Twenty3design Under 9's

Centre of Excellence - Girls Centre of Excellence - Twenty3design Under 9's

Twenty3design Under 9's

Coaches: Pete Allison

Welcome to the web pages of the Oxford United Centre of Excellence Twenty3design Under 9's.

The Girls Centre of Excellence is going into its 4^th season now. Over the years the Under 9's have developed extremely well as a squad.

The Under 9's started their first season as a small group of girls, while other CoE's had much larger squads the Under 9's started with a squad of just 9. Playing 7v7 the squad found the first season very challenging. However, this never stopped the girls developing and much was learnt in their first season together. The following seasons have seen a growing squad with differing strengths from season to season, always offering the coaches a fresh challenge each year.

This season the girls will play mainly 7v7 but have also used 4v4 and 6v6 format for training games. This small-sided set up is to ensure that players get fully involved in games. The variations in team size that are possible allow's the girls to alter their thinking between games as attacking and defending principles can vary greatly between 4v4 and 7v7.

At this age group the girls enter at a key learning phase. Focus is on technical and social development, but many of the girls have excelled through this learning and a greater focus on tactical and skills based learning has also been achieved. This is also a key age to instill important principles such as sportsmanship within the girls, so it is not unusual to see the opposing squads mix teams for a fun game following the main fixture on match days.

This season we are back to a small group, leaving room for growth. The under 9 squad has shown very positive learning through the season so far, they are able to transfer this well into matches. As coaches we are very pleased with the squad's progress this season and have great confidence that they will go from strength to strength.