soccer disc Cones
WRITTEN BY: COACH BRUCE LOVELACE
UPDATED ON: March 2, 2024
What Are Disc Cones
Do you need soccer disc cones? Your kids have soccer balls and a net, but you're trying to decide what other kids soccer equipment is worth using. This post will answer your questions and will give you 10 creative ways to use disc cones for soccer.
There are a lot of choices for what equipment is best to use for running a soccer practice for young children and it can get confusing. First, let's define what disc cones are.
Traditional Disc ConeDisc cones in soccer are the little sisters of the taller soccer cones that look like traffic cones. Disc cones have a much lower profile, and are brightly colored for high visibility. They are great for indoor and outdoor games, drills and practices.
Disc cones get their name from having a shape that resembles a flattened, round, disc-like cone. They are very useful to use as a tool to increase fun, develop fitness, and improve the learning of soccer for both kids and adults.
Disc Cones vs. Soccer Cones
What's the difference between a disc cone and a soccer cone? Disc cones are flatter, have a wider base, and weigh less than soccer cones. Soccer cones are taller, made with thicker plastic, are more visible from distances and more easily blown over by a stiff breeze.
Disc cone or soccer coneBoth disc cones and soccer cones are hollow inside and are brightly colored so that you can easily see them from a distance. Disc cones are much cheaper to buy. Both types of cones can be used in an unlimited number of ways on and off the soccer field. Read the complete guide to soccer cones.
how to use disc cones in kids soccer practice
This post will give you 10 creative ways to get the most fun and productive use out of disc cones in soccer. There are imaginative warm-ups, drills, and games that you can adapt and adjust, depending on the age of your players, the size of your group, the specific activity you're leading, and the size of the field you play on.
Of course the number one benefit of using these disc cones are how easy it is to adjust the size an shape of a given playing area. They are extremely versatile, east to carry, and very affordable to buy.
With all of the following games and activities that use your discs,, the children will understand better if you tell them, show them, tell them, and show them again how the activity will work.
1. Stuff the marshmallows Game
Soccer BallOn Top OF Disc
Stuff the marshmallows was one of the all time favorite games I played with the 3, 4, and 5 year old players I coached in my soccer franchise. In this game the disk cones were simply used as soccer ball holders.
The children set up the game for you by balancing their soccer balls on top of the disc cones, which are placed apart from each other all over the field.
Explain that the soccer balls are big fluffy marshmallows that will be fed to the hungry mouths (soccer goals). You can give the kids a time limit to inspire them to score quickly.
2. Sleeping Giant Game
You are the sleeping giant, but you have very large ears (see the blue disc cones photo below) that can hear the children if they make any noise. They must quietly dribble their soccer balls around the forest, pretending to be lumberjacks. The trees are the larger soccer cones that have been place around the field.
2. SLEEPING GIANTWith Big Ears
3. Balance The DiskOn Your Head
4. WARM-UPI See Something
Colorful
You can have the children "chop" down the trees in the forest by kicking their soccer balls to knock over the taller cones. When the giant with the big silly ears hears the children chopping, he can wake up and chase the children out of his forest. Kids learn how to dribble away from the giant (the defender).
3. Balancing
Whether you use this activity as a warm-up or a competition, you can use the disc cones to improve your players balance. Beginners will do this without soccer balls. Older kids should try it with soccer balls. It teaches the kids to keep their head up as they travel around the soccer field.
This is another good way to add some silliness in your session. Silliness is fun for you and your kids. A fun environment leads to increased enthusiasm and better learning. Players can walk or run if capable with a disc balanced on top of their head, depending on their abilities.
4. I Spy Something
Multi-color Wide-MouthKids love to search for and successfully find things. Different colored cones can be used as the destinations for the players to run to or dribble their ball to. You say "I see something "XXXX" where XXXX is a color.
In addition to the cones, use other objects like soccer balls, ball bag, goals, jacket, etc. to get the kids running from one area to the next.
5. Clean up Your Room Game
This is a fun competition with a short set time of just a few minutes. Divide your players up into two teams. Make two adjacent bedrooms with your cones as shown in the diagram below.
Kids must get rid of the trash (soccer balls) by kicking them into their opponent's room. The winning team is the one with the cleanest room (least amount of soccer balls) when time runs out.
6. Friendly Hungry Bear game
Set up a beehive by making a circle using the disc cones. Coach or parent is the friendly bear who likes to visit the beehive looking for some sweet honey. Kids are busy bees dribbling their soccer balls inside the beehive and making a loud "bzzz" sound.
Place discs in a circle to make a beehiveThe players (busy bees) will shoot their stingers (soccer balls) at the coach (the friendly bear) whenever she enters the beehive. The kids love it when they successful hit the coaches legs with their soccer ball and the couch yells "ouch."
A fun variation of this game is allowing the coach to be the busy bee and shoot its' stinger soccer balls gnetly and hit the kids with her ball.
7. Count Down Scoring
Kids love racing and this is a competition against the clock to score. Use your disc cones to set up a zig-zag course for dribbling toward the goal.
How fast you count down and what number you start with depends on the age and skill level of your players.
8. Use Disc Cones As Gates
Use cones as gates. Set up pairs of disc cones as "gates" that the kids will have to (1) run through, (2)dribble through or (3)pass their ball through to their partner, As with other activates you can get creative and adjust this in many different ways.
Adjust the distance between the discs, the distance between each pair, and the activity you do. Decreasing the space between the gates increases the difficulty. Setting the gates farther apart adds more running to the game. Passing the soccer ball through the gates is much harder than simply dribbling through them.
A fun variation you can try is called Pass The Pig. Kids will pas the ball using the inside of the foot to their partner and can yell "Oink, Oink" Kids love farm animals. How many oinks can you get? when done kids can say OINK OINK
How many can you get in time?
9. Race TRack
Use your disc cones in the same oval set-up as you did with the beehive and adjust to the size of the group. Players can do a warm-up lap without their soccer balls first.
For young kids have them tell you what color race car they're going to be. Have them put on imaginary helmets and buckle their seatbelts. Rev their engines and do a countdown.
Add car crash and reverse (pull-back step over-see these games for young kids here.)
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10. Use the disc cones as a gift
The final creative use of kids disk cones comes in at the end of a season. Why not use the discs as a end-of-the-year gift? You can personalize each disc with a message written with a permanent marker.
The kids could use the disc on their clothes chest for a place to store their soccer ball in their bedroom or other place. Who knows they may even use the gift cone disc for practicing in the off season!
disc cone Durability
Stacked Disc ConesThe question comes up on how long do disc cones last. Made up of low density polyethylene, soccer disks will last for many years. The two main factors that affect their longevity are the weather they're used in and the degree of "abuse" they endure during play.
Young kids may want to stomp on top of them. Although they are made of soft plastic, continuous bending will eventually wear them down. Stacking the disc cones together for storing before and after practice is a good way to protect them.
Just like your skin and your eyes, radiation from the sun in the form of UV rays causes damage over a long time. Storing your disc cones out of the weather elements of sun, rain, and freezing temperatures will increase their longevity.
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See related posts below my signature or use the search box below to search for other topics on parenting or coaching kids in soccer. Inspire a child today!
Soccer coach Bruce Lovelace started playing soccer in 1974 when, as a young boy, he constructed his own makeshift soccer goal. He played in high school, then in college and beyond. He started to coach his own children in the 1990s and then ran a Soccer Shots franchise for 12 years. Now, Coach Bruce publishes the soccer-for-kids.com website. Find out more about youth soccer coach Bruce Lovelace and what inspires this website.
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