The training plan

The development of a football player and the preparation of a team are comparable to building a house. In order to achieve the objectives that have been set, the coaching staff have to follow a series of steps that have been scheduled as part of an overall plan.

This is known in the sporting world as the training plan.

The training plan consists of determining objectives and implementing a set of increasingly detailed procedures with the aim of achieving these objectives. As with any form of education or teaching, as little as possible should be left to chance with training, even though a fair share of intuition, or “nous” on the part of the coach, also has its role to play in the process. The planning of his team’s training is therefore an essential task for any coach if he is to ensure that the players progress, that their performance abilities develop, and that they are prepared both individually and as a team for competitive action. This is just as much a task for top-level coaches as it is for youth coaches.

Why plan?

• • To decide, after analysis and refl ection, on the choice of objectives to be achieved, both for the short and the long term.
• • To help ensure a better weighting of the elements covered in the training, in terms of quantity, intensity and quality.
• • To prevent improvisation in training work.
• • To avoid routine and to give the coaching staff and players reassurance.
• • To allow better monitoring of training and to facilitate evaluation.
• • To allow the coach to respect and monitor the biological, physiological and psychological factors that determine performance.

Planning of training depends to a large extent on the age of the players, their level of development, the category of competition in which they are playing and the fi xture lists for the competitions in which they are involved. However, unlike in individual sports, such planning is not easy to schedule in a team sport like football, where players can be involved in several competitions (domestic league and cup competitions for their club, international club competitions and international competitions with the national team). High-quality, methodical planning, such as that required by a national team, calls for close co-operation between the coach, the doctor, the dietician and the psychologist.