Writing a Practice Plan

The best way to ensure that practice is as productive as possible is write a practice plan. This makes it easier for you to set goals for each practice and drills that will help you accomplish them. Before a plan can be written you should consider the following:

Practice field conditions:
How much space will you have? What is the quality of the field? Do you have full size goals and how many are available?

Your Team:
How old are they? What is their level of ability? What is the level of their fitness? How many players are you likely to have? At what positions? When is your next match? How many assistants will you have to aid you? How much time is available for practice?

Equipment:
Do you have balls, vests, goals, cones, etc?

Weather:
What will the weather be like? What has the weather been like the previous days?

The answers to these questions will dictate the topic and type of each practice. After answering the questions above you will be able to plan the proper practice for your team. The following are what you can include in a practice plan:

- Coaching Topic
- Warm-up Drills
- Main Drills
- Games
- Fitness Drills
- Cool down Drills
- Coaches Notes

To write a good plan you have to be able to evaluate the needs of your team. This will depend on past practices, past games, the needs of your players, and future games. The first step is to come up with a theme or topic of the day. It is important that at the beginning of each practice you share the theme and your expectations so that players are focused on the specific goal. The next step is to choose some warm-up drills. This can range from a technical warm-up where players work on basic ball control skills to a running workout where players work their speed work. The next step is to pick a set of drills that will allow your players to learn the skills that you are trying to teach that day. Make sure that each drill is as game realistic as possible and is appropriate for the skill level of your players. Many coaches will pick drills that progress the practice from basic technical work to a game. If your team needs fitness work then you can try to work them into the practice with specific running drills or by using the intensity of the main drills as their fitness. At the end of practice you should encourage your players to cool down with some simple stretching and light jogging.