Don’t worry about trying to reinvent the wheel at each practice session, writes Carl Wild – if a drill works for your players, then revisit, revise and reuse it...
Sometimes we can find ourselves struggling for ideas for sessions.
This will often lead us to scour the internet, books or, indeed, magazines such as this one. There is nothing wrong in that - as coaches, we are all magpies and look to take practice ideas from other coaches.
And why not? If we see a practice that we think our players would enjoy and would help them to learn and develop, then obviously we would want to use it, particularly if it was produced by someone we see as being a more experienced or qualified coach.
However, we do need to remember that just because a practice looks good and worked for other groups of players, it may not be suitable for those we are working with - and, therefore, we may need to adapt it or look for an alternative option.
A further challenge that comes with producing a session plan is that we habitually look to produce or find something that we have not done before.
We put ourselves under pressure to create something we have not used before, as we believe that is what everyone - players, parents and other coaches - expects.
"If something has proven to be an effective strategy, why not use it again...?"
There is also a thought process that players only improve if they take part in practices that they have not done before - and that if they take part in a practice that they have previously done, they will not progress as a player or a team.
However, we do not find this approach in other aspects of life such as at school, where teachers will often use the same strategy or task, especially when students are learning something new.
If something has proven to be an effective strategy for learning to take place, why would you not use it again? Especially if the people taking part in the activity not only develop and improve, but enjoy it as well?
Probably the best examples of where children are happy to do the same thing repeatedly, and learn at the same time, are video games – and the game of soccer itself.
With both being labelled ‘games’, this would indicate immediately that they involve key ingredients children enjoy - competition, scoring systems and, of course, fun.
Additionally, the environments in which they take place are constantly changing and evolving. Though the players are returning to do the same activity time and again, they are not actually repeating the same action over and over, or doing the exact same thing they did the last time they played it.
Therefore, if we are able to replicate these key components within the practices that we use within our training sessions, there is no reason why we cannot use the same practices on a regular basis.
Another reason we should consider moving away from producing different practices for every single training session is the need to maximise the time we have with our players.
The amount of time we spend with players is very limited. Therefore, during a training session, we obviously want to provide the players with as much ball time as possible.
What we do not want to do is spend time explaining to them how the practice works, what they can and cannot do and what the rules and scoring systems are.
In addition to this, no matter how well we explain it to them, they will still need some time to work it all out for themselves.
There is also a chance that the practice does not work - perhaps the players do not understand what to do; maybe it is too easy or too difficult; or the area size needs changing. And though we can make changes, we still have lost valuable learning time.
Therefore if we can design practices that are ‘game-based’ - with opposition, competition, scoring systems and fun - and are easy to progress and adapt, then there is no reason why we cannot use them regularly.
Using ‘game-based’ practices will mean players enjoy them, and the ease in which they can be progressed will make sure the players are constantly challenged.
The need for them to be easily adaptable, is so they can then be used for a range of different topics - so, by simply adding or changing a task, by adding some equipment such as a goal, or through introducing ‘zones’, then one week the practice can be used for dribbling and then the following week it can be used again but for a completely different topic.
This can be seen in the following three practices. The first is the original set-up, which concentrates on players attacking quickly.
The next two then show how the same practice can be used again, later on in the season, where the focus is first on forward passing and then on recovery runs.
This is achieved simply by changing the starting position of some of the players in the second and third practices - and for the recovery runs practice an additional task is added for one of the players to complete.
So if we have a number of these core practices that can be adapted easily for a range of topics, we can remove the need to come up with a range of different practices every week.
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