Pre Season program for 7 sessions and ideas?

Sportplan TeamAdministrator, United Kingdom

Hi Colin,

Was there any aspect of your team's play last season that was in need of improvement? If so this would be a good place to start. 

Below we've included some of our pre-season planning tips as a launch point for you.

• Focus on one aspect that you would like to improve (only one) - can be anything from skills to tactics
• Just like a good story, make sure your sessions have a beginning (warm up), a middle (skill/tactical development) and an end (final game to reinforce learned skill)
• Ensure all aspects of your session are focused. For example, if working on passing make sure your warm up, drills and final game work on passing!
• Make sure you've got enough equipment (bibs, cones, balls etc).
  Better to have too much rather than too little!
• Ensure there's a logical order to the session, from warm up to final game. This will help things flow smoothly and helps your players to get the most out of the session
• Lastly - make sure everyone is safe and don't be afraid to veer off course, just because you've planned. A plan is just that, a plan and if something important comes up at training don't be afraid to go with it!

Hope these help.
The Sportplan Team

Colin PickeringCoach, England

Thanks Sports Plan. Not sure what needs to be worked on as its my first season so its a bit of the unknown

Timothy HuttonPlayer, Australia

Hi Colin,

With it currently being pre-season, a good think to look at would be improving/working on the fitness of your players.

At the start of any session, it is important to warm up to prevent injuries. Get the players jogging and stretching. Following on from this, you can look at working on fitness. I have attached a simple drill below which can help build up fitness while challenging the players. Ensure the players work hard in this drill and perhaps take note of those doing well and those that may need a little bit more help with their fitness.

After this, you can work on speed components, using simple exercises such as getting the players to sprint in between a set of cones and then jog back to the first cone.

At this point, you can bring a ball into proceedings, by getting the team to take part in small sided games and maybe introduce rules such as a maximum of three touches to keep the players alert.

As with any session, ensure the players warm down correctly at the end as this is always important.

Hope these help you and your team.

Tim

Pre-Season Running

DESCRIPTION

Set up as shown with four cones or poles in a rectangular shape. Get players jogging around the outside of the square once before making it a bit more difficult. On the second run round, have the players run at 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 2 before returning to a jog for rest of the rectangle. On the third run, have the players run at 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 3. Keep building this up until the players are running at 3/4 pace around all 4 cones, before reversing the order, i.e. 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 4, then next run 3/4 order between cones 1 and 3 all the way down until the players jog around the rectangle.

Pre-Season Running

DESCRIPTION

Set up as shown with four cones or poles in a rectangular shape. Get players jogging around the outside of the square once before making it a bit more difficult. On the second run round, have the players run at 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 2 before returning to a jog for rest of the rectangle. On the third run, have the players run at 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 3. Keep building this up until the players are running at 3/4 pace around all 4 cones, before reversing the order, i.e. 3/4 pace between cones 1 and 4, then next run 3/4 order between cones 1 and 3 all the way down until the players jog around the rectangle.