How to prepare my soccer training session?

I will try to help coaches involved in youth soccer coaching.

My goal is to provide tips and advice to less experienced youth coaches and also to give new ideas to more experienced ones!

To day I am going to tell you How to create the perfect session plan!

We will see what is a good session plan and how to prepare it.

What is a soccer session plan ?

3 concepts to discuss : Objective - Format - Content

1. Objective (coaching topic)

This is the most important part.

The objective of the session will determine everything else!

The session plan, the content and choice of exercises, the warm up, your coaching tips to players, etc. All this depends on the objectives of your session.

What is an objective ?

For exemple :
- improving the first touch
- working on passing
- learning how to get open

- etc.

The choice of these objectives is determined by the age and level of the players. For each age group it is possible to determine in advance what objectives, coaching topics need to be worked on.

That's the advantage of being a youth soccer coach.

This is one of the big differences with the coach training college players or adults.

The latter has to work during the week what did not work during the previous games. The goal is to be as good as possible and to improve in order to win the games.

When we coach youth, our goal is their development and that the players acquire all the necessary skills in order to become a complete player.

We know what players need to learn in each age group.

The choice of objectives for the session will also depend on your training program (if your session is part of a program).

We will come back to the concept of a training program in another article. 

Tips/advice :

* Choose themes and objectives you understand and that your players have the ability to learn
 

* Don't start working on the long pass if your players don't master the short pass and ball controls
 

* Don't start working on direction of play if you are not sure of this concept yourself!
 

* Safety first! :) If you choose to complicated objectives you do not undertand completly or your players can not reproduce you risk to lose their concentration and your credibility.

* However if you master your subject, players will listen and stay focus on what you are trying to teach them.

The objective of the session will determine the format of the session and the content of the session.

2. The format 

Let's divide the training session into 5 parts:

- warm up

- agility/coordination/speed

- the heart of the session: the objective (s) you want to work on (it can be technical or tactical)

- the game/match (to finish the session)

- the cool down

     The format of the training session may vary from session to session, from coach to coach. There is no one-size-fits-all practice plan. The plan for the session is first and foremost a function of the objectives set. A session plan is also determined by the number of weekly training sessions for the team, the length of these sessions, the level of play and other contingencies. A training session may well be all about tactical, technical, physical, or a mix of all three.

To help a maximum of coaches and to keep it clear and easy-to-use yet performing, we will use the following format :

Warm-up

Agility/Coordination/Speed

Exercise/Game 1

Exercise/Game 2

Etc. (Exercise/Game 3) (Exercise/Game 4)

Match

Cool down

As you can see, you can choose how many exercises or games to add in your session depending on the type of exercices and the lenght of your session.

Now that you know the objective of your session and the format of your session, you will be able to compose it by adding the content: exercises and games.

3. Content

      These are the exercises set up and the coaching tips you provide to the players. This is the technical message sent by the coach to the players through exercises and games accompanied by demonstrations, explanations, tips and corrections. The content of the session is the vehicule that the coach uses to carry his technical message to the players. The soccer drills themselves are nothing if they are not accompanied by the technical message deliver to the players.

You will choose the exercises and games according to the theme of your session and the objectives you want to achieve.

This is very important.

You don't choose a drill because you like it or because the players like it.

The choice is dictated by the objective.

It is essential to help your players progress.

You know now how to create the perfect Soccer Session plan for your next training sessions!

I hope you enjoyed it.

If you have any questions feel free to add a comment.