No practice? No problem! Week 3 play at home ideas

By | March 30, 2020
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The Coronavirus put a sudden halt to our regular soccer activities. This will result in lots of kids spending extra time at home.

Can they sit on the couch and watch Netflix? Sure! But they can also take some time to play or practice on their own. This is a hidden-in-plain-sight method for getting better quickly!

Week 3 play at home ideas (March 30-April 5):

Week 3 theme — competing with yourself:

You can compete with yourself, with teammates or with opponents. We think all the girls understand the idea of competing with teammates and opponents.

reverse V-pull moveThe idea of competing with yourself is a harder concept. But it’s an idea that makes sense during the current times, when we aren’t able to get together for team practices or games. If you want to compete, the easiest person to find to compete against is yourself!

Competing with yourself means you want to challenge yourself, and try to become better today than you were yesterday. Set a goal, such as improving your dribbling with your second best foot, or learning how to juggle. This is tough:  your second best foot isn’t anywhere near as good as your favorite foot, and juggling is hard. The easy answer is to ignore those skills. But that won’t make you better! Try your best, and understand that getting better takes time and determination.

Two things to remember:  If something is easy, anyone could do it! When you learn a new skill or improve a current skill, you’ll feel a sense of pride, because you’ll know you put in the work to get better. That’s a great feeling!

This week’s play-at-home suggestions include two activities where you compete mainly with yourself:

  • figure-8 dribbling
  • bounce juggling

Rainy day?

This week’s activities are best done outside in the yard or on the driveway. You might be able to figure-8 dribble indoors, but we do NOT recommend juggling indoors unless you are using a balloon.

Tuesday calls for rain. If you want to compete with yourself inside the house, check our rainy day activities page for some indoor-friendly activities.

Figure-8 dribbling:

Dribbling in a figure-8 pattern is one of the best ways to develop better dribbling control!

You get lots of purposeful touches. You get an equal mix of right and left turns. You can emphasize your best foot, your second best foot, or both feet. You can make your turns with the inside of your feet or the outside of your feet. You can emphasize tight control or raw speed.

Figure-8 dribbling — how to compete:

  1. Setup two cones or markers, 5-10 steps apart.
  2. Dribble around the cones in a figure-8 pattern for 30 seconds.
  3. Each time you go around a cone, you earn a point!
  4. How many points can you get?
  5. Now comes the hard part:  keep practicing, and see if you can beat your older record!

If you get bored competing against yourself (you’re human, that can happen!), try adding a new rule (maybe “second best foot only”), or challenge your sister or brother or parents. Or see if your parents can arrange a remote competition with a friend or teammate. You practice on your own, and your friend practices on her own, and then you compare figure-8 records with each other.

Bounce juggling:

Players who are new to juggling benefit from alternating touches with bounces during the early learning stages. The bounce gives you more time to regain your balance and get your body and feet into position to take the next juggling touch.

Juggling keys to success:

  • Stay balanced.
  • Keep your feet moving to stay close to the ball.
  • Each touch needs to setup the next touch.

Bounce juggling — how to compete:

  1. Start with the ball in your hands. (Don’t worry about using your feet to pick up the ball just yet. You can add that after you become a decent juggler.)
  2. Gently toss the ball up around chest or neck high, out about a step from your body.
  3. Let the ball bounce. While it is bouncing up from the ground, get your body into position to juggle the ball.
  4. Be patient and wait for the ball to start moving down again.
  5. Juggle the ball when it is at knee height. Use the laces area of your shoe, not your toes. A good beginner’s touch will kick the ball up to chest or head height. (Low touches are great once you get better, but they don’t work for beginners. High touches above your head usually lead to poor juggling posture and a loss of balance.)
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 and count your reps. How many bounce-juggle reps can you get before you wipe out? (Start over if the ball bounces twice in a row after a juggle.) Try again — can you beat your record?

If you get bored competing against yourself (you’re human, that can happen!), challenge your sister or brother or parents. Or see if your parents can arrange a remote competition with a friend or teammate. You practice on your own, and your friend practices on her own, and then you compare juggling records with each other.

Parent input wanted:

We welcome photos or short videos (10 seconds or so) of your daughter competing with herself. With your approval, we’ll be glad to post on our Twitter and YouTube accounts, without including any names. You can e-mail submissions here.

We’d like to add a level of interactivity to the play at home ideas, without having to rely on swapping large video files. If you have any experience in this area, please e-mail Ward to share your ideas.

Parent information: