Training Sessions

Keith Davids, Duarte Araújo, Vanda Correia, and Luis Vilar The Big Idea For this research reviewer, who is also an ex-youth soccer coach, occasionally there are uncomfortable moments arising from summarizing research papers for our PDP coaches and readers.  This is one of those moments.  You see, this paper essentially points out to modern youth football coaches the crucial differences between coaching the practice and coaching the game. We confess to this:  Our personal coaching history is testimony to the weaknesses of traditional coaching practices.  They were something…

The question this week comes from Michael: “I am interested to know how to build practice sessions when you only have two days of training per week of 90 minutes each. How many components should I have within my sessions for my U10 team?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with?  We would love to hear from you!  Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook…

Duarte Araújo, Christina Fonseca, Keith Davids, Júlio Garganta, Anna Volossovitch, Regina Brandão, and Ruy Krebs The Big Idea Essentially, this publication is a position paper.  The topic of the paper is the development of sport expertise.  The more conventional understanding of the interactions between an individual and a specific performance environment is to seek explanations for such expertise based mostly on what is going on “inside” the player (referred to as “organismic asymmetry”).  The less conventional understanding—and the position taken in this paper—is that too…

The question this week comes from Dean: “What advice can you give as to how to plan a session with progressions in it to move it forward or make it more difficult?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with?  We would love to hear from you!  Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask…

Pedro Passos and Keith Davids The Big Idea These authors, Passos and Davids, call their paper an “opinion piece.”  Not so.  It is an intelligent discussion of ecological dynamics played out in the learning of team sports through the interactive nature of the sport performance.  Such interactions include those within the team and between the team and the opposing players.  This dynamic continuously unfolds as players from both teams interact with constraints such as rules and boundaries, attempts at coordinating attacks and defenses and counter…

PDP Video Session Plans are adaptable sessions designed by academy coach, Dave Wright. All sessions show key focus points, set up, and progressions so you can use them in your next practice.

PDP Video Session Plans are adaptable sessions designed by academy coach, Dave Wright. All sessions show key focus points, set up, and progressions so you can use them in your next practice.

The question this week comes from Gary: “I started coaching my U13 team this year and the main issue I have is getting the team to keep possession and getting the players to be comfortable on the ball. I have tried a few sessions but want to get the lads to understand they can play the way they are facing.” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with?  We would love to hear from you! …

The question this week comes from Steve: “I am coaching U21 football and the lads play at a good level. My biggest challenge is finding a range of sessions that keep the players engaged and interested, can you help with some ideas?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with?  We would love to hear from you!  Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members…