On any given non competition afternoon or evening, at parks and facilities across the Nation, there are tens of thousands of hockey players are engaged in training or coaching sessions. Led by largely volunteer coaches, training sessions are an important part of a person’s sporting life. It’s a time participant’s exercise, learn, experience and enjoy sport as they prepare for competition performance.
Therefore planning from a seasonal perspective working down to individual training sessions is one of the most vital components of helping players and teams to learn, grow and succeed in the game. Planning and organization are recognized by leading sports coaches as essential aspects that any coach looking to progress and be successful needs to master. Without solid well thought out plans, the end product of coaching may be a collection of haphazard activities that bear no connection to each other and as such fail to form a cohesive whole. Despite its significance, planning can be an area coaches actually spend insufficient time developing or know little about. It is important to analyse what really takes place during that typical one hour session – is it effective in meeting physical activity, skill and sport-specific goals? Do players enjoy it or experience benefits from? Are the coaches and players mutual goals understood and unwrapped and developed through the planning process?
A 2009 Australian study into Community Junior Sport Coaching with a focus on Rugby League and Union produced these findings
- Average training sessions were 1 hour
- Too much over coaching and organizational instruction time as opposed to active player time on task. Instruction comprised 48% of the session time.
- There was a need for clearer concise instructions
- A minimal use of questioning which is important to develop player thinking especially when using a games sense approach
- A need for additional discipline and management skills
- Of the player activity time skill development comprised 44% of a coaching session, playing games 20% and fitness 10%. This was in contrast to the coaching philosophy which was centred on developing the ‘games sense approach’
Debatably I believe these findings could be closely replicated through a similar study with a hockey focus. In fact the above research implies the findings can applied to community sport in general. Therefore what are some planning guidelines for an appointed coach to consider?
Planning incorporates periodisation, that is, its entirety is broken into specific time periods. The starting point is season planning. The purpose of the season planning is to identify long, medium, and short term goals. Goal setting provides a benchmark for assessing player and team performance, and a structured route and time frame to achieve identified goals. Rather than write non measurable goals a hockey coach needs to write them using S.M.A.R.T. principles [Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bound]. To determine these goals a hockey coach needs to gather data and information which includes;
- previous experience in the sport
- level of development, both with the technical and tactical skills of the sport as well as their level of physical fitness
- why they like to play the sport and what motivates them
- goals and aspirations in the sport
- any illness, injury or medical condition that might restrict their ability to participate.
- Player learning styles
- Areas of importance; i.e., physical, technical, tactical, psychological
- Managerial elements,
- Behaviour expectations
- Self analysis; i.e., coaching philosophy, coaching style, own goals
- Resources; human and material
- (if following on from a previous season) complete a S.W.O.T. analysis of the previous season and then apply to expectations in the current season
- Rule changes
A season plan also takes into account the season length, climatic conditions, season interruptions (e.g. public holidays, representative commitments). The next phase of planning is to divide the season into distinct training periods. These are macro cycles (2-6 weeks), and micro cycles (2-10 days) with individual training/coaching sessions incorporated into the micro cycles. Examples of macro cycles are preseason, early season, consolidation, finals lead in, post season.
With the above planning in place the focus is on individual training/coaching sessions. Training sessions should be developed from two or three goals that have been identified for that session. The elements of a training session that all coaches should include are:
- session introduction
- warm up
- games, skill and fitness activities
- cool down
- review
Note: You can download a sample session planner. Click on the download banner on this web page.
hockey session planner
What are the considerations to planning and implementing a training session?
The following considerations are comprehensive and provides an ideal check list for coaches to measure their current planning and implementing skills
- Consider the developmental stage of participants (e.g. skill level and experience).
- Consider participants’ motivations and expectations.
- Consider the cultural background and particular special needs of participants.
- Decide on learning goals related to movement skills, knowledge and understanding.
- Include a focus on etiquette and standards of behaviour.
- Instructing:
- Keep instructions simple and clear.
- Use language best suited to the level of the participants.
- Have a positive manner when working with young people.
- Increase time on task:
- Refine time spent on management so time engaged in the activity can be increased.
- Keep instruction time for a specific skill to a minimum to allow more time for trying it.
- Vary content:
- Sometimes teach the whole skill and at other times break it into parts, depending on the complexity of the skill.
- Playing a modified game first can help participants understand the context of skills.
- Change between individual, pair and group activities.
- Increase the challenge:
- Alter times, distances, heights etc. as skills improve.
- Move sequentially from simple to more complex techniques over time.
- Change from static to dynamic (e.g. standing long jump to run in and jump), increase the number of players and introduce defenders.
- Practice:
- Practice each skill randomly through the session (e.g. 3–5 minute blocks of one skill at various times).
- Plan to practice under similar conditions to competition as often as possible.
- Giving feedback:
- Successful coaches give immediate feedback that is very specific and offers ideas on correction.
- Feedback must always be given in a positive environment.
- Feedback can be verbal or nonverbal (e.g. thumbs up).
- Questioning:
- Consider the level of the question in terms of the breadth of response you want.
- A good sequence is (a) plan the question, (b) get the attention of the young person, (c) ask the question and wait, (d) respond, giving feedback or probing for a more extensive response.
- Good questions encourage young people to analyse why they chose a particular strategy, why they adjusted their technique, or how they would respond to a similar situation in the future.
- keep instructions simple and clear.
- Keep a positive manner and use language appropriate to the participants.
- Keep the time spent on management tasks (setting up equipment and organising various drills) to a minimum.
- Keep young people active as much as possible.
- Keep instruction time for a specific skill to a minimum before participants are allowed to practice.
- Break complex skills into manageable chunks.
- Increase times, distances, heights etc. as skills improve.
- Make it more challenging by moving from static to dynamic, changing the number of players and introducing defenders.
- Practice under similar conditions to competition whenever possible.
- Give immediate, specific, and constructive feedback.
- Question participants to ascertain whether instruction has been understood.
- Behaviour
- encouraging pro-social behaviours such as cooperation, responsibility, and self-control; discouraging antisocial behaviours, such as cheating and aggression; and leading by example (e.g. acknowledging opponents’ good efforts).
- Encourage fair play, self-control, cooperation, teamwork and team spirit.
- Develop respect for the ability of others and for the judgment of officials, selectors and opposing coaches.
- Discourage antisocial behaviours such as cheating, aggression or ‘put-downs’ and attitudes such as winning at all costs.
- Promote a healthy lifestyle.
- Write an overall management plan (use of space, time, safety, equipment and facilities).
- Select learning tasks to be taught at specific sessions.
- Analyse the tasks into components to be learned.
- Consider participants’ activity levels to avoid overload.
- Make sure there are fun elements in all activities.
- Evaluate outcomes after each session and at the end of the season, and make changes if needed.
There are a number of coaching aids and resources that can assist the planning and implementing components of a hockey coaches’ role. Go Hockey News will endeavour to bring these to the attention of readers. Go Hockey News welcomes coaches to share their own information, experiences and items of interest that can benefit all coaches. If you have something to share E: editor@gohockey.com
