Super 7's

Objective:

Target:

To get the players ready for the important rule of offside and to prepare players for more formalized "positional" play.

Organization

Use a 60-yard by 50-yard field.
Goal sizes should be approximately 6-feet x 6-yards wide (be prepared to improvise or use what is available, e.g., small portable goals, corner flags, etc.).
Mark in two 20-yard lines with coaching disks - if available use corner flags to emphasize the 20-yard lines.
Put in a 12-yard handling box out from the goal and the endline.
If available use two people - assistant coaches, parents - to act as linesmen, stationed on opposite sides of field to coach at the 20-yard lines (with flag or handkerchief).
"Offside" only occurs in the attacking third of the field. A player is offside only at the moment they ball is played forward and will only be offside if there are less than two opponents either level or between the receiving attacker and the goal line (Note: the goalkeeper is usually one of the two).
Otherwise, normal rules of soccer.

Teaching

Encourage goalkeepers and rear defenders to "utilize" offside to keep opponents away from goal.
Try using a 1-3-2-1 system in a Christmas tree shape -- goalkeeper: a back three, two attacking midfield players and one center forward.
Give great encouragement for the outside back defenders to go forward (Rule of Thumb: one goes and the other stays).
Great encouragement for the midfield two to make forward runs to support the center forward and to score goals themselves.
Encourage awareness, attacking support, width and defensive cover.
Encourage goalkeepers to help "organize" the team.
Goalkeepers may need to put into practice the skills previously learned in This Way/That Way and Submarining in the event of One vs. One situations.
Make sure that all players are rotated through the goalkeeper, defender and attacker positions on an equal-time basis.

Progressions