Introduction to 100 Coaching Practices
Designing and executing effective coaching practices is one of the fundamental roles of a sports coach. As football progresses, practice design is becoming progressively more vital to influencing player and team development & performance . Historically, coaching practices focused on developing the physical and technical elements of players and teams. It is now clear that practices can be used to develop other key elements such as tactical understanding and decision making. This has led to an evolution of coaching practices being used across the world, with labelled practices such as ‘phases of plays’, ‘rondos’, and ‘wave practices’ becoming more prominent.
This book aims to offer a wide variety of coaching practices covering a wide range of tactical topics, with supporting coaching detail to support each topic. With use of the practices and detail, you can significantly impact the development of the teams and players you are working with. Out of the 100 practices presented, identifying the most suitable practices for the specific context you are working in, along with the relevant coaching points, will be key in maximising the training outcomes you can achieve.
The practices are from a culmination of my 13 years in the coaching industry, working across international, professional, academy, and grassroots level. I have attempted to cover all of the main topics required to develop players and teams, from 1v1’s, to build-up play, to set pieces. More focus has been placed on the key topics that we should spend an increased amount of time working on.
For example, final third attacking has a high number of practices, as creating and scoring goals is often the most challenging aspect of the game. All practices start with the specific objectives, followed by the game flow & rules, and videos which are available for all coaches who have purchased this book.