Grassroots coach struggling for training ideas?

Grassroots coaches, coming up with ideas is hard.

You’ve got loads of other commitments on top of running a junior football team and sometimes there just isn’t enough time to plan.

Or maybe you’ve been thrown into it without knowing much about football coaching.

Best advice from us for your training sessions?

Play matches…

You might see fancy drills on social media and think they are the difference-maker.

Or that onlookers might want to see loads of equipment and kids stood in lines looking all neat and tidy.

But the game can be the best teacher and for those with little time to plan or without much knowledge you can often do more harm than good if you simply pick a drill you’ve seen that ‘looks’ good.

Some options for you:

Small-Sides Games

– More touches of the ball, quicker decisions to be made

– Think 2v2’s, 3v3’s, 4v4’s etc

– You could also do 1v1 ‘tournaments’ to develop dribbling

Condition the games

– Limit touches to develop passing skills

– 1 touch, 2 touch etc

Play around with pitch size

– Small pitches = develop ability to play in tight areas

– Longer pitches = more opportunity to dribble and play longer passes

Overloads & Under-loads

– Challenge your stronger players by making them pay against more players

– Help your weaker players by giving them an extra player

Extra goals

– Maybe you want to work on switching play so if a team scores from a switch in play award an extra goal

Very simple, but that’s the point.

There are loads of things you can do and often times you’ll have a much more effective training session instead of trying to copy the latest Pep Guardiola drill.

For kids, keep things as close to the game as possible and you won’t go far wrong.

Plus, kids love it!

If you’re a coach and want some more ideas specific to your team, drop us an email info@foot-techacademy.co.uk, we also offer FREE grassroots training sessions on Monday evenings 6-7pm at John Smeaton Leisure Centre.