Making progress by planning backwards

As a coach, it’s easy to focus on the here and now.

But effective coaching also requires longer term planning to develop your players’ skills. 

By breaking down your coaching goals, and planning backwards from your end point, you ensure your players are consistently building the right skills at the right time.

Step 1: Consider your players

The first step in planning your sessions is to analyse your team’s current strengths and weaknesses.

This analysis will help you pinpoint an area to focus on for the next several sessions. This could be something your team excels at but could improve further, or it could be an area where they struggle and need more attention.

For example, if you feel your team struggles to play wide effectively (by passing quickly across the backline to get the ball to wide areas), this is a clear area to focus on. 

Once you have identified an area, the next step is to plan the sessions to improve it.

Step 2: Plan backwards from the end goal

Once you have chosen an area to focus on, the next step is to plan backwards. 

Think about the overall skill or tactic you want your team to perform in a game, and then break it down into smaller, manageable skills that need to be developed along the way.

If the end goal is for your team to be able to play wide effectively, you need to ensure they have strong catching and passing skills. Without those fundamental skills, they won’t be able to play wide effectively.

Plan backwards

1. End goal: Players can play wide and move the ball quickly across the field.
2. Pre-requisite skills: Players must be comfortable at catching and passing, able to move the ball quickly, and understand the tactical aspects of playing wide.
3. Focus areas
   Catch and pass: Start with the fundamentals, such as early catching.
   Next level: Pass quickly across the body.
   Then: Focus on the follow-through, where the passer’s hands point at the target.
4. Final tactical step: Focus on the depth of the receiver to ensure they can move onto the ball and catch it without breaking stride.
   
   

Step 3: Break it down into small, progressive sessions

Once you have broken down the skills, you can plan each session to focus on one aspect of the overall skill.

Each session should build on the previous one, ensuring that your players master the basics before moving on to more complex skills.

Example: improving catching and passing for wide play

Session 1: Early catch

• Focus: Teach players to position their hands out and towards the passer to catch the ball as early as possible.
• Drills: Partner passing, where the receiving player focuses on catching the ball early, with an emphasis on proper hand positioning.

Session 2: Passing quickly across the body

• Focus: Once players are comfortable catching early, move on to passing quickly across the body.
• Drills: Pass and move drills where players focus on passing quickly and accurately while moving.

Session 3: Follow through

• Focus: Focus on the follow-through, ensuring the passer’s hands point towards their target.
• Drills: Partner passing with a focus on the follow-through, then progress to moving pass drills where players receive and pass on the move.

Session 4: Tactical aspect – receiver depth

• Focus: Now that players can catch and pass effectively, focus on the tactical aspects of playing wide, such as the depth of the receiver.
• Drills: Game-like scenarios, where players practice receiving the ball at the correct depth to move onto the ball and catch it without breaking their stride.

Session 5: Further sessions

• You will need to re-evaluate at this point, depending on their current ability.
• If everything is planned, you could increase the number of players while focusing on receiver depth.
• Further challenge can be added by increasing the numbers in defence, this will challenge the catch-pass skills of each player in the attacking line.
  
  

Step 4: Monitor progress and adjust

As you move through the sessions, ensure you are continuously monitoring your players’ progress.

Are they achieving the desired results in each session? Are they able to catch and pass quickly and accurately?

If not, you may need to adjust your sessions to spend more time on specific skills.

Key tips

• Be patient: Mastery of basic skills takes time. Don’t rush your players to the next step before they are ready.
• Track progress: Keep a simple record of which players are excelling in each area and which may need extra attention.
• Use feedback: Provide focused, constructive feedback throughout each session, reinforcing the key coaching point.