Nightly Plan: Tuesday, July 24

Tonight's Schedule:

5:30PM: Registration, coaches warm up with kids
6:15PM: Large Group welcome – curriculum intro
6:30PM: Team name review, welcome new kids, review team expectations
6:35PM: Warm-ups & games in Division, skills demonstration (Skill: Dribbling!)
6:55 PM: Small Group Curriculum (Theme: Homes!) 
7:15PM: Team Drill Work 
7:45PM: Scrimmages
8:15PM: Camp Conclusion. Present “Olympian of the Night.” Teach Dance.  
8:25PM: Snack dismissal
8:30PM: Check out
8:45PM: Debriefing in Divisions
9:00PM: Final Group Announcements
9:10PM: Volunteer Scrimmage! 

Tonight's Ways to "Go for the Gold" for Team Medals

Values Curriculum: Homes!
1. Kids add home ‘medals’ to division ring – team earns one medal if everyone adds a medal to the ring.
2. Coaches may award their team extra medals if players demonstrate excellent implementation of going for the gold themes (e.g using each other's names during scrimmage, working together during 'home' activity).
Soccer Curriculum: Dribbling
1. Coaches may award team one medal for participating (as a whole team) in tonight's drill work with effort and teamwork, focusing to practice dribbling with confidence, quick feet, different parts of the feet, and awareness.

Coaches -- report your team's medal count to your division leaders. 

Tonight's Skill: Dribbling

Ways to “go for the gold”
1) Confidence - Having a positive attitude
2) Quick feet / Close control
3) Different parts of the feet
4) Awareness - Keeping your head up

Dribbling: Coaching Points

• Positive attitude - confidence
  
• Keep the ball close to your feet
  
• Head up - awareness of what’s around you
  
• Change of speed and change of direction
  
  

Videos to use as reference:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDD9DF02717D5214F&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb8kKHJaQJQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iDtaSE25Is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6jlHgj7tc&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QDqXO8g8Qs

1) Dribble and .... (set up a 15x15 grid)

• X players are all in the grid, dribbling freely. 
  
• On the coach’s signal, players must perform the given command:
  

• use only left or right foot
  
• use only the inside, outside, or sole of any foot
  
• move the ball quickly between both feet
  
• crazy stuff (i.e. sit on the ball, head on the ball, ball b/w knees)
  
• dribble in area and on whistle, do a certain MOVE
  
• dribble in area and on whistle, do a certain TURN
  

Emphasize: 

• Quick feet
  
• Good stance - knees bent, moving on the balls of feet
  

2) Lines (set up a 10x30 grid)

• X players dribble to the various lines and back.
  
• Coach should vary what players do:
  

• use only the laces of left or right foot
  
• move the ball quickly b/w both feet
  
• use only the inside, outside, sole of foot
  
• zig-zag
  
• drag the ball with the sole of foot
  
• pull the ball with the sole of foot
  
• dribble freely
  
• be creative!
  

Emphasize:

• Use both feet 
  
• Use different parts of feet
  
  

3) Colors (set up a 15x15 grid)

• Place two differently colored cones in the corner (e.g. red and yellow).
  
• Coach must hold in hand something that is also yellow and red (e.g. pinnies)
  
• X players dribble in and around grid.
  
• Without saying anything, the coach lifts either of the pinnies in the air.
  
• Players must now dribble the ball to the corresponding color cone.
  
• Coaches could use 4 different colors.
  
  

Emphasize: 

• Keep heads up (awareness)
  
• Be quick to change speed and direction
  
  

4) Crabs (set up a 15x15 grid)

• Each player has a ball except for three or four players who are “crabs.”
  
• “Crabs” have to be sitting on his/her backside but is free to move anywhere only on hands and feet.
  
• Players with the ball dribble in and around the area trying to avoid the “crabs.”
  
• Switch “crabs” every 2-3 minutes.

Emphasize: 

• Keep heads up (awareness)
  
• Be quick to change speed and direction
  

5) Multi-goal soccer (set up a 30x30 grid)

• Each player has a ball and must dribble the ball through the goals.
  
• A goal can be scored from any side.
  
• After scoring on one goal, the player must then move to a different goal.
  
• No passing through the goal.
  
  

Emphasize: 

• Encourage players to keep heads up (awareness) and attack a new goal after going through a goal and to avoid other players.
  
• Be quick to change speed and direction.
  
• See how many goals each person can score in one minute.

DRIBBLING GAMES
1) Wickets - Set up a 20X20 grid (appropriate for all age groups)
There are two teams. Divide players into 1’s and 2’s. Have all the 1’s spread around the designated area and stand with their feet spread well apart as “Wickets.” Have the 2’s dribble the ball in and through the “Wickets.” The objective is to see how many wickets they can dribble through in a given time. Switch teams.

2) Freeze Tag - Set up a 20X20 grid (appropriate for all age groups)
Similar to the game “Wickets” combined with traditional freeze tag. 

3) King of the Castle - Set up a 20X20 grid (appropriate for all age groups)
All players have a ball at their feet. On the whistle, all players are to dribble around while attempting to kick a teammates ball out of the grid. Once a ball has been knocked out of the grid, the player collects his/her ball and waits on the sideline. He/she is out for that round. That last player with a ball at his/her feet is King of the Castle.

4) Thieves - Set up a 20X20 grid (appropriate for all older groups)
Create 4 safe zones with the cones. Each player has a ball except for the 3-4 “Thieves” who will wear pennies. It’s similar to a traditional tag game with safe areas. If you get tagged by the “Thieves,” you lose the ball and become the “Thief.” When the play is stopped, at coach’s command, any player without a ball must do a “Fun Exercise” (i.e. 5 star jumps, 5 push-ups, etc.). Maximum of 2 players are allowed in each safe zone at one time. The 1st person who was in the zone must leave when the 3rd person enters the safety zone. 

5) Alien attack - Set up a 20X30 grid (appropriate for older age groups)
This game is basically, the “Humans vs Aliens” warm-up with soccer balls. 

Tonight's Value: Homes!

Today's Goals: Go for the gold – learn about each other's homes!
1.    Participants will learn about their teammates’ homes.
2.    Participants will learn why “home” is important.
3.    Participants will learn the connection between knowing about someone's home and going for the gold.

Today's Connection to Go for the Gold:
Where we are from, where we live, can tell us and others a lot about ourselves. Our home is where we feel safe and loved and the most ourselves, and when we share that with someone else they know us better and when we hear about someone else's home we can begin to understand them better. Knowing more about and understanding each other are steps to becoming better friends, better teammates, better members of our families, and better neighbors, which is what Going for the Gold is all about.

Activities:

• Re-introduce rings activity. 
  

Ask:
--Who can tell the new people what we're making this week? What did we add yesterday?
--Respond to answers:
 --That's right, all week, each night we are going to decorate our Soccer Nights “Green” Division Olympic Ring, and at the end of the week we are going to combine all the rings to make the Soccer Nights Olympic Rings. Each day we will learn how we can “Go for the Gold!” together as a team, to become better friends and better soccer players!

Remember, in your teams you can set goals tonight that all of you as a team will work together to achieve in order to earn medals.

• Introduce Today's Theme: Homes!
  

Say: What is a home? When you say “this is my home,” what are you talking about?
- home can be lots of things - it can be a house, the place you live; it can be a city or town where you live or where you were born, it can be a place you don't live but maybe your family is from there. As we grow and get older, we might have more than one place we call home, but each of these places has a place in our hearts and is filled with memories and importance to us. For example, if you asked me what my home is, I would say: North Cambridge, because that's where I live now and where my life is, and I want to stay here. But I'd also say Maine, because that's where I grew up and it's where my Mom and Dad are and I will always love it there and have memories of home.

Yesterday we learned that knowing someone’s name is a great first step to building friendships and community, to working together to go for the gold. Well believe it or not but knowing about each other’s HOMES is just as important! Why? Well where we are from, where we live, can tell us and others a lot about ourselves. My home is where I feel safe and loved and I love to be, so when I share that with someone else they know a little more about me and when I hear about where someone is from I can begin to understand them a little better. Especially at Soccer Nights, where so many of us come from so many different states and cities and countries, learning about those places is so cool! And it makes us more connected to our teammates and our community. So tonight we are going to learn something about each of our teammates’ homes.

• Tonight's Activity: 
  

Younger Divisions:
 Curriculum team will come around and hand paper medals. Kids will be given markers and will have a few minutes to “draw home”on the medal. Encourage them to be creative and draw whatever home means to them. This could be a picture of their family, their house, their room, the country they are from, etc.

1st grade: When they are done drawing on the medal they should write their name on it.

2nd/3rd grade: When they are done drawing they should write on their medal one thing they like about their home.

Curriculum volunteers (or parents) should glue medals to division rings (can do ½ facing one way and ½ facing the other way in order to show both pictures and words)

Older Divisions:
Coaches should split their team into pairs. Curriculum team will come around and hand out paper medals. Kids will be given markers and will have a few minutes to ask their partner the 3 questions about home:

• What or where is your home?
  
• Where is your family from? 
  
• What is something you like about your home?
  

Kids should first write their partner's name on their medal, and then write the answers to the questions.
Halfway through instruct them to switch.

• Share
  

Younger Divisions: (optional, only if time)
  Going around the circle, have everyone on your team introduce their drawing by saying “My name is _____ one thing I like about my home is _____________ (Note: If you don’t have time to go around the entire circle, pick a few volunteers) 

Older Divisions: Share/Build a Pyramid/Human Home
Going around the circle, have everyone on your team introduce their partner by saying “This is my friend _____, and their family comes from ____________ and now their home is in ________. One thing they like about their home is _____________

After the first pair shares, they should get on their hands and knees and begin the pyramid.

(Say: we are going to build a human house). The next pair introduces each other and adds to the pyramid. Keep adding to the pyramid until everyone has gone (if there are a lot of kids, start a new pyramid - as many as seem safe, coaches’ discretion).