During lockdown or anytime you find you cannot get your team to training for a period of time you should make sure they are doing things to keep fit. They need things that they will find are fun and things that they will want to do because it is a competition. Without matches they are missing that competitive edge and that will add to their boredom when they cannot get out and play.
The drills below are a mixture of single and group work and will benefit your players so they are not coming back to training or to matches unfit.
For your players, you want a combination of activities so they can work in a variety of ways. One of the best individual fitness sessions is Leg press with a ball, which players can do at home. It is simple, just needs a ball and works on leg strength, which is vital to young players.
If you have enough players – brothers, sisters, friends – why not try this small-sided Continuous 2v2 game.
Short bursts of speed are vital in football, and you don’t want your players to lose their sharpness. Try this session How can you train speed in your players? It’s one of the best ways to keep players fit and sharp, and will help your players hit the ground running when they come back to training.
And if you want some fun while keeping fit try Skills relays. A race is always a good way to get young players to put the extra effort in.
For the older players they need something that helps maintain body strength. Get them to do a set of press-ups each morning to keep themselves fit. So use the tips in Soccer press-ups to help you. And to keep older players legs strong so they can last the pace in matches, The tuck jump is ideal practice.
Leg press with a ball... this five minute fitness drill can be used during your training sessions for a quick break to help coaching points sink in, or as an incentive for a drinks break. MORE
Young players can often get bored by fitness exercises, they just want to play. So keep their interest high with this game from Michael Beale's 64 Small-Sided Soccer Games manual. It's a great way of giving your players a good workout. MORE
Press-up drills are an excellent way of developing your players’ upper body strength in the arms, chest and shoulders as well as building core strength. MORE
I was asked this week "how do I coach the false 9?". The false 9 is very much back in fashion as we can see lots of teams have gone back to playing 4-3-3 where the attacking players can switch positions in the attacking third of the pitch. MORE
At last an end is in sight to the sitting at home and meeting my team on Zoom twice a week. But what can I do with my players? There are no guidelines yet so I am waiting to see how this will all pan out. I know what to expect from my players, they will just want to play a game, score goals, make saves, cheer with each other, shout at each other and just generally get back to a normal world of all things football. MORE
Everyone finds it exciting when a player goes through 1 on 1 against the goalkeeper... if it's your attacker you are on the edge thinking this is it a goal, but if your team is defending you are looking for your goalkeeper to smother the shot. Attackers should score but often they will not due to a number of reasons like taking too long to shoot, missing the target, hitting the keeper with a shot and even slipping over. MORE
When you hear mentor's talking about getting your coaching point across to get the best out of your players, one of the ways to ensure all your players are tuning into your coaching is to use small-sided games. In these games you get a much clearer picture of which players are picking up on the coaching points you have been making. MORE
I keep fit pretty much all year round due to being outside coaching most of the time. And with the enforced lay off in the UK due to the coronavirus pandemic I've been keeping myself fit in other ways. However, being fit and having muscles ready to play sport is on a different planet. MORE
It is not easy coaching in a pandemic. But one thing I know my players like doing is to give them a task to do which involves watching a match on TV. Say it's Charlie who plays left wingback ... he's a Chelsea fan so his task is to watch Ben Chilwell and give good things or bad things that happen when he is defending. The players love it! MORE
