Tips on How to Create a Great Soccer Lesson Plan
One of the most popular sports in the world is soccer. To have a great team, soccer lesson plan is important. It takes time, planning, commitment and training to achieve a great team.
As you plan the soccer lesson, you visualize each step of the training and the goal you want to achieve at the end of the lesson.
Planning ensures that you have thought about everything that needs to be done during the training as well as presenting the idea in the most logical way.
Whether the team is playing as a profession or for fun, soccer lesson plans are important to achieve a great team and help the team gain the many benefits that come with these lessons. Here are guidelines that can help when planning this lesson.
Creating the Plan
Design a session: This is the road map of your lesson. It is an organized description of the activities and resources that you will need to guide your team in achieving the objective of the training. Some of the things to include when designing a session are:
Include the Objectives of the Game
The objectives or the purpose of the training or of the lesson is what will determine the plan that you will put in place about the entire lesson. The objective will help you to decide on
Specify your Drills and Activities According to Age Group
This sport is not limited by age. When planning a lesson, make sure that the activities that you are putting in place for the lesson suits the age group taking the lesson.
Bear in mind the physical and mental age of the group you are giving the lesson to. Some of the things you will put in plan when doing this are;
Design the Flow of the Activities
The way that the activities are planned should flow well. This means that you can start with simple activities to the complex activities.
This will however be determined by the team that you are planning the lesson for as well as the age group of the team. This can be done by:
Activities That Are Never Left Out
Nutrition: for good training and best achievement, a certain nutrition plan has to be achieved. This will be included and well observed when planning a soccer lesson. The team must know the right diet that is required for the training
Design Diagrams
Diagrams are one of the best ways to put ideas in the mind of the players. When designing the training diagrams remember to:
Drills for You Practice Plan
Soccer Marbles
This is a plan made for individual competition, to check the player’s accuracy to pass the ball, and the weight with which he passes it, it’s also used to introduce the difference between a pass and a kick.
Who is it designed for: As you might have guessed, it’s meant for under 6 and under 8 kids.
How it works: A weighted ball is placed at the center of the grid. This grid is large enough to accommodate the number of players but also small enough for them to be able to kick it out. Each player has a ball with which they try to hit the weighted ball and move it out of space.
Random Cones
This one deals with dribbling. It is to develop their body control and agility. To also teach them how to dribble and concentrate.
Who is it designed for: This is also designed for kids. Under 6 and under 8 kids.
How it works: Cones are placed dramatically around the grid. The player has to weave in and out of the cones first without the ball and then with the ball. It is a very effective dribbling practice plan.
Stop & Go
This is another dribbling practice plan. Stop and go teaches the players involved ball co-ordination and how to keep their heads up, it also makes use of their speed. They must always be on their toes and keep the ball close.
Who is it designed for: This is for under 8 kids who have practiced random cones.
How it works: If the players have practiced random cones, this would not be hard. Here, there are no cones involved. Players dribble the ball freely in different directions according to the coach’s command. When the coach says stop, they stop, if he says move, they move and if he says change, they change directions still dribbling the ball.
Ball Stealing
This is a practice plan to train athletes on alertness, foot co-ordination and speed. It is interesting and also effective.
Who is it designed for: It is designed for kids under 10. They’re just developing so footwork is important.
How it works: The team is split into 2 groups, they have to wear different vests. The players in one of the teams are given balls to dribble inside the area without losing their balls to the other team who are trying to get it. At the end, the team with the most balls win.
Heading
As the name implies, it is to develop great heading skills. There are other plans too for heading, this is only one of it. It also helps to build the players’ confidence.
Who is it designed for: This heading plan is designed for kids under 12 for boosting their confidence.
How it works: Each player tosses the ball in the air, heads it twice and then heads it to another player. This is usually done in groups of 3 or 4.
Receiving Air Balls
This practice plan promotes your players’ flexibility, co-ordination and ball touch and confidence. It also builds team work.
Who is it designed for: This plan is for teenagers. The under 14s.
How it works: The players are divided into groups of 5. 4 players must keep kicking the ball amongst themselves while a player runs around just outside the group. If he returns to his point without the ball touching the ground, their team gets a point.
Expansion & Contraction
This one checks for players’ mobility to support the ball and maintain balance.
Who is it designed for: This is designed for players under 16.
How it works: Teams should be grouped into teams of 4 or 5. They should make rounds of 60 seconds. Teams should try and score highest number of consecutive passes per round. Defenders should be rotated per round. The first pass is always free.
Zonal Defending Practice Plan
This practice plan even has health benefits, it increases blood circulation. It allows the players to practice simple rhythmic movements.
Who is it designed for: This practice plan is designed for under 19s.
How it works: 10 consecutive passes are equal to 1 goal here. Players work as a block. This is a tactical technique to balance and compact. The 1st defender looks for opportunity to make play predictable for teammates.
Things to Consider While Creating your Practice Plan
As earlier said, these are just few of the numerous practice plans that exist. These plans are also effective but here’s the question, how do you create a formidable practice plan? Do you just add all the techniques above and bam, your practice plan is ready? No. Here’s a list of things to consider while creating your practice plan.
A Typical Example Of A Soccer Practice Plan
Here’s an example on how a typical practice plan could look like. Let’s say the skill to work on is receiving air balls. You could go like this.
Practice plan for 12th June 1993
Goal: Strengthening team work with receiving air balls.
You could spice up yours by going further to explain each step especially if you’re not the only person who will be reading it.
Well, another practice plan could be an outline of the skills you want to coach in the long run in a particular period of time. Let’s say you want to teach dribbling, passing, attacking, ball familiarity, finishing, ball control. Your practice plan could look like this.
Practice plans for April - June 2012
What are the Benefits Of Soccer Practice Plans and Why Should You Use Them?
The benefits of soccer practice plans are numerous. Every coach wants to build an excellent soccer team. Practice plans help you outline the skills you want to teach during practice sessions.
They help you in your quest of building an excellent team. They help you mark out the weak areas of your team, so you can focus more on them. It also ensures that the at least one and half hour you spend during practice sessions is not a waste. They help you outline a well-prepared soccer course for the long run.
Since practice plans are pre-determined and are outlined step by step, it makes a simple learning curve for your players and also gives you a plan for a successful coaching. While preparing your practice plans, you could get new insights and ideas to help your players sharpen their playing skills.
It also sharpens your coaching skills. It also portrays you as a decisive person that knows what he or she wants and values his or her time.
If organized well, another coach could easily read and understand it in other to train his own team. Generally, it makes it easier for you to coach your players and other coach.
Coaching Board
Final Thoughts
Soccer practice plans are very important in building a formidable soccer team and developing your coaching skills. If you’ve chosen soccer as a career, then you must know how important planning is in your career. Remember, age range is a major factor in creating a soccer practice plan.
Coaching also becomes enjoyable when you start creating practice plans. It means, less stress and more spare time for yourself. There is much to learn from when it comes to soccer lesson plan.
Things You'll Need
References
Last update on 2023-04-01 / This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
