One thing other coaches and I constantly discuss is: "What do I do in the offseason?"
Mostly they mean in that 6 to 9 month stretch before serious preseason preparations. The time of the year where you have several players playing other sports, playing club soccer, maybe some of them have jobs and really commit time there. All kinds of things that you don't deal with in the regular season.
So the question becomes, how do you get a meaningful session when you might get eight to twelve players and there is no guarantee which eight to twelve you will have?
Coaching courses don't cover this, if you look up practice plans most will give you way too much to focus on or something so specific it doesn't really help.
The answer itself is pretty simple: let them play as much as possible. The biggest call I made along the way was dropping the mandatory conditioning. More on why at the end. What follows is what I built in its place, heavily inspired by the lessons and principles of TOVO.
In sequence, the four pieces run about 75 to 90 minutes total: 15 to 20 minutes on rondos, 20 on XvX+Y, 25 on small sided games, and 10 to 15 on something fun to finish. If you've got numbers, run two grids. If you've got time, stretch the games. The pieces flex. The order doesn't.
Activity 1: Rondo
Keep it simple here. The thing with a rondo is you have to set the expectations early for your team what a good rondo is. It's not chasing the ball for thirty seconds when it's out of bounds, playing for ten seconds, then chasing for thirty more. The key is keep as many balls as you can as close to the grid as you can. If the numbers are small enough, you serve the balls into the players. You can designate a player to be the ball in play person, or use my personal favorite, if I could count to five before the next ball went into play then everyone did push ups or burpees.
In my opinion 5v2 is the best for this, but 4v1, 3v1, 6v2, 6v3 everything works. Two grids if you have enough players.
- Spend 3-4 minutes on light aerobic warmup, play for 4. Back to jogging or light plyometrics for warmups, play for 4. Just repeat that pattern. It keeps the players moving, interacting with the ball early, and most importantly the thing that you really need overall from these sessions - engagement.
5v2 Rondo - Made in CoAtch
Activity 2: XvX+Y
You have probably seen the most common variation of this, the 4v4+3, but it works in other variations. The one I will show here is the 3v3+2. You're building from the rondo here. Still obviously working on pass and first touch in the condensed space, but now you can really draw out the other key elements of possession. Timing, creating angles, movement off the ball or with the ball to deceive, and my go-to reminders of exploiting and creating space.
Defensively, this drill gives you a chance to work on pressure and cover balance, but it's a partial picture. Without a goal or zone to defend, players aren't being tested the way they would be in a game. Anticipation is, though. So is the angle the defenders take to approach the ball.
Any consequence, like 10 passes = 10 push ups always helps to bump up the energy level.
If things aren't going well, it's easy to adapt this drill: make the space a little bigger if the ball is always out of play, or tighten it up if you feel like it's too easy. Like any drill or activity you are trying to hit that sweet spot of challenging enough to cause growth.
3v3+2 - Made in CoAtch
Activity 3: Small Sided Games
Playing 5v5 to pop up goals, mining goals, or even a "hit the cone" style game will beat out just about anything you might want to do here. You have a few things to consider, the main being that the kids who are showing up offseason are there and they are there to play soccer. So let them play. Use the game to really hit individual instruction and growth. When you have small numbers this is the time to utilize individual feedback. Try not to stop and start it like a drill. The game has natural consequences that give players immediate feedback. If you want to get a little conditioning in during these activities, this is the time to do it.
Play 4 to 5 minute games of last goal wins. This type of play keeps players engaged even if teams aren't exactly even. Larger fields will automatically create more opportunities for players to move, which takes care of the conditioning piece on its own.
This is where you let kids experiment with their play. Don't chide them for keeping the ball on their foot too much. 9 / 10 times their teammates will do that for you. Or you can talk to them afterwards. Less skilled players need this time to experiment with the ball as well. Reward creativity with praise constantly when you can.
5v5 - Made in CoAtch
Activity 4: Finish With Something Fun
A juggling competition, a game of net (I'm sure it's called something else, but the one where you try to hit the back of the net with the ball from various distances), crossbar challenge, bend the ball in the goal from a corner. This is where you give the kids a chance to do those things you might not have time for once the season hits.
These little games are all activities you are teaching players that they could do on their own. Will they ever score an olympico? Probably not. Will learning to bend the ball help their game? Almost certainly. The goal here is to end on the high note and give players something they can take with them to work on.
Conclusion
The most important shift I made with these sessions: I dropped the mandatory part of conditioning, and attendance shot up. Kids who played soccer for 1.5 to 2 hours with no conditioning were better for our program than the kids who avoided the entire thing out of fear of running hard for fifteen to twenty.
The clearest signal it was working wasn't a number on a sheet. It was watching kids get genuinely upset when we had to cancel for weather or some other unforeseen reason. The offseason had stopped feeling like a chore. They came because they wanted to. That's when I knew.
The best teams I coached all had consistent numbers showing up during the non-mandatory part of the year. That number, more than anything else, is what I was actually trying to grow.
Overall these practices are about three things for me:
- Getting players touches on the ball
- Letting them express themselves as players
- Making sure they have a positive experience
Offseason is where the season is won quietly: show up, let them play, and protect the joy that brought them back.
