Play Phase session: goal golf

Session overview

This session will help players:  

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

If you like this idea, download the session plan 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  

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

Setting up goal golf is easy. All you'll need is a group of players, cones, some balls and bean bags.

How to play

Set out a course with cones as the markers. Each 'hole' on the course has a start point and a 'goal' to score into.

To start, allow each child to choose an object they are comfortable throwing or kicking. The children then work through the golf course at their own speed.

They complete a task that gets them to the next hole, just like in a real golf game. The challenge is to throw or kick the object into the goal in as few turns as possible.

You can encourage the children to be goalkeepers and throw the object. You could also make it more game-specific by asking them to play with a ball and their feet. If in doubt, give them the choice.