#6 - Make Your Low Intensity Running High Quality
For 90 - 95% of your training you want to actually train below the speed of the game and above the speed of the game. Above the speed of the game is taken care of with the sprints from the previous point and let's look at below the speed of the game. Training at game speed doesn't really do anything for you but it's what 99% of teams do. It's too fast to get true aerobic benefits from and too slow to get any speed benefits from. Do not mistake fatigue for high quality training. That's high fatiguing which is not the same at all. You could use boring pace running drills which no one really wants to do (even though they should) so using tempo runs here is a good option where you run a distance of about 70m at a 60% pace of your sprint with the focus being on using a solid technique (watch a sprinter in slow motion to see what i mean). You'd cover the distance in about 12 - 15secs, not fast at all, do a quick something else after it (handball/kicks, core exercise etc) for another 30secs, then run back x 6 - 10 sets. Keep everything "easy" where everyone should be allowed to go at their 60%, not someone else's.
#7 - Skill Work Conditioning
You could do 1 giant step further from #6 and use skill drill conditioning where you'd stay with the 60% pace rule and use small groups (3 - 5) to perform mini-skill drills so you now kill 2 birds with the 1 stone which will hopefully get more blokes training earlier and continue to train later because the absence of mind numbing running. I'd rather get more blokes do a moderate to high amount of training then less blokes get a high amount of training - compliance is critical at local/amateur level.
#8 - Profile Your Players
Look a lot of extra work potentially here but you need to know what you're working with before you can develop a game plan. Developing little player profiles on their perceived strengths/weaknesses, peer perceived strengths/weaknesses, footy goals etc can assist you in identifying any specific needs players may need to fulfil their potential. This interest shown by the coach on a personal level can also build trust between player and coach as well.
#9 - Psychological Fatigue Can Be More Detrimental Than Physiological Fatigue
This piggy backs off #4 decision making from earlier. We've all played in games where we've been chasing all day and the perceived hardness of that game was as high as you've ever had. Then we've had those games where we simply run on air and everything goes swimmingly and we feel fresh as a daisy post game and wished we had another 2 quarters to play. The thing is you might have actually ran further in the perceived easier game. By training decision making throughout the pre-season, it will take a less psychological toll on your players, thus their time to fatigue will be greater.
#10 - Build Trust In Your Playing Group From Day 1
The more I think about it, the more I'm coming around that trust is what makes or beak teams. When there is trust then there is everyone pulling in the same direction, they stick to the plan without going outside it and players are playing for far more then just themselves. Don't be mistaken, trust isn't bonding although they can go hand in hand. Using trust based exercises can help built unity within the group and think outside the lines here too.
#11 - Train Like The Teams You Want to Be
We've all got aspirations to win Grand Finals, which means for relegation leagues like mine, you'd go up a division if you were to do that. So if you want to become a division 1 team then you better be training like a division team and preparing like a division 1 team. Winning a Grand Final is never pointless but the next might be if you were to be non-competitive in the upper grade for you to drop right back down again. For lower teams, this might be even preparing would, or training like they would in regards to quality, professionalism etc. Shitty teams don't just get better out of nowhere.
#12 - Who Needs Learning and Who Needs Practice?
The better players tend to dominate training at local/amateur level which is fine but what that means is that the lesser players essentially get less touches then the good players which should really be switched around if anything. Let's break this down further. Learning is acquiring new skills. Practice is repeating already acquired skills. These are 2 very different groups with very different needs so I suggest you make this part of your player profiling and run 2 different groups at the same time.
#13 - Lots of Touched For Every Player
Piggybacking off the last group where some players get heaps of touches and others barely get 5, that needs to be evened up. I know it;s easier to do 1 drill for everyone but it suits maybe 5 - 10 players perfectly and the rest get under/over stimulated, making close to a waste of time. Your options are to run the same drills but split your group into your top 20/bottom 20 or run an easy and hard version of the same drill at the same time. FYI, cone drills are best learning players and decision making drills best for practice players.
#14 - Practice The Odd Skills of Footy
We think of acing footy training by whizzing the ball from cone to cone, not touching the ground and everything is sweet but let's be honest - we're local/amateur footballers. What game has any of us played where that has happened? Most of the times we don't have leads coming straight at us unimpeded. Most of the time we have to pick the ball up off the ground, not be able to stand there and take an uncontested mark. With opposition comes a decrease in time so we need to get the ball to point A, with precision, in 1 - 2secs. I think it's worth developing drills that different leading patterns that require different kicks than normal, deliberate ground ball drills and low and hard kicking drills. Even the age old drill of kicking on your opposite foot should still be used and it's in these circumstances during a game, where pulling these types of things off will win the big games.
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