Here's the scenario and it's an extremely common one in local/amateur footy ranks...
- Training Tuesday which is regarded as the "bigger" training night
- Training Thursday which is regarded as the "short and sharp" training night
- Game on a Saturday
I'm going to build this set of coaching rules around this scenario though for when we go back to footy training.
PRE-THE ANNOUCMENT
Club coaches and committee's will have been meeting in anticipation of the season starting back up (you have to continue to function as though it will regardless of what happens) and from these meetings personal duties for recommencement will have been finalised so any preparation required can be completed and ready to go at a seconds notice.
This might include press releases, social media posts, playing group private group chats etc.
THE ANNOUCMENT
As soon as something has been decided then the socials go into overdrive which will be a press of a key essentially because the proper work has already been done in the previous stage.
TRAINING INFORMATION
Training times and locations will be released almost immediately, going the usual Tuesday/Thursday night options.
If there is a lag time between the annoucement and when training can start then teams will post pre-training programs to complete between now and then.
It might as simple as 2 sessions of tempo runs and a kick with a mate or 2 - let players know exactly what they can expect and also what will be expected of them in this time.
GET THE PLAYERS ON-BOARD
One of the biggest unknowns with this funny old season we're about to have is who will end up playing and who won't - I know it's an issue at my club as far as I'm aware.
A personal message sent to each player in some shape or form will be crucial here, albeit a shit tonne of time and effort, but teams are gonna need something almost resembling a sales pitch to even the most regular of players in past years, as no one really knows what anybody else is thinking.
You might need to develop a 3 - 5 message sequence to send out in some cases.
Getting as many players on board as quick as possible will also let you know what you're dealing with for 2020 as far as player numbers are concerned.
Will it make more sense to take the year off for some parts of the club while focusing on other areas - remember most clubs have football, netball and women's football these days so player numbers have never been more important.
Will the lay-off from all sport bring past players back to your club or will it mean regulars just get the CBF's because of the compromised/shortened season?
Will tradies opt to work Saturday's for double time over zero match payment opportunities?
So much is in the air so club's will need to work overtime to find out and then also listen and act on each player's concerns.
You might also ask players what they would prefer to do at training once they return and see if there are any trends within the playing group.
You're after compliance over anything else at this point so you need to can the time trials because the players don't want to do them then can them - can the bajeezus out of them,
PRE-FIRST TRAINING SESSION
Sometime between Sunday night and Monday night before the first Tuesday training session the coach will send out a plan of the first week of training sessions.
It will include the focus of each session and the drills that will be used based off the information you gathered on the playing groups wants but also their needs, from the information gathered in the last couple of weeks.
There's a very real chance that if training in groups of 10 means 1 group of 10 on a single oval at the 1 time, then you might have to run almost an appointment based operation with 45 - 60min sessions over multiple sessions 3 - 6/days a week.
If you've got 3 football teams then there's no other way around this if 70 players want to train - you'll need to find time and space for 10 sessions.
Coaches within the football club might have to nominate what nights they can do and they simply train the different groups on those nights.
This will definitely mean that the senior coach/s will need to have their whats, why's and how's of training ready to go, written up and available for everyone to see prior to that training night.
Everything you've done up until now as a coach will probably be thrown out of the window.
If you have playing group leaders who you know are definitely playing then bring them in on what you're planning and how thay can be of assistance.
Get their input - can they poke any holes in what you've developed?
They will need to essentially be assistant coaches this year and may even have to take a training session or 2 so give them confidence and the experience of doing this at the very beginning instead of lumping it on them mid season.
POST-FIRST NIGHT OF TRAINING
Messages sent to each player who attended training that night with an attached survey of sorts (what did you like, didn't like, what could be better etc) as you can only continue to tailor training to the players if you know what they're thinking.
Make yourself available for private online chats/calls if needed.
Coach/s to also have their own chat to let the other coaches know what worked well, what didn't and what could be done better so the next coach, if teams need to train 3 - 6/week, can make the immediate changes to the very next session.
KEEP TRAINING STATS
Who attended what training session?
How did they pull up from that training session?
Did they do the next training session 46hrs later?
Were they recovered enough to go again at that stage?
Who can you identify that can train every night plus extra training? Who needs to maybe train just 1 night a week with the team and then a little something on their own?
With such a short prep time we'll have before the season starts and with playing availability being the most important thing when games start, you need to think of how you will load your players between now and then.
You've got 2 options I suppose:
OPTION #1
Cram as much into the 4 - 6 weeks of training we'll have and get them as fit as possible for round 1 which runs the risk of them having done too much too quickly (acute:chronic workload ratio) and then breaking down in one of the early matches,
or;
OPTION #2
Cautiously but progressively ramp up training to get them to a "fit enough" level to play the early games and using the fitness gained from games as part of your training and player loading, decreasing injury risk as game time will dictated by how much training they've completed already.
Option 2 for me - everyday of the week.
Remember Gold Coast have been 4-1 over the first 5 rounds the last 2 years only to be cut down when injuries occur to finish bottom of the ladder by season's end.
This could go on forever so hopefully I've planted some seeds in your noggin on what to plan for once we start back up and as always let me know any further questions or feedback you have on this.
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