Training focus

Serving as a Sport Consultant, the technical director of a youth soccer club (2000+ players), and conducting athletic training sessions for hundreds of athletes per week, I have observed & implemented my fair share of coaching sessions. So what does make a good training session?

 

Every experienced coach understands that he/she has to spend time planning the session, and the session needs to be enjoyable and inspiring for the players. These factors are very important; however, even more important is what the coach decides the focus of the session will be. For example the focus of the session might be to improve the conditioning levels of the players, or improve the technical ability of the team to pass the ball, or the ability of the team to defend their goal…

 

The focus of the session is typically dictated by what the coach observed during the competition on the weekend, and specifically what weaknesses where highlighted in the competition that need to be corrected during training. Analyzing the game and determining the weaknesses of the team is only half the battle for coaches, now they coaches have to facilitate improvement of the team.

 

The common mistake youth coaches make is that they attribute the team deficiencies to tactical breakdowns, where more often than not the technical ability of the athletes is the root of the problem. Therefore, the precious 2-3 hours of team training is devoted to tactical concepts instead of focusing the training sessions on technical development (e.g. control, passing & shooting). Tactical sessions usually are lower intensity & lower repetition, adding to technical incompetence.

 

The tactical application of technique is an extremely important component of team sports at the elite levels; however, for our youth athletes to obtain elite status they need to devote the majority of their youth career to technical competence. Only then will coaches be able to influence games with tactical adjustments.

 

Craig owns/operates PURSUIT Training & Rehabilitation (Cloverdale Athletic Park) Contact Craig at 604-574-2895 or visit www.PursuitTraining.com on his services.

Craig Dalrymple

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