| Facilities and Safety Check
The training environment should be checked for any potential safety hazards by the coaching staff. It is not advisable to use athletes for checking, due to potential safety risk and liability. The facility is set up for practice start up as quickly as possible.
Introduction
The coach and athletes/team have a daily routine for announcements at the beginning of each practice session. Daily training objectives are explained by the coach, and a question and answer period to answer any questions should be planned.
Warm-Up
This activity of "warming-up" is to prepare the body for activity. The warm-up is based on exercise physiology and other scientific principles and has become more detailed and specific in nature than in the past. A proper warm-up takes 20 - 25 percent of the total practice time(!) to ready the body for action and avoid potential injuries.
Coaches frequently ignore physiological and medical guidelines (contra indicators), conducting exercises which are potentially damaging to young athletes. More often, though, coaches do not plan for sufficient warm-up time.
The warm-up activity precedes each training session and leads directly into the main theme of the practice. The warm-up is planned as a continuous activity and acts as a transition without interruptions. It is progressive and consists of several important stages.
The warm-up follows a distinct sequence:
- Light aerobic activities (for example - jogging), progressively to vigorous.
- Dynamic stretching (swinging type activities).
- Slow stretching from head to toe. Slow, sustained, held.
- Aerobic activity.
- Specific warm-up related to upcoming skill or drills.
- Conditioning, fitness, general to specific as needed for upcoming skill or drills.
The Main Theme
The so-called Main Theme is the overall focus of the specific training session. It includes specific skills, techniques, activities, mental skills, tactics, games, etc. and it is progressive in sequence.
To be effective the coach needs to:
- Decide the time to be spent on each activity (drill, skill, etc.)
- Decide on ways to present each new skill, tactics, etc. using the whole method (present the total skills), the part method (teach part by part), or the whole/part/whole method (assembled parts).
- Decide on effective drill formations.
- Decide who will do the demonstrations for each new skill.
- Decide what view of the skill (from the front, side, back) the athletes need to see.
- Use voice and body to good effect.
- Use positive, constructive, and specific feedback.
- Select and vary teaching styles.
- Select teaching aids (visual, audio, equipment choices).
- Design an observation plan for detecting and correcting errors.
The coach needs to select the teaching/coaching style(s) most suitable for the age group for each particular skill or activity. The selection of appropriate audio-visual and other teaching aids is essential in order to teach most effectively.
Analyzing the Skills
Analyzing skills or correcting errors include several distinct steps:
- Identifying the purpose of each skill (what it is used for).
- Separating each skill into several major parts.
- Identifying the key elements of each major part.
- Developing an observation plan.
- Preplan coaching evaluation.
The coach should also determine the number of observations for each skill introduced. The coach should also determine what is the purpose of the observation, and position themself for the best view of the skill.
Communicate with the Team
It is a good idea to introduce and explain the objectives for the practice. Give the athletes and opportunity to ask questions. Review the previously taught skills to provide a link to the new skills you are going to teach.
- Teach Key Skills
- Teaching the "key" skills will include the following:
- Technical skills
- Mental skills
- Strategies
- Tactics
- General team building skills
- Fitness - conditioning components
All of these skills should be included in a well thought out practice plan. Not all of these skills are taught daily, but they need to be covered during the appropriate time during the season, and then build upon them.
Specificity of Training
The coach need to introduce competition specific conditions to practice. Applying pressure, conditions, tactics, etc. to the athletes. Creating competition conditions prepares the athlete for the actual event. It helps the coach introduce and use mental skills to deal with stress, focus, and developing a distraction plan.
Training under competition conditions provides the opportunity to test whether athletes are in control of the necessary skills (physical, fitness, technical, mental, emotional, tactical, and strategic) under competition situations. Together athletes and coaches are able to identify "crisis points" if skill or techniques break down or tactical or strategic errors occur. Subsequently, appropriate coping strategies can be developed and practiced. After all, skill development is meaningless if skills cannot be executed under pressure conditions when it really matters.
Warm-down
The warm-down, often referred to as "cool-down" is the finish to the active part of each training session. The purpose is physiological, namely to let the body down slowly form a higher rate of activity to a less intense exercises - primarily for recovery and to avoid potential injury.
Athletes should stretch particular muscles, especially those used more frequently during the practice session. Relaxation and rhythmic breathing exercises may also be incorporated into the warm-down.
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