soccer coaching practice plans

It's very important to decide what skill or technique you want your children to work on before you step onto the practice field.

You also need to decide how you're going to organise the practice and what warm ups and games and drills you're going to use.

You should also have an idea of how long each activity should last and how you're going to make the transition from one activity to the next.

Knowing what you're going to do and how you're going to do it is essential if you're going to make the best use of your practice time. It also helps you avoid discipline problems - nothing encourages children to misbehave as much as a coach who is clearly fumbling his or her way through the session!

You don't need to write hundreds of words. In fact, a few simple 'memory joggers' on a postcard or in a small notebook is ideal.

This pro-forma could come in handy:

A blank lesson plan (zip file)

But if you don't want to write your own practice plan from scratch or you just haven't the time, you'll find lots of ready made plans on this page.

Tip: don't persevere with a plan that obviously isn't working. Have a couple of tried and tested alternatives up your sleeve and work out what went wrong afterwards - you might need to explain what you want the children to do in a different way or the activity might be too easy or too difficult.

My favourite ready-made practice plans are these three 8 week plans put together by Gavin Spooner. They cater for any size group, they’re well structured, easy to understand and come with good general coaching advice. Suitable for U6-U14 age groups.

Gavin's 8 week practice plans (zip file)

More soccer practice plans:

a complete passing practice
a complete shooting practice
an U7 practice plan
attacking with confidence
ball control and team work lesson plan
ball control lesson plan
basics of defending
coaching U12 soccer players
D.I.Y soccer practice plans
defending for U10s
defending for U9s
defending practice plan
dribbling and stopping the ball
dribbling for U10s
dribbling for U8s
dribbling for U9s
example soccer coaching practice plan for children aged 3 to 8
FA Level 2 football coaching drills and key factors
first touch and receiving the ball
football coaching sessions
goalkeeper distribution (throwing) practice plan
goalkeeping practice plans
Hot potato
how to teach the laces kick and driven pass
improve fitness, passing skills and teamwork
Improving vision
improving vision and speed of play
inswinging corners
passing and dribbling
passing and receiving
passing and receiving 2
passing and shooting
passing for U10s
passing for U8s
passing for U9s
passing, defending and communication
possession
practice plans from Decatur Sports
pre-season football training
shadow play - teaching positions to U9-U11 players
shielding and aggressiveness
shooting - teaching the basics
shooting for U10s
shooting for U8s
shooting for U9s
shooting from square passes
shuttle shooting
small group defending
soccer coaching lesson plans
soccer coaching lesson plans from US Youth Soccer
soccer coaching practice plans from AmherstSoccer
soccer practice plans
soccer training session for U6s
staggered goals
tackling
teaching the basic push pass
team building
team shape and movement
team shape and movement practice plan
the importance of planning training sessions
the job of a defender
training the second defender
training thoughts
U14 practice plans and coaching advice
U6 - U10 soccer coaching practice plans from Indiana Youth Soccer
U6 - U14 soccer coaching practice plans from MYSA
U6 - U14 soccer coaching practice plans from MYSA
U6 balance and co-ordination
U6-U9 - moving with the ball
U8-U9 practice plans
vision and support