 to the channel. So today I want to talk about something that I get asked on a regular basis and that is how do you design your small group training sessions. So I thought it would be a good idea to come on here and focus a little bit more on the coaching aspect of your business rather than the actual business itself. Now I want to be clear as well that the way you run your sessions and the quality of your sessions is going to be really important in how successful your business and the experience your clients have with you. So you could be great at marketing, you could have a fantastic business, but if your training sessions aren't of a good quality and they aren't getting results with the clients you're working with, okay. Yes, you will get clients, but you will attract less committed clients, okay. And the reason is because parents know what quality looks like. They know when, you know, you are a good coach. They know when your sessions are planned. They know if whether you have put enough for effort and energy into designing planning and essentially conducting the session to a high enough standard. So if you don't know me or if this is the first time you've come across our channel and if you're watching this video for the first time as well, I've been in this industry for over 15 years now. I've been coaching since the age of 17 and I can assure you and this is something I do very like, this is something I'm very, very consistent with is that I always, always design and plan my sessions before I even get to the field, right. So what I've written at the top here is all the key to success is preparation and organization, right. Always design and plan your sessions before you get to the field. Now the session I'm about to break down today is for a group of players aged anywhere between 10 to 14 years old, okay. You can use it for other age groups as well. So you can use it for older age groups, older than 14, you can also use it for age groups younger than 10 years old but I want to put you in a scenario where I'm working with up to four, eight players in a small group. They're all pretty much aged between 10 to 12 is the age range and the session is lasting for one hour and a half, okay. So it's an hour and a half training session which typically I do with the players I work with and what I want to do is I want to break down how I plan my sessions, how I design my sessions and if you want these are ideas that you can take with you or you can completely just ignore what I'm about to share with you today and focus and continue to do what you are doing, okay. Essentially this video is to help you and to give you ideas, right. So the four main areas of focus when I run any sessions and this is also if I do clinics, this is also if I do camps, this is also if I do one-on-one training. These four key areas I focus on that I want the session outcome to be, right. So the first one is technical. How are my players developing technically? So how are my clients improving their technique during the session? Physically, right, are they getting tired? Are they training at a high intensity? Are they struggling physically with the session? Mental, are they focused? Are they completely engaged with what I'm teaching them, what I'm coaching them? And so sure essentially is how they are engaging with the other clients in the the other clients or players within that group and how they are engaging with me as the trainer and coach, okay. So what I like to do is when I run small group training sessions with up to eight players, I always like to have arrival scrimmages, okay. So if you're based in the UK, right, essentially arrival scrimmages are arrival matches, okay. So they're any, they're four v four or three v game, three v three matches, depending on the size of the group, okay. I'm going to focus on eight players. So what I typically do is as they start arriving, I put them into into four v four matches. And the reason why I always like to start this way is because when players arrive at my sessions and I'm talking more specifically the players I work with, you know, they've come they've come from school, I typically run sessions during the evening. So they finish school, you know, a lot of them need to get focused on what we're about to work on during that session because it's it's a high intense session. So these three, three v three or four v four scrimmages helps the players just just to get in, get engaged in the session. It also raises the the excitement level of them because most kids like to play scrimmages. So as soon as they arrive, they get into a three v three, four v four match, and that gets them focused and engaged into what we're about to work on in the next bit, right? So I usually run those those scrimmages for 15 minutes. Again, if you're working with only four players, you can do two v two arrival matches, you can even do one v ones. Okay. If you're working with with up to eight players, right, you can even start with one v one matches. I personally like to do a little bit bigger the group. So I like to do the three v three or four v fours. It's a little bit more game realistic to their matches that they play on the weekend. Right. So from that, I like to go into a ball mastery for the next 10 minutes and make sure that this is really high, high intense, and they're getting a lot of touches of the ball. Okay. This is individual work. So each player will have a ball at their feet, and they're working on different types of terms, changes of direction, changes of speed. And what I make sure is I make sure that I incorporate two or three progressions into that. So for example, one of the progressions could be I introduce a set of cones after every turn they've got dribble quickly, do a turn past the cone and then come back. Okay. So I introduce obstacles to make it a little bit more difficult for them while keeping the intensity really high during this phase of the session. So after the ball mastery, I go into athletic development, which is what I call it. And this is where I introduce ladders, hurdles, poles, speed and agility. I do some fitness. And I always make sure that whatever I do, if I have them going out doing ladders, it always finishes with a shot at the goal. Or if I have them going through hurdles or in and out the agility poles, everything finishes with a goal. Okay. So everything, either a pass into a goal, either a strike into the goal, but everything finishes. So it just keeps them motivated. And also it helps because if they're really high intense when they're going round the hurdles, the ladders, the poles, then the quality of finishing into the goal will be high. Okay. So the goal is just an incentive to make sure that they're working hard during the agility phase of the session. And then that's their kind of rewards, which is finishing into the goal. Sometimes I introduce a goalkeeper. Most of the times I don't, because what I like to do is I like them to mentally visualize, if there was a keeper there, where can I place the finish? So what I like to do is I like to get players to even place the ball into one of the corners. It could be the left corner, right corner, top left corner, right, left. Or sometimes I put cones and they have to try and score and place their shots through the corners in the goal. Okay. Now the next bit is the technical phase. So this is without pressure. And this is the phase of the session where we're focusing solely on what we're working on during the session. So if the theme is striking, then again, the sole focus of this, this part of the session will be on introducing the technique, the proper technique to striking a ball and breaking the technique down to a point where they're able to implement it in the next bit, which is the skill phase. Right. So this bit, there's no defenders. There's no goalkeepers. All we're doing is we're mastering the skill and technique of that. So if you're doing passing, it could be, you know, the breakdown of the pass. If you're doing finishing, it could be the breakdown of the finishing or striking. You know, if you're working with goalkeepers, it could be ball handling without pressure. Okay. So whatever the theme of that session is, the technical phase is where I work on individually with the players without pressure just yet. Right. So once they've mastered that, we move on to the skill phase, which the skill phase is now we put pressure in. So if we're doing striking, now I'm going to introduce either a goalkeeper to make it harder for the player or a defender where it becomes a 1v1 and they have to strike and shoot the ball quickly before they get closed down. Okay. So this is the bit where essentially once we've mastered the technical phase, we move on to the skill bit where now we're getting a defender, introducing a defender, goalkeeper to put pressure on that attacker when they have a ball. Okay. And then what I like to do is I like to finish off once they've, you know, once we've gone through step by step, the session, the last 25 minutes, I like to do free play. And something I've written down as well. So I've written down 3v3 or 4v4 with normal size ball. So something I didn't talk about is when I do the arrival scrimmages, I always like to do them with a size three soccer ball or football. Now the reason is because it, the size free ball is obviously very, it's a lot smaller and it introduces that kind of street soccer type of training or system or form into the game, right? So when you use a size three, your first touch has to be a lot better. The precision of your passing has to be a lot better. Your movement to receive has to be sharper because that ball could bounce off you, right? So it's important to be positioned properly. So it's a lot harder when you play with a size three football or soccer ball. Okay. Now the last bit of the session when we go into the free play, that's when we introduce the normal size ball that those players are working with, right? So if you're working with players age 10 to 12, it will probably be a size four board. If you're working with older players, then it might be a size five. But the arrival scrimmage will always be with a size three regardless of what age I'm working with. Even if I'm working with 19 to 18 year olds, they're always going to start the session with a size three football or soccer ball, right? To make it harder, make it more challenging. And it's just a lot more fun, I feel, because it introduces that kind of street play, which a lot of players today, they, you know, they don't have and they're not, they're not playing, right? Most players that I work with and most players coaches work with, right? Players aren't playing out on the streets anymore. So those 15, first 15 minutes of the arrival scrimmages I do with a smaller size ball helps that player to recreate that street type of moment where they're playing with a smaller sized ball. And it's making the session a lot more challenging and also fun for them. Okay. So hopefully this helps. If you have any questions with regards to anything I've shared with you today, reach out to me. Okay. And also, if you need more help with your business, there's two ways you can get in contact with me. First one is you can book a free 15 to 20 minute call to visit the Cannelly link in the description of this video. You can book a free call there. We'll jump on Zoom. I'll see where you are with your business, see where you want to get to, and I can show you some actionable steps to take to get you there. Or if you just want to send me an email, then please do that as well. Send it to makemoneycoachingsports.gmail.com. Okay. Thank you for watching. And if you haven't yet, make sure you subscribe to stay up to date with all the latest content.