Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): C license session plan, defensive priorities

Screen 1 (10 mins)

Warm Up- 5 mins, 12 players, 2 sets of pinnies of different colours, 20x20 square

INSTRUCTION: Starting slow, all players moving around the area doing various mobility exercises on coaches command- jogging forward, backwards, side shuffles, skipping, jockeying, high knees, butt kicks, open the gates, close the gates

Progress to dynamic stretching- lunges with twist, quad stretches, hip stretches, leg swings, hamstring stretches (touch toes)

COACHING POINTS: warm up- RAMP

Screen 3 (5 mins)

SET UP: 12 players, 4 lines, 3 players in each, cones numbered 1-4, 5mins

INSTRUCTION: coach calls out sequence for players to follow. Players will run to first cone called and then jockey backward in sequence coach calls out, eg, 4321, 4231, 4132, etc, and then sprint to final cone and jog back

COACHING POINTS: RAMP, Neural prep

analytical session (15 mins)

SET UP: 15 mins, 3v3 plus 2, 12 players, 3 sets of pinnies- 4 colours, balls start with neutral players, 35x28 field plus 2 yard wide zone

INSTRUCTION: ball comes in from either neutral player to attacking players who are trying to score on goal; defenders are trying to win the ball and play to the neutral for a point

attacking players can play to neutrals, neutrals cannot be tackled, but are on 3 sec time limit to play the ball, also free to move within the wide zone to support both attackers and defenders

once shot is taken, reset , new set of attackers come in

rotate players every three rounds

Progression- time limit on attackers

COACHING POINTS: CP1- defender closest to the ball pressures

CP2- Angle and Speed of Approach of 1st defender

look to force ball carrier out of bounds or into areas of numerical supremacy

CP3- second defender takes space or player depending on which is more dangerous

CP4- if first defender is too far away to pressure, how do they position to stop forward progression of ball?

Planned questions

What dictates where we want to force the attacker? Position relative to the goal? where my teammates are? how close we are to goal?

Where should the second defender be? Positioned to help first defender? Marking a player?

How can we communicate with our teammates to let them know what we are doing?

Screen 7 (10 mins)

SET UP: 10 mins, Cool Down

INSTRUCTION: Players bring down heart rates and stretch out major muscle groups after play- skipping while doing arm rotations, hamstring stretches, quad stretches, hip stretches, calf stretches; discuss the session- what went well, what could be improved, what was learned, goals for next session/game, mental wind down

COACHING POINTS: