Close It Out

Two points up with five to play, or a girl in the sin bin — minors who have rehearsed the hard endings don't panic when the real one arrives.

Ladies football
Minor
80 min
16–26 players
2 coaches
Effort 4/5
Half to two-thirds of a pitch
minor
game management
decision making
sin bin
conditioned games

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 10 footballs (size 4), 30 cones, 20 bibs (2 colours), a whistle each, a phone timer for the countdown

Warm-up12 min

Scenario Pods

Setup: Pods of five, one ball each, in 20×20m grids. A cone in each corner of every grid.

How it works: Possession on the move inside the pod — hand-pass, loop, offer again. Every 45 seconds call a scenario and the pods obey instantly without stopping: KEEP BALL = five safe passes, no risks; FAST = ball must cross the grid within two passes; CORNER = work it to a girl at a corner cone and hold it there under a five-count; RESET = everyone touches the ball before the next call. The warm-up doubles as the language lesson — these are the same calls the captains will use later. Dynamic stretching between rounds while pods swap grids.

What to say

“Obey the call before you understand it — trust the caller.”
“KEEP BALL means boring on purpose — short, safe, again.”
“One voice per pod — pick her now.”

Easier

Walk-pace rounds, two calls only (KEEP BALL and FAST).

Harder

Add a floating defender who joins any pod she likes; calls come from a pod member, not the coach.

Activity18 min

Sin-Bin Squeeze

Setup: A 45×35m pitch with a gate goal at each end. 7v6 — in ladies football a yellow card means ten minutes in the sin bin, so one team plays a player down, exactly like the real thing. Spare players rotate in as the extra.

How it works: Three-minute rounds. The short-handed team's job is written on a cone at their end: SURVIVE — keep the ball, slow every restart, use the corners, concede no goal. The extra-player team's job: PUNISH — width, fast frees taken from the hands, make the spare girl the free one every time. Score normally through the gates. After each round, swap which team is down and read the score aloud: a round survived 0-0 is a win for the six. Coaches referee tight and keep frees quick — the game must feel like the last ten of a championship match.

What to say

“Down a player: the ball does the running, never you.”
“Up a player: find the spare girl BEFORE the defence sets.”
“Fouling while down a girl is how one bin becomes two.”

Easier

7v5 so the overload is obvious; no gate defending inside 3m.

Harder

STEPR: the short team must also score at least once to win the round; shrink the pitch so the press is easier for the seven.

Activity15 min

Out of the Fire

Setup: Defensive third of the pitch. Keeper with balls, back six in position, four pressing forwards in bibs. The keeper takes every kickout from her hands — use that speed.

How it works: The drill is one job on repeat: get the ball from the keeper's hands to over the halfway line against a press, without a kick down the throat of the middle. Keeper picks short to a corner-back peeling wide, or a punched restart to a midfielder showing on the wing — her choice, but she must decide before the press sets. The six work it out with hand-passes and one safe kick maximum. Score: a controlled carry over halfway is a point for the defence; a turnover inside the third is two for the press. Rotate pressers every four restarts. Add the coach's silence rule: only the keeper and one named defender may talk.

What to say

“Keeper: fast from the hands beats any press that hasn't set.”
“First receiver opens her body — never take it facing your own goal.”
“If it's not on, it's not on — go again, no hero kicks.”

Easier

Three pressing forwards; the press may not enter the small square area around the keeper.

Harder

STEPR: five pressers; the defence must reach halfway inside 15 seconds or it counts as a turnover.

The rest of this session is free — along with 3 more this week.

PitchPlans coaching team

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