Coaching Course - Diagram of a Training Session

In the spirit of having the 'A' License coaching candidates watching training today, we thought we would present a breakdown of today's training session through the eyes of one member of the coaching staff. This morning session lasted about 90 minutes and consisted of four parts, explained here by Pierre Barrieu:

The Warm Up: The fact that we were going to be working in smaller spaces in the exercises today meant there would be a bigger emphasis on agility and quickness. Therefore, the warmup was more quickness oriented than previous days. The movements were short and sharp.

The Technical Work: There were two stations set up on either half of the field that were designed to work on different elements and to keep a better control of the tempo of the session. The technical work focused on quickness and being sharp on the ball. On the other side, there was a possession game consisting of 4 v. 4, plus a neutral player. The exercise took place in a slightly bigger grid than normal in order to keep the flow going. Along with making the game two-touch, the result was an intense exercise, one that was tough on the team that didn't have the ball.

Going to Goal: The last exercise on the field was 6 v. 6 +1 to big goals. The game provides structure and places the emphasis on team coordination, communication and obviously finishing. Having the neutral player helps with the flow of the game because of the numerical advantage given to the team with the ball. It also forces the team without the ball to be organized and move as a unit. The other big factor is that the third team of six players not in the game was not doing any activity. Considering the previous workload and the fitness at the end, the rest was critical to get the most out of the session.
Fitness: At the end, we had a timed run that is designed to continue to increase the players' base of fitness and increase their capacity. The run consisted of 12 minutes at an imposed pace using a running path laid out around the field. There were three groups, each having a different pace based on the observations of the previous workouts.