Description
FOOTBALL SESSION PLANNING TEMPLATE
Plan the Session. Coach the Players. Reflect on the Practice.
A practical two-page football session planning template designed to help coaches plan with purpose, visualise their practices and reflect on the session.
What are you trying to develop?
Who are your players?
What do they need?
How will the practice help them learn?
What will you look for during the session?
And what will you learn from it afterwards?
This Football Session Planning Template gives coaches a simple, structured space to plan the session, consider the players, draw the practices and reflect on the learning.
Designed by a professional football coach and coach developer, it is practical, easy to use and built around the realities of coaching.
Plan. Deliver. Reflect. Develop.
MORE THAN JUST A SESSION PLAN
A good session starts before the players arrive.
It begins with understanding:
- The players
- Their needs
- The learning objective
- The football problem
- The practice
- The coaching interventions
- The decisions you want players to make
- What success will look like
This template gives you space to think through the session before you deliver it — and to reflect on it afterwards.
CONSIDER YOUR PLAYERS
Every session should start with the players.
Use the planning space to consider:
- Who are you coaching?
- What do they already know?
- What do they need to improve?
- What are their strengths?
- What are their individual needs?
- What challenges might they face?
- How will you adapt the practice for them?
Plan for the players, not just the practice.
DEFINE THE SESSION
Create clarity before you step onto the pitch.
Consider:
- Session objective
- Learning outcomes
- Tactical or technical focus
- Key principles
- Player behaviours
- Practice organisation
- Pitch size and numbers
- Equipment
- Progressions
- Regressions
- Coaching points
- Questions you may ask
Know what you want the players to learn — and why.
FOUR SPACES TO DRAW THE GAME
Sometimes the best way to plan a practice is to see it.
The template includes four dedicated diagram spaces to help you visualise your session.
Use them to map out:
- Practice organisation
- Player positions
- Movements
- Passing options
- Opponent behaviours
- Direction of play
- Progressions
- Regressions
- Conditions and constraints
Draw it. See it. Coach it.
Four diagrams give you the flexibility to plan a session with progression — from the initial practice through to more challenging, game-related situations.
FROM PRACTICE TO GAME
A practice should have a purpose.
The template encourages you to consider how the practice connects to the game:
What is the football problem?
↓
What behaviour do you want?
↓
How will the practice develop it?
↓
What decisions will players make?
↓
How will it transfer into the game?
This helps move session planning beyond simply filling time.
COACHING INTERVENTIONS
Great coaching is not just about designing the practice.
It is about what you see, when you intervene and how you help players learn.
Plan for:
- What you will observe
- When you will intervene
- What questions you might ask
- What information players need
- When to let the practice run
- When to stop and coach
- How to challenge players
- How to adapt the practice
Plan the practice. Be ready to coach the players.
GUIDED SESSION REFLECTION
The session does not finish when the players leave the pitch.
Reflection helps turn experience into learning.
The guided reflection section gives you space to consider:
WHAT WENT WELL?
What worked?
What helped the players learn?
Which practices were effective?
WHAT DID THE PLAYERS LEARN?
What behaviours did you see?
Did players understand the objective?
Did the learning transfer into the practice?
WHAT DIDN’T GO AS PLANNED?
What didn’t work?
Where did the practice break down?
Were there organisational or coaching issues?
WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
What would you do differently next time?
Would you change the practice, conditions, organisation or intervention?
WHAT DID YOU LEARN AS A COACH?
What did the session teach you?
What did you notice about your players?
What will influence your next session?
Reflect on the session. Learn from the experience. Improve the next one.
PLAN. DELIVER. REFLECT.
The template creates a simple coaching cycle:
PLAN
Understand the players.
Define the objective.
Design the practice.
DELIVER
Observe.
Intervene.
Question.
Adapt.
REFLECT
Evaluate.
Learn.
Identify what to change.
Plan the next step.
BUILT FOR REAL COACHING
Simple enough to use every week.
Structured enough to improve your planning.
Flexible enough to work across different teams, ages and environments.
Use it for:
- Individual sessions
- Team sessions
- Tactical practices
- Technical practices
- Position-specific practices
- Small-sided games
- Game Model work
- Player development
- Coach development
FOR COACHES WHO WANT TO PLAN WITH PURPOSE
Whether you are an experienced professional coach, developing coach, academy coach or grassroots coach, the principles remain the same.
Understand your players.
Know what you want to develop.
Design the practice around the learning.
Coach what you see.
Reflect on what happened.
Then use that learning to improve the next session.
FROM THE PROFESSIONAL GAME
Created by a professional football coach and coach developer, this template reflects a simple belief:
Good session planning is about more than organisation.
It is about understanding the player, the game and the learning process.
Plan with clarity.
Coach with purpose.
Reflect with honesty.
Develop continuously.
A PRACTICAL TOOL FOR COACH DEVELOPMENT
Use the template as part of your ongoing coaching process.
Build a record of your sessions.
Compare what you planned with what actually happened.
Identify recurring themes.
Track player development.
Reflect on your coaching.
And gradually build a deeper understanding of how your sessions influence player learning.
PLAN THE SESSION. DEVELOP THE PLAYER.
FOOTBALL SESSION PLANNING TEMPLATE
Two pages designed to help you:
- Consider your players
- Define your session objective
- Plan your practices
- Visualise four practices or progressions
- Prepare your coaching interventions
- Connect practice to the game
- Reflect on the session
- Identify your next coaching action
For coaches. Coach developers. And anyone serious about improving their practice.
Plan better. Coach better. Reflect better.
