A high percentage of new coaches at grassroots level are either volunteers or at the early stages of learning the ropes and taking their badges. Below are ten discussion points to think about when taking your sessions to make sure you don’t fall into the easy traps of early coaching roles.
Most coaches understand that their role in coaching youth players is to develop a players skill set rather than the short term goals of winning a local league match but it’s easy to revert to a results business after losing a couple of games to your local rivals.
When taking on a new team try your best to observe their strengths and weaknesses early on and even spend time discussing the players (and their parents if applicable) views on their performance and how they would like to develop.
Player development is subjective and therefore easy to lose focus on so it’s a great idea to jot down some thoughts on how each of your players can improve when you first meet them or at the start of the season and keep revisiting these through time. Each review will give you renewed focus on individual players needs and help you adapt your training sessions accordingly.
A poor training session is usually as a result of lack of planning on the coaches part. It’s often a tough part of coaching with many coaches also having full time jobs alongside their coaching positions. An initial enthusiasm for making each training session planned minute-by-minute is also a quick fire way to lose motivation in a few weeks as you are unable to maintain the time dedicated to drawing out detailed training plans.
Overcome this by always being on the look out for good drills. There are many good resources out there in both detailed diagrams and videos. For example, footballdrillsonly.com compiles a number of videos from different sources into one place. YouTube channels are a great resource as well but be sure to adapt these to your needs of what you are trying to achieve. Bookmark & store any good drills and over time you will have a number of go-to sessions which you can build your sessions from.
Remember to be flexible by catering for different scenarios. Sometimes a well detailed session can fall flat on it’s face because training numbers end up being low so think about how you can adapt your session for different numbers and ALWAYS have a fall back plan for if your session is going down badly with your players. It’s amazing how quickly players can lose interest if a drill becomes too complex or it is not going how you’d imagined so it’s a great idea to have a get out of jail card for these moments.
If you want to take player development seriously it’s important that there is a takeaway from the drill for that player. Too many times a coach will pull off a well drilled session only for the players to show no signs of what has been taught in that weekend’s matches.
Make sure that before and after any session that you are telling the players the reason for the drill, the skills that they will learn, the scenarios they will be able to use the skill in a match and, perhaps most importantly, the players who you think do this skill well because you can guarantee that whilst watching Match of the Day or more likely YouTube or playing FIFA that they will see that player carrying out that skill and your session will resonate with them more.
Repetition is then key, not just in re-practicing the skills but then also reminding them in the following weeks in both training and games of what and why they learnt that skill.
You’ve seen Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola transform two teams into orchestras of world football where every player knows their role and you think you can replicate that with your Under 13’s. There’s a 99.9% chance this will fail at the first hurdle because of the complexity required to teach players this tactical harmony.
Understand the average level of your training group and adapt your sessions to that. Depending on how young your team is it is more important to make sessions easy to understand, fun and relatable to game scenarios. When starting out with a team it is always recommended to start simple and crank up the complexity accordingly.
Creating a drill which you are unable to build on is a fast track to losing your players interest very quickly.
A headline drill usually lasts for somewhere between 15-30 minutes. The first part of a drill is the most important because this is where you will communicate to your players what is happening. The longer and more complex the explanation the more likely the players will find it hard to fully understand and less likely the drill will be a success. So it’s important that the drill is simple enough that the learning curve required is a small one – that does however leave you open to drills being less challenging & players getting bored quickly.
Combat this by having 2 or 3 levels of the drill. This enables you to introduce more rules and components in smaller chunks once players have understood the core principles of the drill but also find the right level of challenge for your players and keep them engaged in the drill for longer.
Always have 1 level which is perhaps beyond your players ability which you can introduce for a short spell. For example 1 touch for 2 minutes in a keep ball game as this will really highlight those who can adapt to the increased skill required and will also improve performance afterwards when you drop back down to an easier level.
Make sure at each level change that you are reiterating the objectives for the drill and how it relates to in-game skills.
This is often a difficult one because it could be the case that you are the only coach for a team of 10-15. Most coaches usually plan their session to include all players in mass drills such as passing or shooting but sometimes it is required for you to spend a bit more time with a small group of players or even an individual.
If you have multiple coaches or someone who can help out take advantage of this by breaking the team out into smaller groups. This gives you a chance to have a deep dive into skills and technique and an opportunity to feedback in greater detail.
Set the rest of the team up in an easy to manage drill such as an end of session match and pull the rest of the players into another session. The key to the success is to tell them the skill you will be working on and to regularly stop to discuss what they are doing well, what they can improve on and how they can utilise the skill in a game scenario. This more personal approach will have a few positive impacts:
– It will trigger the player to think about that skill more hopefully self evaluating when they complete that skill and thinking of the technique. – The regular feedback stoppages will enable you to discuss technique in greater detail which is impossible in larger groups. – It is more personal and therefore more memorable and will motivate them to improve. – Gives you a platform to regularly check back with the player and they are more likely to be receptive of any extra resources.
The key to reducing the negatives is to spread the smaller sessions around your players to avoid favouritism and to make sure that the main session still going on is adding value as well.
If you watch a grassroots training session you are almost certainly going to see the coach revert to a simple shooting drill. It’s easy to manage, fun for the players and keeps everyone involved. But 1) there are plenty of other skills which are neglected and 2) the likelihood of in-game someone setting you the ball perfectly at the edge of the box as you jog up and shoot with just the goalkeeper stopping you are slim to none.
It’s easy to give in to your players calling out for shooting practice or a game whilst you’re training but it’s important to stick to your session plan. If there’s no shooting on the agenda then reiterate that to your players. You can often reduce this by making sure your sessions are fun, fast-paced and competitive. If you succeed in this then you’ll have less players requesting a shooting drill.
That’s not to say shooting drills aren’t an important part of a coaches arsenal but any drill needs to be well thought out and as close to game situation as possible. Adding defenders, first time finishes and shooting from different angles are all simple variations which can improve a players shooting ability when it comes down to the crunch it in real game scenarios.
It’s likely that you spend a maximum of 3 hours per week (training and games) with your players and although including parents can leave you open to abuse there’s a high chance that a promising player will also have an interested parent.
Allow parents to watch your sessions and be within earshot of what you are teaching them as this will hopefully result in extra practice down the park or encouragement to work harder on perfecting their technique in a certain area. Include them by highlighting resources or apps which will benefit the learning process.
It is however important to exert some authority onto parents to make sure they are not too involved or even undoing your work and this often has to managed on a case by case scenario.
This is connected to a well planned session but it is easy to reduce the quality of a session by eating into your available time by setting up each session whilst the players stand around.
If possible get to training 10-15 minutes before everyone else and loosely set up your drills. It doesn’t matter if you end up not using the cones but it will improve the quality of the session greatly if you are able to move on from one drill to the next without having to stop and move cones around. The key to a successful session is keeping the momentum and the squad’s interest.
If you are unable to turn up early or don’t have access to the facilities beforehand entrust a player with leading the same warm up routine each week. This gives you a chance to set up whilst they are warming up. Save even more time by drawing out a rough grid of where the cones will be placed to make it easier.
For a start out coach it is easy to put together some basic drills for the main aspects of football. Shooting, passing, dribbling & to a lesser extent tackling. But occasionally you come across someone in football who is really good at specific skills. For example someone who can shield the ball really well or a player who seems to see everything on the pitch. We play it as a natural gift that they have been blessed with but they all have one thing in common. That they were taught the skill from an early age and the concepts and techniques are now engrained in their playing style.
Be a coach who develops these type of skills into your players by researching more about the lesser known parts of the game. Look to professionals and study how their playing styles differ and then relay these concepts to your players.
Something like vision is almost impossible to teach in a couple of training sessions but if you reiterate this time and time again on it’s importance and that a player should scan the field before receiving the ball then eventually it will become second nature to them.
We are wired to compete no matter how old we are and it’s important to have at least one part of your session competitive. Whether it’s a game at the end or keeping score in a particular drill it allows your players to have something tangible to show for their improvements and motivate them further.
take part in our challenges
Maestro Football Challenges is a web app which enables coaches and individuals to take part in drills and challenges and record their scores and compare with players across the world. Take a look at our most recent challenges below or view drills here.
Chip the ball into the skills net from a short distance to show your accuracy skills.
Keep up a ball for 10 yards and then place it in the net. 3 balls to complete and the best score / fastest time wins.
Record your maximum speed and compare with other players across the world.
Closest to the pin wins in this passing accuracy challenge.
Test your dribbling and speed and also your close control in this dribbling drill.