Football - Heading - Head Through Gates

Aim: To improve attacking and defensive heading techniques

Suitable for: U10’s and upwards

Equipment: Marked area appropriate size for age, balls and cones

Organisation: Players set up as shown in the video and diagram. 3 players act as servers for 1 working player. The 1st server throws the ball and the working player has to make a decision on how to deal with it depending on the flight, height and speed of the ball. They can either head downwards through gates 3, defensively towards gates 2 or long and high defensively towards gate 1. After 3 attempts rotate working player.

Progressions:

• Increase / decrease the distance between players, servers and the coned gates
• Working player to call for the ball
• Servers throw in a random order
• Servers to have 3 balls each so working player has 9 attempts before changing

Coaching Points

• Timing of the header
• Direction of the header
• Communication between the player and the server
• Use the forehead, not the top of the head
• Players to jump for the ball to take it earlier
• Player to attack the ball for more power

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