Spring season is just around the corner for many of us, so a question came to mind - How do you experienced coaches prepare for a new season? For me, after a season ends I take time to make notes regarding my impressions for each player. How did the player improve? Where are they at in various areas compared to their peers? What are the best strengths and biggest weaknesses? I then do a similar assessment of the overall team. After the assessment is done, I take a couple of months to read and study new ideas, current trends. At least a month before the next season, I take the assessments and new ideas to develop a small set of goals for the season. Goals can then be broken up into one or more weeks of practices, which in turn leads to developing all of the practice plans for the new season. For spring I'm currently at the stage of filling in the specific activities for each practice session based on upcoming goals. I've got about a month before our first practices, and so I've also contacted the parents for about our parents' meeting during our first practice. So what do you do? Do you plan/map out all of your practices? Do you set down goals for the season? If so, how do you determine those goals?
Great question and some great ideas! I have been toying around with the idea of having the parents play 6 minutes of soccer at the first practice as part of the parents' meeting, and having the kids spend three minutes yelling instructions and "coaching" them from the sidelines, and the second 3 minutes having the kids just cheer for them. I am not sure I have the nerve to do it, though. I think it would be very instructive and show rather than tell the parents about the frustration kids feel over coaching from the sidelines. I'll look forward to hearing what others say. I am just getting drafts of my roster now, so things may shake up quite a bit before we start in April.
In one of my coaching courses, the instructor divided the group into pairs, and gave each pair a two bingo-like sheets with 100 randomly placed numbers on them. The instructor would then give us six numbers to find and circle and time us on his stopwatch. Each pair would raise our hands when all six numbers were found. The first time, one of the pair was to find the numbers while the other would watch quietly without helping and praise them when they found a number ("Nice job."). The second time we switched, and the second person was to find a new set of six numbers. Except this time the instructor whispered to the "watchers" that they were supposed to shout at and berate the other person until they found all the numbers ("Come on! You can't find these things? No, no , NO! Not there, over there! What are you doing?!"). The second group took 20-25 seconds longer to find their six numbers than the first group. It made quite an impression on us taking the course. In a game that requires good and quick decision-making, quiet and positive trumps loud and negative, whether it's "bingo" or soccer. You might be able to get more parents to agree to do this rather than playing if they're not fit enough. You might even have the kids yell as the parents find the numbers.
I usually spend offseason (and in - season) watching training videos and YouTube training tips, and then putting down notes of what looks good to implement into my practice sessions. I usually know most of the players so in my head, I have individual improvement goals I'd like to see from each as well as the collective group. My biggest challenge with full season of practices is finding the balance of what they really need to work on the most while not getting stale, boring or repetitive. And bouncing through too many new drills or games etc. leads to alot of wasted explanation time and getting up to speed, so some repetition of games/drills is desirable for time managmeent. Finding the right balance is the trick.
Do you all have one or a few overarching theme(s) that you try to focus on for a season? We're still at u9, so developing the basic individual skills is still my first priority. But in terms of team play, I'd really like my team to really get better at two things: 1-defending as a team and 2-being willing to play the laterally or backwards instead of always forward forward forward. If we could focus on and improve on these two things, I think our team would improve dramatically.
#2...lots of SSG's with 3v3 or 4v4 to build lots of touches and game instincts and make sure to interrupt in some situations to go over situational teaching opportunities to play/dribble back, play/dribble lateral, communicate and switching field etc. This is a univeral development issue so you are not alone!
Yes, this relates to the season goals I mentioned in the OP. I've got 2 teams, U6 and U9. For U6's, we have several new players this spring. Goals at this age are simple though as the #1 priority is fun, #2 is dribbling and ball control. The additional goals are to bring the new players up to speed with the rest of the group, which means repeating things from last year, and getting all of the players comfortable with each other. For the U9's, this group has been together for years with only one change from last year. They are already good at dribbling, with almost all of the players at the stage where they are comfortable scanning the field with the ball under control. Our goals for this spring are to further improve the 1v1 battles, continue to develop 1st defender skills, learn 2nd defender positioning, improve off ball movement (overlaps, finding open spaces, supporting runs), increase the number of 5 pass sequences, and improve our restarts (corners, throw-ins, goal kicks, keeper distribution). I'm now at the point of breaking down our practices to fit each of the goals into a set. I've already got several ideas on activities for each goal, so it's just a matter of finalizing those activities and fitting everything into logical sequences for each practice. As for your issue related to the ball movement always going forward, try using a coaching board to draw out what you mean. I did this with the U9's when they were U7's and they picked it up pretty quickly. They were ok with it at the time, but have gotten much better as their skills have improved. To start out the learning process at halftime of one game they were struggling in, I just pointed out how the other team was defending and how dribbling straight at them constantly led to being trapped by 3-4 players. Then showed that the player behind was wide open and the player on the opposite side even more so. If they switched the ball back and then to the other side, they were open for an easy path to goal. It worked immediately in that game, which has helped with reinforcing this type of play since.
I tend to read a lot and/or try to keep up with my coaching education. Try to find new ideas or revisit old ones. It's always evolving. I try to watch as much soccer as I can both on TV and in person, matches that are not Arsenal or the USMNT, because there's a lot I see in a game in which I'm not obsessed with the outcome. This season, I've been invited to coach at a local club (pay to play). I was taking the season off because of family obligations, so they said they'll work around my schedule and I'll float amongst all the teams in the club. I look forward to it because this club is, for a wide degree, very focused on technical development and in my role, I see it as I can focus on teaching technique and skills and not have to deal with the operational side of running a team too much. It'll be a nice experience. I'm really excited about the club's facilities as they have their own exclusive indoor and outdoor training grounds. We tend to lose half the spring here due to rainouts. As much as I rant about our cross town rival club, I'll be glad for the more committed players that come with the club environment.
Elessar, I'm jealous. That sounds great for you! Some day, I would hope to have a similiar opportunity as that. Just the fulfillment of getting to train and develop kids that have dedication and focus (not there to spend time with discipline or babysitting duties) and you don't have all of the administrative headaches of being a head coach nor the weird politics and drama that goes on between coaches to get certain blue-chip players or top team vs. lower level team and such. I think that sounds great!