Build your own practice
Transcript
Give every minute of your own practice a job. Here's the plan. You need a ball, four cones, flat grass and a pen or phone. Warm up for five minutes, then one focus from your weakest area. Add a game and a one minute review. Watch the game. Race the gates with your weaker foot. First, pick what you find hardest, not your favourite. Then, keep score, and write what improved and what's next. Having a say in your learning helps motivation, says England Football. Our target is twenty to thirty minutes, with a rest day each week. If anything hurts, stop. Then take the free test at footballreach.com.
What it trains
Plan and run your own 20-30 minute solo session: a warm-up, one focus from your weakest area, a short game against your own score and a 1-minute review. England Football's coaching advice says having a say in your own learning helps motivation.
Set up
- A ball
- 4 cones
- A pen and a card
- Or a note on a phone
How it works
- Before you start, write your plan on a card or a phone note: the four parts, your focus and the drill for it. Our split: warm-up 5 min, focus 10-15 min, game 5 min, review 1 min.
- Warm up for 5 minutes: easy jogging and touches with the ball, building up the pace.
- Focus: one drill from your weakest area, such as the 100-touch box (episode 7) or weak-foot wall passing (episode 5). Take about 30 seconds to find your tempo, then raise it (as FIFA's technical activation does).
- Game: move the 4 cones into two 2 m gates about 4 m apart. Dribble through one, loop round and back through the other, weaker foot only, counting gates for 60 seconds. Rest 30 seconds, 3-4 rounds, and beat your best.
- Review, 1 minute: write your best score, one thing that improved and what is next (keep the focus, make it harder, or change it). Change the focus about every 4 weeks (our rule of thumb).
Coaching points
- Pick what you find hardest. Pick the focus from your weakest area, not your favourite skill: your weaker foot, or the thing to work on from your last match review (episode 49). One theory says choice itself helps learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite 2016), but a 2022 review of the experiments found that benefit small and not clearly above zero (McKay et al.), so the hard reps still count.
- Keep score, then review. Give the game a score you can beat (gates in 60 seconds) and write it down. Then take 1 minute: what improved, and what next. In one study of 444 players aged 11-17, elite players scored higher on reflection and effort (Toering et al. 2009): a link, not proof.
Not this
Filling the session with your favourite skills, or a bit of everything with no plan. It feels good, but your weakest area stays weak. Choose one focus before you start and stick to it.
Dose
- Our target: 20-30 minutes
- A rest day every week
Our target: 20-30 minutes (warm-up 5, focus 10-15, game 5, review 1), with a full rest day every week: our target, not an FA rule.
Harder / Easier
Harder
Make the game harder: 1 m gates, or glance at a mark on a wall or fence before each gate to keep your head up. Film one round a week, keep it private, and compare it with the month before.
Easier
Short on time? 15 minutes: a 5-minute warm-up, 9 minutes on your focus and a 1-minute review, no game. Or say your review to a parent instead of writing it.
Safety
- Warm up first. Flat, dry grass with space around you, never a road or a car park, and clear of walls and windows.
- Not straight after a hard session if your legs are heavy, and keep at least one full rest day a week. If anything hurts, stop, and tell a parent or your coach.
- Your plan and your score are there to help you improve, not to judge yourself. If practice leaves you anxious or low for a while, talk to a parent, a coach or someone you trust.
Sources
- England Football Learning - How to develop self-aware and self-motivated players (a say in their learning, journals) (opens in a new tab)
- FIFA Training Centre - technical activation circuit 1 (find your tempo, then raise it) (opens in a new tab)
- Psychon Bull Rev - Wulf & Lewthwaite 2016, the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (opens in a new tab)
- Meta-Psychology - McKay et al. 2022, self-controlled motor learning meta-analysis (opens in a new tab)
- J Sports Sci - Toering et al. 2009, self-regulation in elite and non-elite youth players (opens in a new tab)
Not sure which skill to work on first? The free Football Reach test gives you a Player Development Score and shows which of the four corners of your game to work on next, in about two minutes.
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