I'm an amateur coach with 10 years coaching experience. Here's how I structure/outline my training sessions. It is taken from my books "Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches: Book 1 & 2".
A training session should run for approximately 90 minutes (not including initial warm up or warm down). Let’s break it down into an average Tuesday or Thursday night training session at my club. Listed below is how I run my session so you can get an idea of what works for me and my team...
6:00-6:10: Players Ready To Go (Player's Own Light Warm Up)
6:10-6:15: Training Starts: Coach talk
6:15-6:35: Warm up (the FIFA 11+)
6:35-6:55: Drill 1 (Rondo)
7:00-7:20: Drill 2 (Positioning Game)
7:20-7:40: Drill 3 (Game Training)
7:40-8:05: Game (Match Practice)
8:05-8:10: Warm Down
As you can see, the session is broken down into 8 parts. You will only be heavily involved in taking 3 parts (Drills 1,2,3) because the ‘Warm up’, ‘Warm down’ and ‘Game’ all pretty much stay the same.
Drills 1,2 and 3 are the drills that change and work on parts of your team's game and are all covered in my books/ebooks "Training Sessions For Coaches Book 1 & 2" (available from https://www.chriskingsoccercoach.com/)
1. PLAYERS READY TO GO 6:00-6:10: The players should be changed, ready and doing individual light warm ups (foam roller, band stretching, etc) while talking & catching with each other.
2. TRAINING STARTS: COACH SHORT TALK 6:10-6:15: A short 5 minute talk by the coach (you!) on the areas that will be covered in tonight's session (this helps you get player ‘buy in’ for the session. Players start to understand they’re here to learn and work hard alongside having fun).
3. WARM UP 6:15-6:35: The Warm Up should be the FIFA 11+ every time (and most parts of this should be performed before a match as well). It has been proven to reduce injuries and players bond at the same time.
4. DRILL 1 (RONDO) 6:35-6:55: Next is always Drill 1 which is referred to as a Rondo (a simple short, sharp drill that gets the players body and mind warmed up for the session). This runs for approximately 15-20 minutes.
5. DRILL 2 (POSITIONING GAME) 7:00-7:20: 5 Minute drink break then...Drill 2 is referred to as a Positioning Game. It is used to get the players thinking about where they are (or should be) on the pitch. The drill is in a small area so they get lots of chances to repeat the parts that are being worked on. This should run for approximately 20 minutes.
6. DRILL 3 (GAME TRAINING) 7:20-7:40: Drill 3 is referred to as Game Training. It is usually an expanded version of Drill 2 but in a larger and more match realistic situation. This should run for appropriately 20 minutes.
7. GAME 7:40-8:05: It does what it says on the tin - it’s time for a game (11v11, 5v5, whatever your numbers are). At the end of the night you should always have a Game, it's great to do drills but eventually it’s got to be implemented in a match situation, so this is when you do it. There shouldn’t be many (if any) restrictions. Let your players play and hopefully they implement what you have been working on in the session. Look for key moments from the session that night that you have been working on that appear during the game. Then stop the game briefly to point out what they are doing right or incorrectly. But generally just let the game flow and observe your players.
8. WARM DOWN 8:05-8:15: The warm down should be 10 minutes of light jogging, walking and intermittent static stretching (while having a chat & a laugh!)
Happy coaching! Chris King
For more free drills or to grab my books/eBooks
Comments