I arrived at 4:20 on purpose to allow time to warm up. The team was playing a scrimmage, full field, of 10v11. Regular goals and keepers. I guess that they only had 21 players. The coach and his assistant stood side by side, near the midfield line, and chatted with each other. One team had vests and after a while the vests were changed creating different teams. The coaches continued to chat.
After a decent amount of time I left.
Some comments are in order.
The soccer season is short with a game about every other day. So it is a game one day, practice the next, followed by a game. The pace is rather frantic. So what to do for practice? Most teams have a short practice. A little warm-up work followed by some shooting and maybe a scrimmage where emphasis is placed on set plays. “Stop! Direct at a wall!” “Stop! Take a corner!” That kind of thing.
I do not agree. The season should be a learning season. I feel that the coach is obligated to teach something at each practice. Something new, different and better. And this should include games or exercises. Continue to teach and develop the team.
I go up the ladder with single player work followed by two player work and on and up to five player work. This is something I really like about the ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ logical progression. I also teach tactics, and that is a bit more complicated.
Even if practice is only an hour to rest the weary bones, I want the team to learn something, not just review.
What was wrong with the practice that I saw?
I would have an activity before the scrimmage. Then on to the scrimmage. The scrimmage was nonsense. Twenty one players get to touch the ball less than five percent of the time. Why not play a game of 5v5 and a second one of 5v4? Each on half the field. That doubles the amount of touches per player, and it is easier to coach.
And the two coaches. Each could coach a game. That makes more sense to me. If a coach wants a single team scrimmage, I would still separate the coaches. One on each side of the field coaching a different team. The emphasis could be different. One could coach to attack and the other to defend. Or each could coach both teams with different points. One stress technique:
-Shield the ball!
-Controlling with the wrong foot!
The other coach can stress tactics:
-Mark and cover!
-Who is supporting the man with the ball?
Oh, the activity would be the theme of the scrimmage. “You cannot shoot until after a wall pass.” “Shooting follows a header away from the goal.”
The season is short and every minute needs to be well used in practice. Finally, I would never play a full field scrimmage during practice. It is not intense enough and is a waste of time.
Play hard in practice and then have fun in the game.