21: Grow Coach Newsletter

Football Coaching: Planning Practices.

May 16, 2024

A warm welcome from JustCoachMD. We are happy to have you on board. We are looking forward to providing you with helpful content.

Here is what to expect:

Education: Planning practices.
Activity 1: Defending phase of play.
Activity 2: Three-team game defending the box.
Project: Use the STEPS to design a small-sided game.

Successful football coaching can seem intimidating. You can become overwhelmed by the amount of information available. With this in mind, what are the best tips to help football coaches be successful?

How do football coaches plan practices?

Successful coaches have a clear plan that is organised meticulously to allow for a smooth delivery and a clean flow of activities. Each activity will pose different challenges for the performer and involve different pressures.

Let’s start with planning. To start planning effectively, you must know the game well. You must understand the main moments of a football match. A lack of understanding in these areas can lead to poor session planning and an imbalance between the moments of the game taught to the players.

The 4 Moments

There are four main moments of the game that coaches can plan for. These moments are:

The IN possession moment: your team have possession of the ball.
An OUT-of-possession moment means that the opposition has the ball.
A REGAIN possession moment, the team wins back the ball.
The LOSS of possession moment: Your team has just lost the ball.

A REGAIN and LOSS moments are known as transitions. The IN possession and OUT of possession moments can be combined with both transitional moments because each time the ball is turned over a team must perform one of the above transitions.

Once you are clear on the game moments planning can begin.

TIP: Design most sessions around the IN and OUT of possession moments because transitions will naturally occur anyway.

Session Objectives

Once a moment of the game is chosen, the coach can then think about what they want the objective of their session to be in that moment. The session objective will normally relate to an aspect of play in a chosen field area. EXAMPLE - Playing out from the back.

On a basic level, it can help to split the football pitch into thrids and assign them core phrases attached to that field area. Within each third of the pitch create 1-3 objectives that you can coach the players. This can be done for the IN and OUT of possession moments. See the example below.

The image above shows the phrases attached to each area of the pitch for the IN and OUT of possession moments. Underneath each phrase, there is a space for 1-3 objectives. These are what you will coach the players about the chosen phrase. FOR EXAMPLE:

01- IN possession: BUILDING ATTACKS-

1.1 - Finding the spare player to escape pressure.
1.2 - Movement and rotation to create space.
1.3 - Playing beyond a press.

Each objective offers a method or style that can be coached to players to help them understand the game.

Working this way will help the coach stay focused on a moment of the game and a topic for the session. It stops the coach jumping between different moments of the game and different topics each time they coach.

This aids with the planning element because the coach can break down the session objectives into chunks of information (coaching points) to communicate to the players.

CAUTION: If you coach younger players you do not need to get so tactical. Consider the bulk of your coaching to be around the following.

Ball mastery (dribbling, passing and receiving skills).
Decision-making under pressure (dribble or pass, turn or shield).
In and Out of balance attacking - 1v1, 1v2, 2v1 etc.
In and Out of balance defending - 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v2 etc.
Small-sided games of 3v3 up to 7v7

Session Pressure

Now you have a basic idea of the game moments and objectives. Start to think about how much pressure you would like the players to be under. There are different types of session pressure. Here are three:

Unopposed: Repetition of core skills with no opponent, just the player and the ball.
Semi-opposed: An overloaded activity in favour of the game moment you are coaching.
Full pressured: As close to the game as possible.

Use all three types of pressure within a session delivery and cycle through them. Start with an unopposed practice, move into a semi-opposed practice and finish with fully pressured activities.

Unopposed: The activity would focus on the repetition of the skills required to play the game. For example, ball mastery, receiving techniques, dribbling, passing, and turning activities.

This format is useful for teaching skills and refining techniques without opponent pressure. The repetition can get boring for players so be mindful of how much time you spend in this format. Consider building in competitions to increase engagement.

Semi-opposed: This is where opposition is added to the practice but there should be an overload in favour of the game moment being worked on. If working on IN possession moment there would be more attackers than defenders. Alternatively, if you were working on the out-of-possession moment there could be more defenders than attackers.

This format increases pressure on the players and encourages them to make good decisions around the session topic. If working with attackers they will get to practice keeping the ball under limited pressure or if working with defenders they can practice pressuring, covering, and supporting each other.

Full pressure: This is where the numbers would be equal and the pressure would mirror that of the game. This format can be used for one versus one up to the full game of 11 v 11. Players will have to make decisions under high pressure and high physical demands. It will help players see how a game will challenge their ability and skills to compete with others.

TIP: Beginners to the sport will find the full-pressure part of the session hard. They may complain about people not passing to them or that they never get to dribble etc. You must spot this and ensure you try to get the balance of this type of practice correct based on the player’s ability levels. You may have to mix up the teams or add conditions to the practice to maximise the beginner’s involvement.

TIP: Players are there to play the game. Dedicate enough time to this each time they train. I would suggest around 25 minutes per hour of training should be game-based. This will leave around 35 minutes for other formats.

Pitch Spaces

Choose a pitch space to operate in, there are four basic ones to choose from. They can be picked based on the game moment and session objectives. They should help you achieve session objectives and challenge the players.

Big: Good for testing the defending skills with lots of space between the units of the team. The pictures the players see are similar to the game.
Small: Great for decision-making skills and a player’s willingness to stay on the ball.
Wide: Good for switching play, defending wide areas and creating chances from crosses
Narrow: Challenge the players to work on setting the ball and forward passing. Relate to playing through pressure and beating tight defences.

TIP: Across a coaching week try to use different pitch spaces. The players will get game-related challenges and a variety of physical returns.

Pitch Markings

Once a pitch space has been chosen the coach can section up the playing area to aid players understanding of the chosen topic and objectives.

The following pitch markings are commonly used.

Halves: Helps players spot ways to play in their half and the opponents. The offside line is central so teams can work on finding space when it’s tight or denying space by staying compact.

Thirds: Break the pitch up into thirds horizontally. A good reference point for positions, playing through the zones of the pitch and movement of players. OUT of possession, the thirds can be reference points to start pressing the ball.

Thirds: Section the field into thirds vertically. This relates to switching play and playing in wide areas using combinations that get behind opponents such as overlaps or creating chances via crossing.

Gridded: Gridded pitches can help a defensive team shape. They provide reference points for staying compact and denying space. IN possession the grids can aid players understanding of creating space, rotation and movement.

TIP: Don’t section up the playing space just because it looks good. Make sure you understand the logic behind it. The markings should be used to teach the players something related to the session objectives.

The 4 C’s of Practice Demands

Once the pitch space and marking are established, the coach can think about ways to encourage the players to demonstrate the skills and actions required to successfully achieve the game objectives.

Conditions refer to something that the players must achieve before the ball can move between areas or before a goal can be scored. They are good for achieving reps of a particular skill or tactic that a coach wants to promote or practice.

Constraints relate to limits on the players, if broken then possession is turned over to the opponent. They are good for ensuring lots of repetition of actions. For example, only allowing players to pass forward. The trade-off of the constraint means that the game can lose some realism.

Challenges are an additional way to help the player relate an action to a particular game situation. The coach sets the player a task around the game topic. The player has to spot the correct time to act on the challenge in the chaos of the game situation. It’s useful to use questioning to help prompt the player.

You can lose some repetition when using challenges as they won’t happen all of the time. Some examples of the type of questions you might ask when using challenges.

Can you spot the right time to use a no-touch turn?
What helps you play forward?
How many ways can you use to win back the ball?

Commissions are a final demand that can be used to encourage aspects of play that relate to the session theme and objectives. They are like mini rewards for achieving or acting on the information provided by the coach. For example, goals from a 1 touch finish are worth double.

By using conditions, constraints, challenges or commissions the coach can encourage and reward the players for taking action on the session activities, aims and objectives.

Putting it All Together

Here is a summary of the session planning process. Use it to guide you when putting together practice activities for players.

STEP 1: Choose a moment of the game to coach the players. This will identify if you are going to coach an IN or OUT of possession topic.

STEP 2: Identify an objective within the game moment. this will become your session topic.

STEP 3: Begin to think about the session activities and decide how much pressure you want the players to be under. Try to include varied amounts of it throughout a full delivery.

STEP 4: Pitch space, link each activity to a pitch space that is most relevant to the topic, big, small, wide or narrow. The pitch space should promote the session topic.

STEP 5: Pitch markings, decide on any pitch markings that aid the delivery of the chosen topic. Halves, thirds and gridded are popular choices for various session topics.

STEP 6: Select some session demands. Choose 1 or more of the 4 C’s to incentivise the use of the skills or actions to be successful.

Additional Considerations:

The points below should be considered to help you pull together a great session.

The information you need the players to discover based on the game moment, and session objectives.
The ability level of the performers when planning practices to ensure they are pitched at the right level.
How will they break up the time available between different session pressures? (unopposed, semi-opposed, full).

TIP: Less experienced players will spend a little more time working on unopposed and semi-opposed stuff in comparison to more advanced players who could practice under more pressure.

TIP: Two or three different session activities are a nice number to work with before moving on to a training session's game element.

A one-hour session based on the IN possession moment for beginners could be broken up as follows:

15 minutes of unopposed working on receiving and first touch activities. Small rectangle pitch. Challenge - perform the skills with your weaker foot.
20 minutes in semi-opposed activities such as a 6 v 3 possession game. A small halved rectangle pitch. Challenge - play a pass that eliminates two or more defenders.
25 minutes of the session would be full pressure drills working on small-sided games of 2 v 2 up to 4 v 4 dependent on session numbers. Wide and narrow pitches halved. Commissions- On the narrow pitch, scoring off a first-time finish is worth double.

TIP: If the players are older and more experienced coaches can increase the amount of time in semi-opposed and full-pressure activities. This should help to keep things competitive and challenging.

If football coaches can answer these questions before delivering any sessions they should have a clear picture of what they would like the players to learn, how the session will be structured, and the timings for each activity.

“ If you know the destination, you can see the journey. ”

Activity 1: Phase of Play | Regrouping Centrally to Defend the Box

Created on: @SSP

Aim: Regrouping as a team when attacks break down to protect the box.

Space and Set Up:

On half a pitch, funnel the lines as shown and place three mini goals spread across the halfway line.

Play the Game:

⚫️s play out against 🔴s trying to score off a 1st time finish in the wide goals or the centre forward can turn and score in the central mini goal.
🔴s win the ball and score in the big goal. As soon as ball 1 has finished a 2nd ball is served to 🔴s to attack quickly.
⚫️s SK and 🔴 CDM are fixed into the centre circle. ⚫️s score in the mini goals using 1st time finish or SK can turn and score in the central goal.
🔴s score in the large goal.

Activity 2: Defending the Box in a Three-Team Game