Two young boys stand next to a cone. One has a beanbag balanced on top of his head.

Session

Play Phase session: skill bean

SESSION

England Football Learning

2 mins - Dec 13, 2023

Session overview

This session will help players:

improve a variety of movement skills
begin to develop balancing and body positioning related to football
work on their coordination.

If you like this idea, download the session cards and give it a go. And don’t forget to share your experience on the England Football Community. We’d love to know how you got on.

Organisation

Skill bean is an 'individual game'. This means each child has an object, such as a ball or bean bag, which they move and interact with in different ways. The freedom of these games gives children the chance to explore and try new things.

Setting up skill bean is easy. All you'll need are a group of players and some bean bags. Extra equipment, such as spots or cones, can also help add more variety to the session.

How to play

Give each child a bean bag, then ask them to try different things like:

balancing the bean bag on their foot
lifting it up with their foot and catching it with their hands
launching it from their foot into a target a distance away
sitting down with a bean bag on their head and then standing up without it falling off
trying one foot and then the other. Ask which was easiest, left or right?

Skill bean

Ask the players to balance the bean bag on one of their feet or launch it to a target a distance away using their feet.
You could also ask the players to lift the bean bag up and catch it or try lifting it with either foot to find out which is easiest. They could even try balancing the bean bag on their head.

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Coaching activity

More ideas for the game

Making it even more fun

Challenge the children to balance the bean bag on different parts of their body.

Imaginative play

Ask what their favourite player might do with a bean bag and ask them to try.

Object play

Introduce a target to throw or carry the bean bag to.

Social play

Ask children to work in pairs. One child shows a skill, and their partner copies it.

Physical play

Get the children running, lunging, twisting, turning, jumping and skipping while in control of their bean bag.

Remember to give it a football focus. Ask the children to try balancing the bean bag in football-specific body positions. This could be, for example, an overhead kick or a volley. Later in their development, the children can replicate these actions with a ball.

Want to get more from the game? Use our idea generator to increase the returns for your players.