Somebody at the club has asked you to take a session. You said yes before you had time to think about it, and now Saturday is coming.
I have stood where you are standing. Here is what I would tell you over a cup of tea.
Before you do anything else
Write the session down. On paper, the night before.
The single biggest difference between a session that works and one that falls apart is whether the coach knows what happens next. Children can smell hesitation. Two minutes of you standing there thinking is two minutes of thirty children deciding to do something else.
You do not need anything elaborate. Four activities, a rough time against each, and the equipment you need for them. That is a plan.
Take with you
- Your written plan, in your pocket
- Cones — more than you think, at least twenty
- One ball per two children if you can manage it
- A whistle, though use it sparingly
- A watch you can see without stopping
- First aid kit and the club's emergency contacts
The shape of a first session
Sixty minutes for younger age groups, seventy five as they get older. Longer than that and you are losing them regardless of how good you are.
Minutes 0 to 10: a game, not a warm up
Do not start with laps. Start with something that has a winner.
Pac-Man tag works every time. Set a grid, one or two catchers, everyone else running. It gets them warm, it gets them moving in every direction, and most importantly it tells them straight away that this is going to be fun. First impressions with children are made in about ninety seconds.
Minutes 10 to 25: one skill, done properly
One. Not four.
For a first session I would take passing. Two lines, five metres apart, pass and follow your pass. Then add movement. Then add a defender walking. Build it up in layers so nobody has to do anything they have not already done a simpler version of.
Say one thing about technique and repeat that one thing all session. "Hands out ready" is enough for a first week. If you give them six coaching points they will remember none.
Minutes 25 to 50: play
Small sided. Four against four, or five against five. Several small games rather than one big one, so everybody is touching the ball constantly.
Let it run. New coaches stop games far too often. A child learns more from three minutes of uninterrupted play than from three minutes of you explaining what they did wrong.
Minutes 50 to 60: bring them in
Stretch, circle up, and ask each of them one thing they enjoyed. This takes four minutes and it does more for retention than anything else in the session. Children come back to places where they were noticed.
Ken's verdict
Your job in the first session is not to make anyone a better player. It is to make thirty children want to come back next week.
Get that right and you have fifty two weeks to coach them. Get it wrong and you are coaching twelve.
Five mistakes I made, so you do not have to
1. Talking too much
Time yourself. If you speak for longer than ninety seconds without them moving, you have lost the back half of the group. Demonstrate rather than explain wherever you can.
2. Queues
A line of fifteen children waiting for one ball is fourteen children doing nothing. Split into more groups with more balls, even if it feels less tidy.
3. Coaching the loudest ones
The confident child at the front demands your attention. The quiet one at the back needs it more. Learn every name in the first two sessions and use them constantly.
4. Correcting more than praising
Count it sometime. New coaches often run four corrections to every bit of praise. It should be the other way round at this age, comfortably.
5. Running the session you would have wanted
You are not coaching yourself at nine. You are coaching thirty different children, most of whom will never play at a high level and all of whom deserve a good hour.
Session plans, ready to take to the pitch
Free plans with pitch diagrams, timings and a coaching cue on every drill. Print and go.
Download free plansWhat to do when it goes wrong
It will, at some point, and that is not a sign you are bad at this.
They stop listening. Change activity immediately. Do not push on with something that has died. Have one game in your back pocket you can call at any moment.
Someone is upset. Deal with the child first and the session second. Another parent or the club welfare officer can hold the group for two minutes.
Too many turn up. Split into more, smaller games rather than one big one. Recruit a parent on the spot — most will help if you ask directly.
The weather turns. Shorter activities, more movement, no standing around. Cold children stop learning within minutes.
One last thing
You do not need to have played to coach well. Some of the best grassroots coaches I have known never played a game above park level. What they had was preparation, patience and the ability to make children feel like they belonged.
Turn up with a plan and the rest comes.