How to make your sessions appropriate for your players

Instead, the coach should observe and identify the moment when a player intentionally stays away from the melee to potentially receive the ball in space. It is the moment a player is developing, in their minds, the concept of space.

Using this player as a good example for the others is effective coaching, based on observation, affirmation, and patience. 

Important game considerations such as dispersal, compactness, transition, formations and systems are the responsibility of the coach to teach within the context of their players’ developmental level.

Most parents will identify with the idea that a young child can be very self-centered before they develop friends.

Similarly, most coaches of young players will have had the experience of the players not being as team-centric and committed to collective success as they may hope. This is consistent with research on how children develop socio-emotionally. 

Implications for the coach are that they must consider how to manage collaborative and opposed activities in training - whether to train individually, in groups, or in full team numbers.

If we support developmentally appropriate training, a simple blueprint for the youngest age of grassroots players emerges, as per the panel on the right of the page.

The modern coach is one who manages more than the fundamentals of a technical session. This applies to all levels of the game.

The modern coach is expected to understand effective communication, personnel management, periodization, individual development planning and so on.

These tasks have often been referred to as the ’soft skills’ of coaching - but I think it is more informed to call them the ’necessary skills’ of coaching.

Coming to a personal understanding of how to consider and apply a developmentally appropriate approach to coaching is very rewarding.

What defines an effective modern coach is one who is efficient in the use of time and resources. That efficiency can be found in setting the challenges of training that stretch players but are attainable in relation to their developmental stage.

"If we support developmentally appropriate training, a blueprint emerges..."

My exposure to the US Youth Soccer National Youth License was the single biggest positive impact in my coaching. It helped me enjoy youth coaching and allowed me to appreciate the players more.

At senior levels, it encouraged me to understand players’ physical ability, their game understanding and their broader motivations and commitment.

In some cases, it did mean I wasn’t placed with the best group for my skillset and those of the players. More often, it meant I was able to meet players at their level, set them challenges and put them into competition in a highly intentional and effective way.

Think about your players from the perspective of the developmental appropriateness of what you train and ask of them.

If you can do this and adjust accordingly, then you, and the players, will derive more enjoyment from your sessions - and player development and performance outcomes will improve as a result.

A developmentally appropriate coaching blueprint

U6s: One ball for every player; lots of individual technical practice; 1v1 challenges; lots of patience from the coach allowing for multiple breaks and activity changes.

U8s: One ball between two players; technical exercises including passes; collaborative and combative challenges; introducing basic ideas of support; 2v2 games.

U10s: One ball to a small group; technical work on dribbling, passing and combination play; decision making around in-possession and out-of-possession, repetitive small-sided game situations.

U12s: Emerging into similar elements of a senior player session; small group to expanded numbers to full number activity; technical emphasis both individual and small group; physical readiness; managing challenge to provide opportunity for success and adversity.