My Goal

I understand football as one of the richest, most enjoyable sporting activities whose implications on the development of a young football players have consequences on every aspect of life, from the physical and health areas to the social, cognitive and emotional features.

Hopefully you find this article helpful as I will provide some coaching tips.

Training Session Plan

The warm-up - Should stimulate and prepare the players for the more intensely physical part of the session. It involves activities of low intensity, high repetition, fun and generates enthusiasm. Dynamic stretching should also be combined throughout the warm-up. The warm-up should be related to the main activities of the session.

Body of the practice- Sets the emphasis on the technical or tactical development of the players through the use of small-sided games. Some of the basic principles to follow are: progress from the simple to the complex, progress from no pressure to the game like situation. Gradually increase the physical and mental demands.

Game like situation- At the end of each session, the players should be given the opportunity to play the game with big goals, with even-numbered teams. This will enable them to practice the ideas they have learned during the session. Here the players will gain invaluable experience using their skills in live, game-like conditions with minimum interference from the coach. Here, the game is fun and the natural competitiveness of the environment serves as the motivation.

Cool down- at the end of session

Four Basic Elements of Soccer

I believe in sharing coaching ideas, training sessions and systems. So, question I get asked a lot is:

How can I get players to play to the best of their abilities?

Answer:

There are four basic elements that influence player’s performance on the field.

-technical

-tactical

-physical

-psychological

All of these elements are developed in conjunction with one another. Each relies on the others and complements the others.

This is great thing about soccer, that weakness in one area can be compensated by strength in another (early age). For example, small player can compensate for his size by being great technician, having great skills, vision, being a leader and good tactical awareness.

On the other side big, strong player will compensate his technical weakness by being great in the air, great tackler and in good physical shape.

Playing on high level, against strong competition, less likely that weakness can be compensated. Player needs to be well rounded in every element of the game.

The degree of excellence in all 4 areas will determine player’s level of performance.

These 4 elements determine team identity and personality as well.

are designed to improve performance on the soccer field. Unfortunately, all too often training for young players is carbon copy of training program for college and pro players.

Three Development Levels – based on age and ability

Performance oriented training for young players is divided into three levels, depending on age and ability:

- basic training 6-10 year olds

- intermediate training 11-14 year olds

- advanced training-14-18 year olds

One of the most important things that I have learned in my career is: each type and level of training has its specific requirements. Therefore, the goals, methods, exercises and plans of a training session must be chosen accordingly.

Coach must be quite careful when training youth not to use programs designed for adults.

I hope this article will guide you to make proper training curriculum.

Training Program

Training program is combination of many phases that follow each other in a logical order; however there is a constant interaction between them.

To prepare for a new season coach needs a specific organizational plan for preseason, season and postseason, in order to facilitate constant player and team evaluation.

Coach must be able to identify problems and weaknesses experienced in the last game, last month and even last season in order to adjust, improve and learn from past experiences.

Planning and continuous evaluation of development are necessary for success.

Only after proper evaluation and team selection coach will be able to establish realistic goals for new season.

Coach’s job is to create positive, safe, learning environment, where players will enjoy coming to practice, learn and have a fun.

Coach needs to establish cycle of monthly activities divided into weekly and daily scheduling of sessions.

So, to sum up, there is huge importance of proper planning of training program as well as philosophy and methodology.