Get'em Tired, Keep'em tired

After having coached for many years, I have accumulated a few tricks that I use to maximize improvement and minimize horseplay at practice sessions. Perhaps some of my secrets will be helpful in getting the best from your scruffy little teams.

It is best to start a practice session with a brief warm-up of some sort...it gets the blood flowing and prepares the muscles for stretching. Any light exercise will do. I prefer to use soccer-specific activities. The activities should not involve a full range of motion, just limited range stuff. For instance, juggling works well. Another great warm-up is dribbling with the ball. Either have the players dribble around the field a couple of times, or place the entire team in a 10 yard by 10 yard grid and have them dribble around inside, weaving and zagging past one another. Do this for about three minutes. Follow the warm-up with a thorough stretch, paying close attention to the muscles specific to soccer. You'll notice the team will be more attentive to your directions during stretching after a brief warm-up and its harder for them to screw around when they're a little out of breath.

After a thorough stretch (which is never rushed), I like to do agility and endurance related drills. 2 mile runs are good. Circuit Training is even better. Jog around the field in a group, stopping every 40-50 yards to do push-ups, sit-ups, squat-thrusts, or any other related exercise. Then continue your jog for another 40-50 yards and stop again. If you happen to be training at a community park or school, there may already be a Circuit Training Course laid out. Continue your endurance agility work-out for at least 20 minutes. After you complete the workout a water break is probably a good idea, but make it short. Players should keep individual water bottles with them at practice so they don't have to find a drinking fountain. Water bottles should not be shared due to the easy passing of germies and ickies.

Next, do some soccer drills. Each player should have a ball. Whenever possible, your drills should incorporate a ball for every player and there should be very little dead time. Specifically, avoid drills where players stand in line, or run around without a ball. Maximizing ball touches is of paramount importance. Again, you'll find that your players are more attentive when they are slightly fatigued. The circuit training should have prepared the players nicely for the skills drills. When the legs are tired, the mind has to concentrate more on what the legs are doing. This gets the player's mind focused and greatly increases the rate or learning. If the player stays focused, there is less chance of screwing around. You'll probably want to do two or three different drills during this time. Don't spend too much time on any one drill and make sure the players are doing the drills properly and benefiting from them. You'll know when a drill flops...it's kinda like the coaching equivalent of scratching a chalkboard. Now that your drills session is complete, it's time to run again.

After drills, I like to do long distance sprints. 100 yard dashes and relays are good. Try putting all your players, each with a ball, on a line. When you say "go", they have to dribble the ball from the line, around a marker, and back to the line in a certain amount of time. Do this 3 or four times. Another of my favorites is to make a triangle in which each side is 100 yards long. Put a group of 5-6 players at each corner of the triangle. In addition, there will be an extra (starter) group of 5-6 players at one of the one three corners. The starter group sprints from the first corner to the second corner. When the starter group gets to the second corner they tag the group that is waiting at that corner. The starter group then remains at the second corner and the group they just tagged sprints to the third corner and tags the group that is waiting there. This group then sprints to the first corner and so on. There is only one group sprinting at any given time and no sprint is longer than 100 yards. Continue this drill until all groups have made two complete trips around the triangle. Now its time for another water break, but again, not more than 3-4 minutes. Your players are plenty tired now. This is an excellent time to work on small sided games or tactics-related scrimmaging. Your players will be all ears. I always try to end each practice session with a scrimmage or at least match related drill. But the running isn't over yet.

After the scrimmage, it's time to work on short sprints. Shuttle runs, doggies or whatever you want to call it, these are great for short-distance sprints. Place 4-5 cones in 5 yard increments from a line. The players start on the line and, at your command, sprint to the first cone and back, to the second cone and back, to the third cone and back, etc. The sprints are continuous, there is no rest until returning to the line after reaching the final cone. The players should get about a 45 second rest between runs. Do 3-5 runs. Do not take a water break. Immediately after the finals sprints, each player should get a ball and begin to juggle. The juggling skills improve much quicker when the players legs are fatigued and they have to concentrate harder to keep as possible. This juggling session works well as a warm-down after the sprints. A brief stretch after 3-5 minutes of juggling will complete your practice session. Reward your players with dog biscuits. I think you'll find these tips useful in getting the most out of your practice time. Ciao for now.


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