Alright, I have an interesting issue for the next several weeks. I train with other individuals who are also scholastic coaches. This time of the year, they are with their school teams. This leaves me most training days alone with around 25-35 players. Clearly this is not ideal. I will occasionally have one of the other coaches there when their schedule allows. Looking for large group activities (especially for the first couple weeks while the pecking order works out). This is U-12 boys, so I need to keep them moving otherwise trouble ensues. I have one or two parents I may be able to lean on to help out.
Yikes. It sounds like your club have put you in a difficult position. For several reasons I'd be hesitant to have parents helping out. Here is how I'd approach it. Group warm up - moving around in one area with dynamic stretching Demonstrate a key technical coaching point Have them practice the technical coaching point individually, then in small ever changing groups Then have them split into smaller groups Run a ladder game - for example 2v2 for one minute. Winners move up the ladder. This allows the players to be challenged at a level appropriate to them individually. You'll be able to move around between the groups and make coaching points. Use the final standings in the ladder to determine four balanced teams. Finish the session with two concurrent scrimmages. In your situation I'd probably stick to this format for a few sessions. The players will quickly grasp the ladder concept and you cover quite a lot of technical points this way.
I prefer having assistants but I find that I can run 3 SSGs at a time. I was only handling 18 players (3 3v3 games), but its do-able. There are a number of ways to go, but essentially it is the same process as running 18 players. Divide the number of players by 3 and that gives you the exercise group size: 36/3 = 12 players. Go 6v6, 4v4v4, 4v4 with neutrals, 4v4 with a side of 4 resting or any other combination of 12. Have them rotate in and out. The key is to pick a vantage point where you can see all three groups. Have all three groups going simultaneously. Let the players keep track of score and call fouls and lines. Make your coaching points to the groups during the breaks. An alternative that is a lot more planning and prep work for the coach is circuit training. The advantage, however, is that you can train extremely large groups using this method. For 36 players I would probably run 9-12 stations, break the players up into small groups and have them rotate through the stations, each station having a different task. You need as many stations as groups at least. Divide your allotted training time by the number of stations to establish your time durations at each station and subtract one minute for travel time between stations. Use a whistle to signal the station changes. Since you don't have assistants to man the stations, you need a sign stating the task along with the necessary equipment for each station. The time invested in preparing circuit training stations, however, is a good investment, as you can reuse the stations.
The more your players are familiar with a particular exercise the faster it is to set up. Find the ones that are the best for you and do them in every practice. You don't need different ones that do the same thing. If you do you have to explain them each time wasting time. I have a video on a typical bayern Munich practice they do things that work and are even fun for the player all the time. There is no big waste of time explaining them to the players each time. Some coaches think it is cool to collect drills. Get 4 or 5 that does the job and use them all the time.
No, not just any parents. There are a few that play in the local over 40 league that I am in. I can trust them to watch over a field. Yeah, this is the easy part. Even when we have 3 coaches, this is often how we would proceed. Yep, was going to build the group exercise above into a team one (pass the ball to each player in your group (1,2,3,4 in order) while each other group does it in large grid (hope to establish shape and awareness) and move it into 4 v4 (maybe 3 v3, we'll see. 90 degrees today, first day of school attendance may be skittish) ladders. Use the final standings in the ladder to determine four balanced teams. Finish the session with two concurrent scrimmages.
Warm ups and SSG's are fairly easy to run alone. I am thinking of the activity or two between the bookends of practice. One thing I know, I don't want U-12 boys standing on even short lines with only me.
Simple game of possession is pretty easy to run with a large group. You could play 4v4 possession in four, 20x20 yard grids. Do that for 15-20 minutes.
I am not sure what you are referring to. I think of SSGs as an activity, but not a phase of practice. You can use SSGs during each phase of the training session with appropriate restrictions. Typically during a session the activities will follow a progression. For instance the movements may increase in complexity, the pressure may increase, the sides may become larger, or often a combination of the above. Now that the USSF has changed the definition of Small Sided Games to include anything less than 11-a-side, you can run a full progression of activities using SSGs. The impression I get is that coaches today don't think of SSGs in terms of lines. I still think the same way as 30 years ago: full sided games involve 3 lines of players (7-11 a side), small sided games involve 1 line (1-4 a side), and large sided games involve 2 lines (5-7 a side). So in planning practices I didn't think about them as SSGs, I thought about them in terms of how many lines I wanted to use for the exercise. Even with novice U10 players, I used 2-line exercises by the third week of practice (and 11-a-side shadow exercises earlier to introduce the system). This is the value of the reduced match sides today--the coach doesn't need to progress to working three lines for 11 a side. Saves a lot of time which may be used on fundamentals.