Last training session before school holidays and a couple of weeks off. We had 10 players at training including Dylan’s brother Keiran (who is an honourary member of the team) which is about what I expected.
I thought I’d try something different today and incorporate bump bags into our training drills. I had a feeling that the kids would like crashing into the bags and have some fun with it but I was also aware that if not properly supervised someone could potentially get hurt. The training with the bump bags, although not perfect was pretty good and I think I’ll definitely use them again.
We also practised bouncing the ball and kicking for goal on the run. Jeremy is getting very proficient at running and bouncing the ball and Dylan and Kobe consistently kicked some nice goals. It was good to see that the boys were concentrating and trying to kick a goal instead of just kicking the ball and not caring where it went.
We finished with a game of 5 on 5 where to score a goal (6 points) a player had to kick the football into a bump bag being held by a team mate, you could also score 1 point if you handballed the football into the bump bag. Steve did well to think up this game in about 30 seconds. The kids had a great time playing this, Alex was crashing into everyone and played really well, Jeremy and Jensen also had a lot of the football. I thought Luke and Caleb combined well, they always seemed to be kicking or handballing to each other. Ethan wasn’t scared to dive into the bottom of the packs and Nathan won a few contested possessions which will be great for his confidence. Kobe went for a couple of runs and no one could keep up with him. Keiran and Dylan aren’t big kids but they don’t stand back from the action, they love getting involved and getting a kick.
The players were rewarded with a Freddo Frog for completing a hard training session.
All of the players have trained hard and played well so far this season, it’s been a massive improvement from last season. I hope everyone enjoys the school holidays and I’ll see everyone in a couple of weeks time.