• Red Light/Green Light: players stop the balls with the bottom of their feet on Red Light and dribble forward on Green Light.
• Sharks and Minnows: Minnows line up on sideline (with ball). Sharks start in the middle (without balls). Minnows try to dribble past sharks to the other sideline. Sharks try to steal ball and put it in the goal (or out of bounds if no goal).
• Egg Hunt: put all of the balls (Eggs) in the middle of the field. Players gather balls into goals (Baskets) as fast as they can. Split group into two teams. Play one team at a time so there are many more balls than players.
• Don't wake the Monster: players sneak up on a sleeping Monster with their soccer balls. The players stop the ball with the soles of their feet and get ready to do a pull back move. The players ask "Monster are you sleeping?" The players go closer after each query and ask the same question in a louder tone until the Monster wakes up. The players then do a pull back and run back to the start line. Emphasize tip toeing and using the top of the feet (laces) to sneak up on the Monster (teaches good dribbling).
• Pirate ships: place cones (Pirate Ships) around the field. Players (HMS Captains) use their balls to knock over (sink) the cones as fast as they can.
• Buried treasure: place disks/cones/pennies (buried treasure) around the field. Have players do some sort of soccer skill like three turns around the treasure before they can pick the treasure up. Variation: put pennies under cones and have players knock cones over to find them.
• Flip over: place disks around the field, some up and some down. One team dribbles around turning the disks upside and the other team turns them down. Have more players on the team turning them up (it's harder).
• Relay Races

Advanced games

• Kick Out: each player starts with a ball in a confined area. Players dribble around with their ball while trying to kick other players balls out of bounds.
• One vs. One (with multiple goals in a row): pair up players. One player starts with ball and tries to score in any of several goals in a line. Other player in pair plays defense. After scoring, the player who scores allows partner to start with the ball.
• Numbers: split into two teams per goal. Have each team line up next to goal. Number players on each team. Toss ball into field of play and call out a number (or multiple numbers for advanced play). First person to touch ball is on offense. Other person is on defense. If offense scores, credit two points. If defense holds for 30 seconds, defense gets 1 point.