GRASSROOTS COACHING SESSION GUIDE PDF

Alberta Soccer is committed to supporting the development of Grassroots Soccer Programming, through supporting the many parent, youth and volunteer coaches who provide encouragement and instruction to the thousands of children who play soccer.
Alberta Soccer supports the implementation of the Preferred Training Model of delivery as advocated by Canada Soccer and FIFA.
The Preferred Training Model uses a station rotation approach that is supportive to the enjoyment and development of the many grassroots coaches across Alberta.

The development of the grassroots coach is a key responsibility for Alberta Soccer and every community, in recognizing that it is the coaches enthusiasm and passion for the game that encourages many youngsters and future players to take up the sport.
“Not every grassroots player may make a National team player, but every National Team player started out in Grassroots Soccer.”
These resources are a great initial guide for many coaches taking their first steps within grassroots soccer.
They include information on Long Term Player Development and provide guidelines on the developmental benchmarks and training “pillars” for soccer development.
The purpose of this document is to provide supplementary coaching activity plans to support the further development for coaches.
This resource is set out to support the initial three stages of LTPD: Active Start, FUNdamentals and Learning to Train.
What is Long Term Player Development?
Long Term Player Development (LTPD) is a key plan for future programming in grassroots soccer, as it seeks to address many of the adverse effects of training to compete at an early age.
The goal of Long Term Player Development is to ensure every player is encouraged to learn, have fun and develop the right skills at the right time. 
Session Planning
This resource has been developed to help guide coaches in developing and planning coaching sessions that will be appropriate to them and most importantly, the players they are coaching.
We encourage all individual’s coaching the sport to seek out appropriate coach education courses before they begin coaching a team and using these resources.

Please visit the Coach section of the Alberta Soccer website to find a course near you.
Although LTPD advocates stages of development it should also be recognized that no two groups are alike, so a similar session plan will require due consideration for the coaching environment within which it is to be delivered.
This consideration supports this guide book as a resource to guide understanding, development and delivery as a coach.
When developing or building a coaching session, coaches are reminded that we all learn best through doing and repetition – if the players enjoy a particular drill, there is no harm in repeating this.
All session plans should accommodate small adaptations to meet the changing (developing) needs of the players.
Encourage players to express their wants within any planning and this may result in a desire for more shooting games but every shooting game requires a goalkeeper and defenders.
Always plan your sessions to commence and conclude with an activity that provides a ball per player, then recap on what the focus of the session was and provide a homework task for the players to master independently.

Coaching Activity
Toolkit The Alberta Soccer Toolkit is a resource from which to pick and mix activities to suit the goals and nature of any given practice session.

The sessions are not presented in an order of delivery or priority.

Each activity plan provides a user friendly guide to its implementation.

A key understanding for coaches is that it is not always what you deliver, but how you adapt an activity to meet the needs of the player’s that determines its success.

It is therefore recommended that coaches look outside of their chosen stage of delivery and review other activities that they may be able to adapt for their group.

The following activities are presented to reflect each stage of development.

The skill of the coach is to identify the goals for a session and then an activity that reflects these needs and suitable adaptations.