First, it's important to have some basic concepts down:
- Assess the needs of incoming players
- Program needs to be fun and effective
- Focus on basic ball handling with progression of complexity, intensity, and pressure.
- Keep it simple
So let's talk about each of these.
When a new batch of kids sign up for spring training, think about what their needs will be for the fall. Is it an experienced group? Are there a lot of new players? What will they need for the fall? Just doing the same thing each year may not help you to achieve your goals for the fall.
Program needs to be fun - but what does fun mean? Fun does not mean the same drills week after week. A good group of kids will tolerate this and actually enjoy getting together with each other, so if you are doing the same drills week after week, there may be the illusion of fun. So what makes for fun and effective? Kids love to play the game, so any activity that reinforces basic skills with in the content of a game is good. This can be small sided games, ball control games around pug goals, etc. Almost any activity that involves players competing with each other and scoring on a goal of some kind, in a short amount of time.
Focusing on basic skills is important but also progressing is important too. In our program we tended to do the same drills at the same stations week after week. Boring for the kids, doesn't help them grow. All ball handling drills should start with a simple ball control move + moving + passing. Never less than that. So a player may dribble the ball, execute and inside cut turn, dribble back, then pass. Doing these for a couple weeks, gradually increase speed. Then add limited defensive pressure. Then have the defender try and take the ball. This is what I mean by progression of complexity, intensity and pressure. All drills should do this.
Keep it simple: there are probably a hundred types of turns you can make: inside cut, outside cut, scissor moves, u-turns, and on and on and on. Keeping it simple means that you don't try and teach them all - you'll just confuse the kids. I've watched as we tried to teach too many turns over three years and kids still don't get them right because we give them too much. Keeping things simple also means there are things you should do during spring training and things that will happen at other times. We've been running agility training, which in hindsight is frankly a waste of time. Doing it once per week for 10min in May is a waste of time - time better spent on other things. Agility and conditioning are better done by the player over the summer on their time and do agility closer to the season. Bottom line, you don't have to do everything now. Trying to do too much during spring training is actually counter productive.
One more thing, there should be some measure of effectiveness. For example, see how many times a player can move a ball between two cone during a specific time period, and does that improve over the spring training. Also, tie that in to the fall - did the player learn anything from spring training? We had guys who were given 10-15 different types of turns during the spring, but in the fall couldn't do any of them - what does that tell you about the effectiveness of that drill during spring training? I had someone tell me we shouldn't change things because the parents were happy with the program. That's not an effective measure. While keeping parents happy and helping them meet their goals is important, their criteria for what's effective is not the same as the coaches - not even close. So pick some basic effective measures.
Bottom line: the kids need to get jazzed about playing soccer in the fall! Make it fun for them. Let the needs of the fall help drive the spring training.
