Creative play: unlocking movement variability

STREET FOOTBALL – ADAPT AND PLAY

We set up on a pitch of 40 x 30yds. The aim here is to develop adaptable movement skills inspired by street football. This game recreates the essence of street football in a structured environment while adding movement variability to enhance young players’ functional and transferable movement skills.

It begins with each team playing under different body constraints (eg hands behind the head, hands tied, hands on hips, occlusion glasses) along with poles with elastic bands for players to jump over or crawl under, and mannequins placed in various positions on the pitch that are continuously moved. Various types of balls (eg futsal, miniball, fitball, reflex ball) are then introduced. Additional elements of street football are incorporated, such as players not wearing bibs and playing barefoot.

At intervals of about 30 seconds, or when the ball goes out of play, the coach can introduce or modify constraints to keep the practice highly dynamic. We run this for 15 minutes.

We can progress this by combining different constraints or variations simultaneously, or by playing on different surfaces (eg astroturf, grass, concrete, sand).

COACHING POINTS

What are the key things to look out for technically and tactically?

Activity 1: The main focus of this activity is to facilitate creative decision-making, particularly when players face numerical inferiority (eg 4v5, 3v4). Research shows that such scenarios encourage exploratory behaviour. Football is often a game of numerical advantages and disadvantages, where teams create advantages in specific areas of the pitch to penetrate the opposition, win the ball, or dominate possession. In this game, players will encounter varying numerical situations, requiring them to also adapt their tactical behaviours based on the number of players (eg pressing the opposition when in numerical superiority or defending closer to their goal in numerical inferiority).

Activity 2: This activity brings the raw essence and elements of street football into a structured training environment, while incorporating movement variability to enhance young players’ functional and adaptable movement skills.

What are the typical mistakes players might make and how do I avoid them?

Coaches need to recognise that these learning environments must allow for the acceptance of players’ mistakes and experimentation to foster their creative potential. Therefore they must first embrace failure during these types of high-variability practices as an essential component of promoting young players’ creativity and facilitating learning.