On Thursdays in the office, I sit down with Coach H and we start designing the session plans for the upcoming weekend. This is one of my favourite times of the week as it really is an activity I have done as a pass-time for so many years. Session designing is a hobby of mine – it brings out my creative spark, it makes me really think about development and it allows me to keep tweaking to find the “right” formula.
Our Academy is a little different to others. As you know, we have over 100 sessions running every weekend, across North London, Hertfordshire and South London.
The reason that it is different though, is that all sessions are designed in-house, by us. That means that on any given Saturday, you can walk into any of our 3 – 5 year old sessions, at any of our locations, and see the activity that we have designed for that week.
To break down the “why”, there is a clear thought process when designing the practises at each age-group.
18 months – 3 years & 3 to 5 years: The focus is on learning to have fun, love the game and master movements.
The session designs are all “disguised” learning, with full-body warm ups with the ball incorporated into a song. As the practise develops, there are loads of opportunities to run, jump, hop and skip as part of fun games that we design.
We then incorporate the football into similar practises, before ending with an “end-game”. In our 18 months – 3 classes, that is a goal-scoring practise (again, with running, jumping and ball-striking incorporated).
Our 3-5 classes start to incorporate some 1v1 duels – with 1v1 matches at the end of sessions. Our coaches are trained to ensure that the ball-rolling time is high, the children are having fun and everyone gets an opportunity to score!
5 – 7 years & Group Sessions / Development Centres: In our classes for children above the age of 5, the sessions are slightly different. They follow a 4 week theme, with the break-down of each session ensuring the focus is on loving the ball, staying on the ball, mastering the ball and learning to compete.
Our sessions follow a specific theme: learning to master the ball, learning how to compete in 1v1 duels (with pressure from the front, the side and from behind), learning to pass & receive and learning how to stay on the ball and impact matches as an individual.
Designing these practises are a highlight of our week – we then go and watch, observe, ask coaches for feedback and tweak these practises for next week!
If you are attending this week, let us know how you find it!
Coach Ali