Ideas for creating your own practice.

In this article I will give you tips on what you can do in order to create your own practice plans. I know by experience that you will soon or later come to a point where you feel that you have exhausted all your ideas. So, what should you do when you feel that there are no more ideas? Well, there are some measurements you can take in order to refill your planning arsenal…

1. Borrow some coaching books from your local library and start to explore these. These books are often full with illustrated and well explained drills which will give your more ideas on what to practice on. One important thing you should keep in mind is that many coaching books tend to focus on advanced drills. If you are coaching youths or kids you will need to carefully examine each drill and decide whether your players will be able to understand it properly.

2. Many coaches tend to focus on the same drills for long time. This is not recommended as your players will get tired of performing the same drills over and over again. To avoid this you should have 20-30 practice ready plans that you can switch between.

3. You should always examine the plan for your practice before putting it into action. You need to carefully plan how the drills should be performed, which equipment you should use, time needed and so on. All these variables will help you prepare better for the upcoming practice and your work will be much easier.

4. An assistant can make your life easier.  If you have a full time job, family etc you will find yourself stressed and you will have hard to prepare your practices as it will not be your first priority. In this case, it is important to have an assistant who can help you.

5. As a coach, you need to know what you are talking about. Don’t act like you were unsure about things as this will probably decrease your authority among the players. Keep in mind that your players see you like a leader who stands behind his decisions.

6. Try to identify your player’s weakness and create a separate training plan for each of your players. On this way you will encourage them to practice on their individual skills, which is a must if they want to play professionally.