Practice is an essential aspect of sports.
After all, as the saying goes, “practice as you play”!
That said, for less experienced soccer coaches, practice planning can seem like a daunting and demanding task, not only in effort but also in time.
We are here to show you that preparing a soccer practice doesn’t have to be difficult or long!
Moreover, with the right tools and knowledge of your team’s strengths and weaknesses, it could take you only 15 minutes!
Here’s what to know in order to quickly prepare practice for your team.
- Use relevant tools or resources to find exercises and drills
- Create an exercise/drill bank
- Make summaries of your games
- Allow yourself time without distractions to create your workout/practice
1.Use relevant tools or resources to find exercises and drills
It’s important, before creating your personal drill bank for your team, to find suitable exercises.
Whether it’s Soccer Coach Weekly, Soccer Expert, Ertheo, Soccer Drive, there are plenty of resources where you can find soccer practice drills of any kind for your team.
2. Create an exercise/drill bank
Having a bank of soccer exercises relevant to your team will significantly reduce your weekly search and preparation time.
Moreover, you can reuse your exercises for your practices all season long.
The more practices you hold in the season, the more you’ll become accustomed to some soccer exercises.
With the knowledge you have developed and the bank of exercises you have created, planning your practices and training sessions will be a breeze.
Whether it is for exercises focusing on offensive & defensive possession, marking, techniques for long passes, etc., having a bank will allow you to design various practices and warm periods.
3. Make summaries of your games
After each game, make it a habit to summarize the aspects that have worked well and not so well during the game
As a soccer coach, these game reviews will help you determine what you need to work on during the next practice with your team.
In addition, those resumes will help you save time in creating your practices. You will only have to select exercises that reinforce the weaknesses or shortcomings of your team during its last match.
The offensive had trouble converting on their scoring opportunities?
Was the defensive not able to implement the strategy developed before the game?
Simply refer to your list of drills categorized to tackle the problem.
4. Allow yourself time without distractions to create your workout/practice
In your week, it is important to plan a repetitive weekly period to analyze and set up your workouts.
This predefined period will allow you to concentrate 100% and to properly analyze the needs of your team.
By planning your workouts at the same time each week, you can bring out the best in your team.
Although each workout is unique, we offer the following structure:
- Medium intensity warm-ups
- Tactical Exercises
- Game Scenarios, based on the weaknesses from the last game
- Competitive game/fun to conclude the practice
This training structure allows you to focus on the weaknesses seen in your team effectively while adding a touch of fun at the end of the practice.
All you have to do is insert the exercises you want to put forward at each stage, which allows you to do a quick training that is based on the needs of your team.
Here are some exercise examples that you can implement during your practices:
The warm-up circle :
This warm-up exercise is really simple.
The players form a circle and move according to the demands of the coach in the center.
Request examples:
- “Go left”, players move left
- “Go to the right”, players move to the right
- “Go to the middle”, the players must go to the coach at the center and return to their position
- When the coach says “Go”, the players have to sprint across the area to take the player’s place in front of them.
You can increase the difficulty by combining several instructions at the same time.
This warm-up requires players to be alert and adjust themselves quickly.
4-on-4 game situation:
Position pylons in the goal area at a width of 2 meters, but without a goalie.
There are no rules for this exercise, you just have to let the players play and take this time to talk about their strategies and highlight what they are doing right and wrong in game situations.
When a goal is scored, return the ball to the center and show the player where to position themselves to resume the game.
Diamond formation:
This tactical exercise of 4-4-2 is ideal for practices with 11 players.
This technique allows your team to make fewer defensive mistakes and reduces the risk of getting into a bad position in the midfield.
Remember, the secret to a successful practice is to have fun!
It is with practice and training that your team will live up to your expectations throughout the season and continuously improve for the end-of-season series and tournaments.
Even though it is a necessary task, planning a workout does not have to be a long and arduous job.
Indeed, with our tricks, you should be able to mount a complete workout in 15 minutes!
Don’t waste any more time, prepare for your team’s next practice now!
Want your players to prepare before practice? Drop your workout sheets into the MonClubSportif app in the Documentation tab. They can practice the exercises at home and arrive ready for the next training.
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