Developing a Soccer Coaching Plan

Start with a warmup that incorporates some basic elements of what you intend to work on in the session. Use a lesson plan developed by U.S. Youth Soccer, such as vision and support with a U14 team (ages 14 and under). Break your team into three separate groups of different colors. (Say your team wears white training shirts: have one group go without pinnies and the other groups in yellow and red.) Have the three groups use several balls to pass and move, but require white to pass to red, red to yellow, and yellow to white. This requires players to pick their heads up and find appropriate targets, and it requires players off the ball to get into good supporting position of players with the ball.

Broaden your range of warmup drills. Use another U.S. Youth Soccer lesson plan, such as flank play with a U16 team (ages 16 and under). Have the team warm up by putting several balls in play and have your players pass and move in an area roughly 30 yards by 30 yards, passing with either the inside of their feet or their laces. Playing the ball out wide and then back into the middle of the field requires good passing with both the instep and the laces, which is why this warmup is useful.

Have subsequent drills build on the concept you are teaching. The U.S. Youth Soccer vision/support plan builds through several drills that expand on vision and support play. In the 3v3v3 game, for example, teams of three, each wearing a different color, play "keepaway," with two teams trying to keep the ball away from one team. The defending team is switched intermittently, and variations like limiting the number of touches available to the two attacking teams or having the attacking group that gives the ball away immediately become the defending team keep the drill interesting. Likewise, the flank play lesson plan builds through 6v5 and 9v9 games with various restrictions added. For instance, the 6v5 game is played to one goal in an area that is roughly 40 yards long with channels marked by cones on the outside of the 18-yard box. There are six attacking players and five defending players inside the grid with one neutral player installed in each of the wide channels to encourage wide play and support the team with the ball. By building through a series of drills that work on a similar concept, you can work on a particular skill or tactic in small situations that get closer and closer to true game-like situations.

End with match conditions. The vision/support plan ends with 8v8 to 11v11, and the wing play plan ends with 11v11. It isn't always possible to finish with a full 11v11 scrimmage because of constraints on space or number of players, but finish the session with free play to goal (or play with a limited number of restrictions, like a touch limit) in as large a setting as possible. This will allow the players to put the lesson into practice, and it allows the coach the opportunity to observe the team, looking for improvement as well as continued difficulty, freezing play as needed to point out scenarios relevant to the lesson you've been working on.