5 Tips to make Your Training Sessions More Competitive

The effectiveness of a soccer training session is greatly hinged on the coaches intensity, execution, explanation, expectations, communication with the players, and time spend on an activity. However, the most important piece of making an effective soccer training session is to make it competitive and game like by paying attention to the details.

Start with looking at the team as a whole (large group). Break it down a little smaller to see how this affects players as they work in small groups. Now think about each of the individual’s roles as they perform their tasks and challenges each individual has, then focus on the mental pressure situations these individual players have.

So now that you have drilled down to the focus or topic you should start with the individual player and work your way towards the large group. Here are some ways you can make your soccer training sessions more competitive and game like:

1. Mental Pressure situations. Set up imaginary situations and assign a goal to each player to reach. Hold a competition to where each player competes to reach the goal.
2. Challenges. Present the players with a challenge.
3. Competition. Set up 1v1 competitions where players play head-to-head competition.
4. Controlled small group games. Set up small sided games that focus on a specific topic or game like situation.
5. Controlled large group game. Set up a large game (8v8) that focuses on a specific topic or game situation.

As you present each of these different coaching methods it is the responsibility of the coach to evaluate the players to make sure they are practicing with the right game like intensity level. Pay close attention to each player’s work rate, intensity, focus, urgency, speed of play, discipline, and team work. Bottom line is a well run practice is found in the details. Be vigilant and persistent to ensure the soccer training is done precisely.