The focus of the practice was ball control and vision.

1. Warm up
   Turn on the boom box and do the Macarena. Practice the various goal scoring celebration moves ie. the "Airplane", "Belly Five", "Worm Dive", "Rock the Cradle", "Norwegian Snake Dance" etc.
2. Soccer Simon Says
   All of the girls dribble around in a box and on command from "Soccer Simon" do various ball control/moves - "Foundation", "Stairmaster", "Stairdation", "Pull Backs" and other moves that we have given silly names that the girls know but would not mean anything to this list. Throughout the game, the girls are instructed to keep looking up so that they don't run into anyone else or touch anyone else's ball. If they are caught by "soccer simon", they have to put their hands over their head, bend over shaking their head and say "oh no, you got me Soccer Simon".
3. Stop with body parts
   Continue in the box and have the girls stop the ball with various body parts, ie. knee, elbow, nose, hand. Rather than a voice command, the assistant coach or I would touch the body part that we wanted the kids to use. This way, they have to keep looking back and forth between both coaches who are moving around in the box for the commands. All while keeping control of their own ball and avoiding their team mates.
4. Nutmeg soccer
   Split the kids into two groups. One group spreads out within the box and stands still with their legs apart. Each of these players are given different colored pennies. Each of the players in the other group has a ball. On the coaches signal, the players with balls try to score by "nutmeging" as many of the other kids as possible within a minute or so. After they have been going for a little while, tell them that they can only score on "nutmegs" with red pennies. Keep changing the instructions as to where they can score... for example blue pennies, white socks, blonde hair, glasses, coaches etc. This keeps them looking up to see where they have to go next. Have the kids keep track of how many scores they get within the allotted time period and do a couple of rounds so that they can try to beat their record. If the kids are moving too slow, add a shark without a ball that runs around and tries to kick the other kids balls away.
5. 4 Goal 3v3 scrimmage
   Divide your team into 3v3 or 4v4 games with two goals at each end. Let them play for a while. Pick a point in the game when everyone is clustered around one goal and freeze them. Ask them to take a look at the open goal and ask them which goal would be easier to score on - the one they are currently trying to blast through or the open one on the other side of the field. They will usually see the light. Let them play some more.
6. Conclusion
   Have the kids pick up all of the cones. Review the focus of the practice very quickly, do your team cheer and send them home. After doing our team cheer, I have the girls run to their parents doing the airplane and yelling Gooooooooooal and give them a hug and thanks for bringing them to soccer practice.

   I was rewarded in the scrimmage at the end of this practice when one of the girls paused while dribbling, looked up, glanced at both goals, saw that one goal was covered and the other was open, dribbled like crazy to the open goal and scored. I just happened to be in a position that I was able to see her face and eyes when this happened. The excitement I saw on this 6 year old's face when she noticed the open goal was a picture I will remember for a long time.

Thanks to: Dane K. Luhrsen