News Event: Skills Camp - Summer 2006
The ACE-SOCCER Skills camp is designed for youth players ages 11 through 14
looking to improve ball handling skills. The 2006 was held
during the week of July 31 [Monday] through August 4 [Friday] 2006.
Daily sessions were held from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Gifford School.
Camp Overview
The 2006 camp was directed by Issy Martinez, head coach of the area's most competitive high school age club team, the Racine Spartans Girls U-18 White . Some of the players from this team, many having been recognized with All County / All Conference honors, assisted with the camp sessions by providing individualized instruction on manuevers.
Camp Objectives
The camp is designed to improve the following skills:
- 1 vs. 1 Skills
- Dribbling
- Receiving and Possession in Confined Areas
- Finishing / Shooting
Although conditioning and tactical play will impact the sessions, this camp emphasizes the development of individual skills and building confidence with the ball. This is accomplished by emphazing skills and techniques that improve a player's ability to manuever their body and control the ball.
Session Outline
Sessions will be structured as follows:
- Touch Sessions [45 minutes]: High intensity drills/excercises designed to provide participants with the opportunity to get a lot of touches using various parts of their body/feet to control the ball.
- Ball Control / Body Manuevers [45 minutes]: Two ball control techniques will be introduced each session. The mechanics of each technique will be explained and demonstrated along with a review of appropriate game situations that may be exploited by the use of the technique. Camp participants will then engage in various individual and small-sided excercises designed to develop mastery of the technique. By the end of the five sessions, a participant is introduced to at least 15 ball control / body manuever techniques.
- Mid-Session Break [15 minutes]: Although a few short breaks (no more than 3 minutes) are provided during the first 90 minutes of the session, this extended break marks the half-way point of the session.
- Game Situation [45 minutes]: Excercises designed to help participants recognize and exploit game situations by using specific ball control skills.
- Small Sided Games [30 minutes]: Small sided (4 vs. 4; 3 vs. 3) games structured to emphasize the use of specific ball control skills. These games represent the ultimate setting within which participants can hone their new skills.