'D Game'

Stack of balls outside the circle. One team in bibs. Team starts attacking trying to score. If the ball goes off the back line then the defending team get a ball from the stack at the top and attack from a long corner. If the attackers score a goal, they are then able to get another ball and attack again from a different long corner spot. If the defending team win the ball they have to drive outside the circle and then they become the attacking team. The attacking team can go anywhere in the 1/4 but the defending team can only come out to the dotted 5m line. - Each team at the start can talk to each other about the different methods they are going to use to have an effective long corner. Players should think about: which player is taking the ball, where players will start, where players will move to, how they want to change the defensive press, when they will go and what they are going to do when the ball is taken from different areas of the line. As a coach facilitate the ideas and try to encourage them to think about innovative ways to break the press and get into the circle to score a goal. Explain that in a game the coach won't be able to tell them what to do so they have to work with each other to come up with solutions to the problems. There is no real wrong method apart form hitting the ball straight into the circle. Defenders should focus on the way they are going to defend and stop the attackers from scoring. Some ideas that could be suggested are: - Bounce pass, one player runs receives the ball then immediately gives the ball back - Deflection in, a player runs just outside the circle and deflect the ball after a hard slap into the circle - Driving straight into the circle- shouldn't happen if the defense have someone line to goal! - Pass wide and then drive the baseline into the circle using speed and elimination skills to beat the defender 1. By putting it in different places will make them think on the spot about different ways they could then attack the circle. For example, being right in the corner of the pitch will give you less options then if you were directly in the middle. 2. This will allow teams to evaluate what they need to improve on and use the other teams ideas to build and strength their own attack.