Organizing Practice Sessions Content : General Points

Four main area of preparation

A practice session is organized so that players can learn new skills or practice other skills and requirements. For a player to play sport well and effectively, he or she should be trained in four main areas of preparation.

•  Physical preparation

Physical preparation or conditionings where aerobic and anaerobic workouts, strength, muscle endurance and flexibility related to the specific sports are developed.

•  Technical preparation

Technical preparation on the learning and refining of skills.

•  Tactical preparation

Tactical preparation the strategies or tactics of the sport.

•  Psychological preparation

Psychological preparation involve psychological factors such as anxiety, motivation and mental training, etc.

Each practice session should focus on one or more of the 4 mentioned areas. At this level much more emphasis would be given to the technical and physical preparation. Besides this, each session should begin with a warm-up session and end with a cooling down period.

Continuity in coaching session

Each coaching session should be organized as a result of the previous coaching session and seen as part of a series of sessions or the whole training plan, i.e. a session series of 6 weeks of coaching sessions should show a certain amount of progression.

Assessment

During each session stand back and try to assess what is going well, what is going badly and what is needed for the next session.

Make planning for the next session

Using what you gather from the previous assessment, plan for your next session to ensure continuation of learning and progress.

Spend time preparing your session and focus your thoughts on 4 areas:

• What are the possible areas of danger? (Safety)
• Why are groups there? (Motivation)
• What, if anything, will they want to learn? (Learning goals)
• How can the session go smoothly? (Organization).

If your are coaching a group just learning to play the sport then your first several practice sessions will focus more on skill learning, rules of play, etc. Each session ending in some playtime. As the session progresses practice session will lengthen. Make sure you have appropriate equipment for the session. End a coaching session with some playtime to utilize what the coaching session was about.

Safety

This must be recognized first. Certain sports are so obviously dangerous that clearly defined procedures are laid down in training and coaching. These determine how you organize a class and plan a session. It is vital that you follow the recommendations of the governing body for the sport. Additionally, Risk Management and safety of the participants is a primary concern and responsibility of the coach. Safety means being able to foresee and remove physical dangers, hazards, obstructions, etc, and inappropriate behaviors.

Motivation

Adjust your approach to suit the conditions. Be flexible. If the groups are there to play a game, Then the game should be played, Stopping the game to try to improve their skills repeatedly disrupts the flow of the game that the players are enjoying. Your aim should be to keep participants enjoying the game. This is accomplished by not being too controlling or militaristic as a coach. Do drills that participants can enjoy while learning. Many skills are transferable.

Your aim must be to keep participants coming to the session and encourage others to come also.

Learning

Besides playing the game, participants must learn a new skill at each session. These newly learnt skills should be reinforced when playing the game. These goals should guide the session. Since skill learning will form an important area of goals, the coach should realize that teaching all skills would take a lot of time. Keep in mind the age of the groups and their skill level. If a little imagination can be used then structuring activity can help, for example you might shorten a soccer pitch to encourage more players to play purposefully. You should recognize that a considerable amount of learning goes on within game.

Organization

The spent in planning for the session (written lesion plan) will make the problem of controlling the group much easier. Try to keep the organization simple. Having decided what needs to be done, thank of how to do it efficiently. On many occasions a group will need to be broken down into sub-groups of three or four. Think of simple games such groups could play where the skill is utilized. If certain individuals need to be in particular ability groups, work out the groups before the session. You can avoid a lot of trouble by thinking about the position of the equipment while planning the session and arriving early to set up the equipment.

Timing

One thing you can always do is start on time. Encourage the group to arrive early and be changed ready to start on time. Try to give equal time to all participants regardless of ability. Finish on time and leave the facility as you found it. All equipment must be returned or stored in its proper place.