soccer training skills
 

High Performance Soccer Coaching for elite coaches and teams

High Performance Soccer Coaching

Planning

Planning a coaching staff meeting is vitally important
to the success of the team.
Treat it as a meeting, even if the other coaches are
friends and family.
Look at it a professional endevour that needs your
utmost attention.
Formalize where the support is and their areas of
responsibility.
Draw up a simple yearly plan for the those responsible
for the player.
Then draw up a "YPI", (Yearly Planning Instrument).
This is part of the High Performance Soccer Coaching plan.

Implementation;
The Basic Coaching Program will give you a great idea of the issues involved in planning a
successful season.
Each of the areas needs on going attention to detail.

Periodization needs to be embedded into the YPI.
So study this section and reap the benefits.

Include a well rounded PLYOMETRIC program, for additional
information use this link;
http://www.soccer-training-info.com/plyometric_drills.asp

Competitions

Create a daily routine focussed around a nutrition plan.
Plan extra time for warm up whereby mental focus is
the key ingredient.
Try a collective stretching routine so that the players
are taking care of each other thereby taking care
of themselves.
Thus creates a model for total team participation.

Involve the team by picking a "Captain", that is
someone who everybody looks up to and gains strength
and inspiration from.
This doesn't always have to be the best player.
This is that person with the gift of imparting the
aspirations and ideas of the team.
Go over strategies and tactics with the coaching
staff on an ongoing basis.
Have an open door to information from all around you.
Things change quickly towards the end of competitons
and fresh information might be the key to when and
how to further your team's objectives.
This might be a simple as the other teams in the
competition losing a "star" player through injury or
some other mishap.
However don't try something completely new, like a
different system of defense or an attacking pattern.
Your team will only get confused, unless they have
been coached by different coaches and are willing and
able to face change and additional challenges.

Stay positive and supportive towards all of those
around you.
Yes competitions are important but not the end of
the world and are often the beginning of another phase.

Going for the GOLD is a great motivator, but coming
in second is a great place to be out of a large competition.
The fact is that most players, team, coaches and
even clubs don't even get a chance to compete for
the podium or medals.
This is also an excellent time to create new opportunities
for learning for the coaching staff, the team, and all those involved with the program.

Tournaments;

Parent involvement and team dynamics, the social aspect
of inclusion will only benefit you because everybody
will tend to buy into the over all plan.
Leave people out and they feel like they can only critisize
when something goes wrong.

Nutritional plan;

Creating a very specific nutritional plan for a
tournament week-end accomplishes two things.
Firstly it provides the guidance for the players to
get the best nutrition that will sustain them over the
duration of the competition.
When the competition is over they are rewarded by
being able to be free to choose what they want.

The second is a form of community social control.
This means that everybody is buying into another
aspect of the focus of the team,
and what better way to do it than through food.
Now eveybody is involved and their collective
responsibility is being placed forth and tested.

People like a challenge and like being responsible for
the progress of the team.
Although it is all being done for the athlete the
others involved in and around the team can also
learn what good nutrition is and how it effects their
day to day lives.

It gives the team another aspect to focus on besides
the score line and the wins and loses balance sheet
in a positive way.

These nutritional plans need to be age specific and
gender sensitive.
Games and tournaments have been won and lost of
the energy levels of teams.
Nutrition is a large part of the level of fitness.

Remember as a coach to keep yourself in great shape
so that you can also perform demonstrations at the
higher levels.