First Touch Festival

Four touch stations, a rolling scoreboard and hundreds of catches per girl — a festival where the softest hands take home the bragging rights.

Ladies football
U12
60 min
16–24 girls
3 coaches
Effort 3/5
Half pitch
u12
first touch
catching
stations
small-sided games

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 12 footballs (size 3 or 4 per your league), 30 cones, 4 station signs or spare bibs to mark corners, 16 bibs

Warm-up8 min

Juggler's Market

Setup: A 25×25m square, every girl with a ball. Coaches scattered inside as market traders.

How it works: Girls move through the market soloing and bouncing. On TRADE, every girl must swap balls with someone — a short throw each, caught chest-high, no dropping the goods. On HAGGLE, swap with a coach instead, and coaches throw them awkward: low, high, off to one side. On MARKET CLOSED, last girl to a clean catch of her own throw-up does five happy claps for the group. Three or four minutes of that, then finish with 60 seconds of throw-catch on the move: throw it a metre above your own head, catch it soft, keep jogging.

What to say

“Reach for the ball — meet it, don't wait for it.”
“Fingers spread wide, thumbs behind it.”
“Give with the hands as it lands — soft hands, no slaps.”

Easier

Underarm trades only, standing still to catch.

Harder

Trades must be caught above the head; haggle throws come as bouncing balls to pick clean off the ground.

Activity14 min

Festival Stations — Pop-Ups & Tunnel Rolls

Setup: Split the half pitch into four 15×15m station squares, one in each quarter, a coach or helper floating between two stations each. Four teams of 4–6, one team per station, rotating on the whistle every 3–4 minutes. This block runs stations A and B; the next block brings C and D — every team visits all four.

How it works: Station A, Pop-Ups: pairs, one ball. The feeder pops short throws anywhere in a 3m circle around her partner — chest, low, wide — and the catcher takes each one and returns it in one motion. Twenty throws, swap. Score a point per clean catch, minus one for any ball that hits the grass. Station B, Tunnel Rolls: threes in a line of two cones 10m apart. Roller sends a firm ground ball down the tunnel, runner attacks it and lifts it clean on the move — the ladies pick-up, on her feet — carries through the far cone, then becomes the roller. Count clean lifts per team. Teams carry their points with them all night — that's the festival scoreboard.

Rounds: 4 stations × 3–4 min, whistle rotation, points carried on the festival scoreboard

What to say

“Move your feet first, hands second.”
“Low ball — bend the knees, chest over the ball.”
“Catch, settle, give — three beats, no panic.”

Easier

Pop-ups underarm and central; tunnel balls start dead.

Harder

Pop-up catcher must call LEFT or RIGHT before the feed and the feeder obeys; tunnel rolls get faster and slightly off-line so feet must adjust.

Activity14 min

Festival Stations — High Tower & Spin-and-React

Setup: Same four squares, teams keep rotating. This block coaches stations C and D while A and B keep running with the floating helpers.

How it works: Station C, High Tower: threes. The thrower lobs a high ball to drop between the two catchers, who start shoulder to shoulder facing her. Both attack the flight — highest clean two-handed catch wins the point, no pushing, no pulling; in ladies football you win that ball with timing and a jump, not a barge. Rotate thrower every five throws. Station D, Spin & React: pairs, catcher facing AWAY from the feeder. Feeder calls her name, catcher spins as the ball is already in the air and catches whatever arrives — high, low, bouncing. Ten each, swap. A bouncing feed taken clean off the ground scores double. Keep the scoreboard loud between rotations.

What to say

“Jump off one foot, knee up, catch at the top.”
“Call it — MINE, big and early.”
“Spin, find the ball first, then move your feet to it.”

Easier

Tower throws lower with catchers a step apart; spin feeds arrive on the bounce every time so there's time to react.

Harder

Tower becomes 2v1 with a designated defender allowed to jump too; spin catcher must land, solo once and hit a target cone with a handpass.

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

PitchPlans coaching team

Free on PitchPlans — new sessions weekly.