It can be difficult to fit everything you want into your weekly training session, so here, we reflect on some top tips from Tom Hartley, an FA tutor, to help you maximise your one-hour coaching session.

For many grassroots coaches, time with players is precious. An hour a week is often the maximum time afforded, and even this can be reduced when children turn up late, or access and preparation time is impacted due to having shared facilities.

It’s therefore vital that coaches work effectively with young players, making the best use of the available time.

Arrival activities

A routine doesn’t always need to mean boredom. Young players should be given a few start-up activities that allow them to begin practising, sometimes individually, as soon as they arrive.

This might include ball-and-a-wall activities, keep-up challenges or a small-sided game. If the children can set up the game without the coach, they’ll be able to play it every week, or even with their friends when they’re not at training. The activity could range from a simple practice to a game with conditions or challenges.

When players are engaged in the arrival activities, the coach can set up other practice areas, speak with parents and move around to welcome and speak with individual players.

With a little prior planning and design, you may be able to put the players into a simple practice or game linked to the overall session objective. For example:

Organisation: groups of 5, 4 attackers and 1 defender, 1 ball and 4 cones.

Challenge: if the player can pass or dribble through the box to a teammate without an interception from the defender, then a point is scored.

Learning focus

Try to have a specific learning focus for your session. The players should be regularly reminded what they’re trying to achieve.

For example, they need to:

• improve their dribbling
• dribble past an opponent
• dribble in a small-sided game.

Throughout the session, try to remind the players what the session's outcome is as often as possible. If you can write the learning focus on a white-board or tactics board, it will provide a visual reference for you to return to with your players.

Define success

Like outlining the learning focus, it’s important to define what success is for your session. In this way, the players have a checklist of aims and expectations to work towards. When setting these expectations, it’s important that the players have some input, helping shape what ‘good’ looks like. This will change depending on the age, experience and needs of the group.

For example, success for shooting may be based around basic outcomes such as:

• ensure your shot is on target
• aim your shot away from the goalkeeper.

Through to more specific and advanced aims, such as:

• create space to receive and shoot
• add deception to your shot.

Active rest

Make the most of any breaks in the session by setting challenges or posing questions for the children to consider during their break. Focus the time the children spend talking and the potential for learning and development will increase.

For example:

• “While you’re having a break, try to think of three ways that you can improve your passing.”
• “As a team, can you think of a plan to create more space when you have possession?”
• “Can you and your partner share two ideas which will help you get better at the game you just played?”

Make it personal

Throughout your session, try to spend some time speaking with individuals and small groups rather than working with the players as a large group. This way, you can give specific information to an individual. The main group of players can continue with their activity without necessarily having to be stopped.

Specific information should be based on an individual’s performance and needs and not that of the whole group.

For example:

• “Next time you get the ball, instead of passing to a teammate, can you try and dribble past your opponent?”
• “Now try that turn with your other foot. Can you change your speed and direction?”

Planning makes perfect

With time at a minimum, it’s important to plan your coaching sessions to ensure you give appropriate attention to the areas you wish to improve. It’s common to glance at your watch during a session and realise that you’ve spent too long on one aspect of the session at the detriment of another.

It’s important to have an idea of where you would like the session to progress towards. By adding specific boundaries, you’ll have a concise route-map through your session. Break your session down into segments and allocate a rough time for each progression of the practice.

Keep it simple

Try to make your practice sessions simple and easy to implement. We’ve all attempted complicated coaching sessions using lots of cones and instructions, and often they’re unnecessary. If you can try and keep your practice set-up simple and clear, it will be easier for the children to transition between different parts of the practice and, most importantly, allow more time for practising and playing.

Add variety

When players are focusing on one aspect of the game throughout the session, it can be beneficial and necessary to give the players a break from the learning focus. As you become more experienced as a coach, you’ll pick up signs which indicate the players need a change of activity. With a few simple tasks integrated into the session, children can keep their concentration levels high during the coaching practices.

For example:

• “see how many ways you can get the ball into the air without using your hands”
• “try and put two skill-moves together”
• “go and try to nut-meg someone.”

The coaching tips outlined here have been mostly used with players aged between 5 and 11 years old. However, all the ideas can be changed and tweaked to be used with players of different ages and abilities. Have a go and see how they work with your group.

What do you think of these tips? How do you make the most of your training sessions? Let us know in the comments below!