#073 Drills or Small-Sided Games?

Last weekend was weird for me because I didn’t have any soccer games! The first month of the season can be a very busy time so this break was a welcome one for me and the players.

As I talked about in #071 The Importance of Recovery Sessions, it’s important to balance stress and recovery so this short break could help the teams take an important step forward in the coming weeks.

The players did seem a bit rusty in their first training session of the week. This could also just be the fact that being in school all day and then coming straight to training had them a little squirrely and lacking focus.

This week I want to look at the trend over the years away from ‘Drills’ and toward ‘Small-Sided Games’ as the primary training method. The thought has been that ‘Global Training’ of physical, mental, technical and tactical aspects of the game is the most efficient way to train players.

Games are certainly more fun than many line drills and this is something we should be aware of as I talked about last week in #072 What Motivates Soccer Players?

So today I look at the various training methods and give you my opinion on the drills vs games debate.

I’ve included my complete outline of today’s podcast and diagrams and descriptions of the sample training session in the show notes.

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In Future Episodes

We have a lot going on at WORLD CLASS COACHING right now. I have a couple of topics that I’m working on for future episodes. The role of pattern play in training teams of all ages and I want to talk about an article I read recently about whether or not parents should watch practices.

Mike Saif is putting together a book that lays out the key factors that went into his U14 girls winning a National Championship. He’s finishing it up now and it should be coming out in the next few months.

I’m also working on a coach’s tour to visit Dutch and German Academies in the spring. I’ve done this once before and it’s a great opportunity to get a behind the scenes view of how they develop players. I’ll only be able to take a handful of coaches but if this is something you might be interested let me know and I’ll keep you up-to-date on the plans.