Summer has begun and now’s the time to relax, spend time with the family outdoors, catch up on some rounds of golf, and begin to save yourself a lot of time this fall.  Many coaches write us during the middle of their seasons asking for help to organize their practices.  Unfortunately it’s usually too late at that point to make much of a difference. The best time of the year to prepare for the fall season is now, during the summer.  The advantage is the fact that you only need to dedicate small amounts of time each day.  For example, if you spend 15 minutes each day writing down different things that you want your team to achieve this fall and the fundamentals they need to accomplish those goals, followed by finding the best drills to develop those fundamentals, you are well on the way to a great season of learning, improvement, and a great amount of time saved during the season. 

In order to help you accomplish organizing your entire season of fall practices this summer, we’ll provide you throughout the summer with:

• A list of suggested fundamentals to teach this season.
• A wide selection of drills to incorporate into your practices that apply directly to the fundamentals you would like to teach
• Advice on how to organize and run an entire season of practices.

Otherwise it is practically impossible to find this type of information in an easy to use format that is customized for youth teams.  After years of developing practice plans for different sports and developing innovative drills to teach specific fundamentals Youth Evolution Sports will provide you with the most innovative tools to improve your team’s performance, create a fun experience and passion for learning and practicing, with the added bonus of saving you hours of time. 

Let’s now suggest 7 key elements that can be added to your practices.

• Set objectives: before you begin planning your practices for the fall, establish a realistic list of goals for you and your team this season. The key here is establishing realistic goals.  Goals that require the team to go undefeated, make the playoffs, win a championship, or even finish with a winning record, often place too much pressure on the team, and are overly focused on final results.  These should not be considered goals but rather a bonus or by-product for achieving your other established objectives.  A soccer team that sets out to become a better passing team, improve their transitions from defense to offense, and increase the percentage of overall ball possession, or a football team that wants to improve their open field tackling, the center/quarterback exchange, and downfield blocking, are realistic goals that can be measured, rewarded, and most often leads to good overall results for the entire season. One goal every coach should set out to achieve is to make practices the most enjoyable part of your team’s season.  Imagine your players looking forward to attending every practice. The remainder of these suggestions will help you achieve just that.

• Teach every position to every player: A great way to engage every player in the pre-season and truly prepare a fully knowledgeable team for the season is to introduce and teach the fundamentals of every position to every player on the team.  Avoid pigeonholing kids into one particular position because of their physical size or ability. If kids are taught the fundamentals of each position, over time they will find the position where they belong naturally rather than having an adult dictate where they will play.

• Incorporate athletic development training: Too many kids are handicapped by the fact that they cannot properly run, jump, throw, catch, not to mention move laterally or any other direction.  We expect kids to execute sport specific skills before we ever introduce or teach them basic athletic skills.  Do your entire team a favor and introduce them to a series of fun drills that improve their agility, balance, coordination, flexibility, speed, stamina, and strength.  These are the skills that will improve their overall performance on the field throughout the season.

• Measure progress of every player: One of the key reasons kids participate on an organized team is to become better at that particular sport. Your main responsibility is to make sure every athlete improves his or her overall skills.  That applies to every athlete on your team, no matter his or her ability.  A good coach spends equal time working with the athlete with the least amount of ability as he or she would with the star performers.  A fun way to keep track of progress is to create a scorecard for each athlete.  During practices and games have someone record specific key fundamental techniques, such as in football, getting into the proper stance, positioning the shoulder and head properly while tackling, correctly running with the ball, etc. If these techniques are continually taught and reinforced throughout the season, tracking each individual’s progress is a great way to demonstrate what they need to continue to focus on or how well they’ve improved.  Otherwise a season that may seem disappointing due to final scores that are most often out-of-your control, can still be put into perspective and rewarding for every athlete on the team.

• Incorporate competitions into every practice: A great way to measure everyone’s progress is to sprinkle competitions throughout a practice that emphasize the fundamentals that have been introduced and taught that particular day.  This is a fun way to reinforce your teaching, provide an opportunity for each athlete to test their skills outside of a drill, and allows for each athlete to self-measure their progress.  For example, if you’re teaching how to execute accurate throw-ins and trapping the ball in your soccer practice, conduct several simultaneous short sided games (3x3) where each team can only move the ball around the field by executing proper throw-in passes to their teammates who must properly receive, trap and control the ball, followed by the athlete picking the ball up and properly executing a throw-in pass to a teammate around the field.  Balls that are intercepted or taken away by the other team must immediately execute the same passes and traps around the field as well. A goal is scored when a team executes a proper throw-in pass and trap to a teammate in a 10 foot  by 10 foot marked off area at the end of the field.  Individual points can also be assigned for each successfully executed throw-in pass and trap of the ball throughout each game.

• Divide all players into groups of 4 – 6: In order to keep your practices well organized and running smoothly throughout the season break up your team into small groups. Design each practice to consistently work in groups of 4 to 6 athletes.  If possible also assign partners within each group as a fast way to break into groups and pair off for drills. Divide equally amongst the team considering ability, size, and personality.  In other words use common sense, don’t place an athlete that tends to develop at a slower rate with others that are advanced.  Each group will work together and compete against each other every practice in friendly competitions that reinforce all the skills learned.  This will ultimately save you time each practice by avoiding the chore of breaking the team into groups every time you meet. 

• Make time for free play: Often we criticize coaches that turn each practice into a large scrimmage.  That’s not what we are suggesting here, we are recommending that you dedicate 15 minutes each practice for kids to make up their own games while you observe.  You’ll be amazed what you learn about each athlete when you incorporate this into your practice.  Witness who your leaders are, who has the most creativity, and who understands the fundamentals that have been taught.  You may want to give guidelines for their free play such as create a game that focuses on the fundamentals that were just introduced in practice, or a game that they feel best represents what they need to work on as a team to improve their overall performance.  This ultimately empowers your team and gives them the freedom to enjoy themselves without instruction and judgment taking place.

These are few suggestions to consider as you begin to plan your fall season of practices.  Throughout the summer and fall we’ll continue to provide additional ideas and tips to make practices easier to conduct and achieve your overall team goals.  Be sure to check back throughout the summer to receive actual practice plans and individual position curriculum for your upcoming fall sports.