Play Phase session: stadium game

Session overview

This session will help players:     

• become comfortable with a football at a young age  
• improve their ability to work in a team
• begin to develop an understanding of directional play. 

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

Stadium game is an 'open loop game'. This means it’s a non-stop game that ends when you want it to.  

It’s all about repeating the same task. Teams can have the same task and compete against each other, or they can do the opposite, like attack vs defence.  

It is simple to set up. You only need a group of players, some balls for each team and brightly coloured cones to mark out an area.  

How to play

Divide the children up into two teams in a playing area. Each group stands in one half. Share footballs (the more, the better) equally between the two groups.  

When you shout "GO", each side kicks their footballs into the other half. Each team does the same by sending footballs back into the other half.  

Whichever team has fewer footballs in their half at the end of the game wins. The game can finish after a set time or when the players get tired.