ONSIDE DIGITAL LEARNING
Session Plan Content
So now that we have considered all of the points on the previous page, how do we decide what we are going to do for our session? This is really up to you and what you are trying to achieve. If you are coaching a team it is likely that at least part of what you focus on will be in preparation for your next match and also partly reviewing your previous game, looking especially at weaknesses within your own team and trying to rectify them. Sessions will also be based around the players at your disposal. For example, if you have a team of smaller players it would be fairly pointless spending a session practicing crosses and heading as it is unlikely that this will form part of your game plan for your next match.
If you are a development coach working with younger players then it is likely that you will be doing something completely different than a club coach. It is more likely that you will working on technique to improve your players individually. Whatever you are doing or whatever level you are involved in it is important that you have a long term plan in place and also a clear idea in your head of what it is that you are trying to achieve. For a club coach this can potentially be a little bit more straightforward as some of what you are looking at will be reactive (although there is the added pressure of producing results) but being committed to some kind of ideology will shape our training sessions.
For example, as a coach I may want to have my team play possession football as I believe this is the best way to dominate and ultimately win matches. If this is what I believe then it would be reasonable to have my training sessions focus for a large part on short passing drills. Whether I am a club coach halfway through a season or a development coach working with an under-8 team this philosophy is going to have a big influence on what is included in my training sessions. If my coaching philosophy is something different, for example the long ball or wing play, then it is unlikely that short passing will feature very much in the session and the focus will be elsewhere.
Whatever your philosophy you as a Coach must decide what goes in each session and how your sessions fit together into a long term plan for what you are trying to achieve. Later on in the course we will provide you with some resources which you can include in your training session.
