We are going to talk about training sessions, this way we will throw a little light on how to plan, structure and design your own training session for your team.
But, as in everything in life, you have to start at the beginning.
Contents
What is a training session?
A training session is a set of exercises that are presented interrelated in order to achieve one or more objectives. A session is subdivided into different parts. Here the exercises find a progression in terms of complexity and intensity, from lower than higher during the session. Depending on the club and category, a soccer team is usually training between 2 and 4 times a week (microcycles). Instead, if we talk about an elite team, they can even get to have more than one training session between 60 and 90 minutes on the same day. Obviously, we will adapt the training sessions of our team as we consider necessary, there is no secret formula that works with everyone.
What types of sessions exist?
There are several types of sessions. We explain them below:
Recognition
In these we will discover the actual level of the equipment, as its name suggests. New coaches usually do them to meet the team or when we return from the holiday period, to see what level the team returns. We will make them as a general rule in the first training of the season.
Formative
These are very important despite the fact that many clubs do not take them into account and focus training at more competitive ways. In these sessions we must emphasize the technical-tactical development of our players. To do, we must understand, our players will not correctly exercise or detect at what time of the party you have to react in a concrete way if you do not understand what it is doing for.
Competitive
In this session we will focus basically on the score, in which the equipment dials the most goals. As a general rule we will make this type of training with teams that already have several years of experience. We will look for a high tactical performance.
Physical
Today, this type of training has changed a lot, now they work directly in the field, combining it with tactical exercises, what we will seek is to increase the general physical condition of our team, the physical sessions are usually worked on during the pre-season periods .
Recovery of Effort
These sessions are of lower performance, usually due to major loads as a high intensity training or a party, we will also apply them to injured players who are being incorporated but in a personalized way.
Individual sessions
These sessions we must work carefully, we will apply them in two cases, as we said, when a player reincorns after an injury or when there is a concrete aspect that we have to work with a single player, this can be positive if then we have a follow up From this player with the rest of the team, we do not want him to feel excluded, first of all we are a team.
Playful session
The objective of these sessions is to reinforce the feeling of equipment and make members have fun through the game, thus reducing the tensions that may have
Now, how can we group these sessions? Is there a classification of these?
Yes, there is and are three: - micro-, meso- and macro-cycles. We will organize them in these three general blocks depending on the goal to fulfill in each type of session we have.
Microcycles
Generally this cycle lasts a week, composed of our training sessions plus a match. During this week our workouts will be focused on our rival team and how to counteract it in the field. As a general rule apply to equipment with a medium-high category.
Mesocycle
This cycle will apply it to lower, juvenile, fry equipment ... as it is worth to have a visual control of the whole team. Normally they usually last around a month, between 4 and 6 weeks.
Macrocycle
It offers us a more general vision of the whole team and, despite the fact that it is the most difficult to follow for the duration (from 3 to 12 months), it is useful to have a notion of where to direct the team.
What to keep in mind when designing our session?
First of all we must plan:
- Have a general plan, In this way we will know what we want to cover during the cycle period and know what cycle we will need (micro, meso or macro).
- T.have a general pattern with which the players are already accustomed to training.
- Know where we want to get there To know how to get there.
Specialty The one that a lot covers little squeezes, that is why it is better to focus on a few goals and take it with patience.
Session design
Knowing where we started and where we want to get (realistically), we have to decide the way. We have to decide what the content we will work, what methodology we will use and what will be the resources we want to use.
What to keep in mind when designing a session?
- In what period of the season we are.
- How many players do we have, what is our training space and what is the material available to us.
- What exercises are adapted with the above points.
- Understand what we work with our exercises. Is it enough? Or too much?
- Plan the training taking into account how long we will take to explain the tasks, in what order, how long each time has and always take the breaks between tasks.
- Always have a plan B. Prevent lack of material or players, etc.
Goal setting
Where you want to get the club, the players and what can I help as a coach?.
Know your players
How many? How do they play? What is your level?
Method
What is the method that seems appropriate to me? What game model should be applied? How long do we have? What material and human resources do I have?
Analysis.
We have to decide how we will collect the information, how we will analyze it and how we will act to correct any inconvenience that may arise.
What structure to use?
The structure of a workout is very simple, but it is necessary to be very clear, since it is fundamental for our players to have a correct training. On the other hand, to ensure success, we advise before each exercise to make a small and brief pause to visually show our players what they have to do, placing the material, explaining what we want to achieve and how we are going to train it.
The warm-up
It is essential in any training plan. It is essential for the session, we recommend that this phase lasts between 10 and 20 minutes.
Main exercise
This is the key part of training and is 60 to 90 minutes divided into 4 or 6 parts.
His first part focuses on physical preparation (aerobic and anaerobic resistance, explosive and maximum force, technical coordination of career, flexibility and preventive exercises). In football, most of the time is played without the ball on the feet, so it is very important to have a good soccer training plan for physical. Changing speed and constant direction is what players do the most in the matches.
The second part deals with the technical work foreseen according to the soccer training plan, individual technique; Get a driving and dribble skill.
Collective technique; The pass between players, combined actions, driving ... get our team, on the pitch, coordinate and get a good combination of passes, plays ... technical-tactical exercises that can be, round, possessions, duels or actions Collective technique.
Particular tactics, defense (high pressure with replicites), attacks, counterattacks, offensive and defensive transitions.
With the fifth part we will seek to apply what was learned to the game.
The sixth part, if we include it, it will look for the pieces to ball standing.
Back to the calm
This phase is crucial although many coaches overlook, it serves us to lower pulsations, make our team relax and return in a state of calm to their homes. During this phase we will look for exercises such as soft and continuous careers or stretching, we can take advantage to give a talk to our team as a reflection on the training of the day.
Quantification and analysis.
At the end of each session although we have not made the summary for our players it is vitally important to analyze the training or that it is for ourselves. It is important to question: Have you understood the players? Have I lost a lot of time in explanations? Do all players have understood and internalized training? Have the exercises had adequate progression? These are some of the questions we can ask ourselves.
Do you know what session you will use in the next training?
If this information has been useful, we recommend that you look at our Expert Course in Fundamentals of Soccer (UCAV) with which you will learn this and many more in-depth tools to be able to get the most out of the training you carry out.
