Planning notes for a block of work:
The example of plans that are demonstrated here are the second block of 3 terms (Minimum of 10 weeks each term), from the FA Skills Centre in Luton. The group have completed 10 weeks of individual movement and ball skills, undertaking lots of 1v1 activities and opportunities to manipulate the ball.

This term, the group are progressing to working with a partner (or unit) and next term we will progress to playing within small teams (could be identified as larger units or even teams).

Each time I plan I am thinking about the following things;

• What do the players need to develop/improve this week? How does that link to a learning focus?
• How am I going to construct this practice to meet the player’s needs? What type of practice does this need to be because of the learning focus? Ie do we need whole part whole, technique-skill-game practices, or something else?
• What activities am I going to use to enable lots of opportunity to practice the learning focus? When considering activities I also consider
  • Realism to the game
  • Amount of repetition needed
  • The level of opposition throughout
  • Does the opponent have an outcome if they win possession
  • Does it need to be directional?
  • Can I include goals in this? If not, can I include a target or an outcome for the players?
• How will I adapt the practices to meet individual needs using STEP principle (Space, Task. Equipment, People), challenges and questioning?

The sessions shown here have been used with 5-8 year olds (school years 1-3). During this block we will try to cover some attacking and defending principles linked to working with a partner. This is a different method we are using this season, so I as a coach will still be learning as well.
Within the practices, I always include an arrival activity (can be games, technical practice, tag games etc) and aspire to have a minimum of 50% ‘game time’ (where appropriate).
If you have any questions on any of the sessions here, or would like to discuss this work, please contact Stephen.maker@thefa.com


Week 1
This session plan looks at working within a team to attack and defend space without the ball.

Download the session plan HERE