Below is a session plan from Head Women's Soccer Coach at the University of Alabama Birmingham, Erica Demers. This was part of the Chicago Red Stars Coaching Webinar Series that we did last year.
You can download the session plan here.
In the interview below, Erica discusses her thinking behind the session design, along with the objectives of the practice. I really enjoyed her perspective on the challenges of consistency in this phase of the game. Even at the college level, Erica addresses that "they are still kids" and that the responses will not be perfect, so being patient is almost as important as challenging the players. Another aspect I really enjoyed here was how she chose to go with different starting points. Sometimes defensive exercises can become easy for the defenders because of the repetition of how they start. If the coach always delivers the ball from a set position, the players are then conditioned to expect that, and that can be counter-productive to the chaotic nature of transitional play.
If you are interested in the full webinar series that we did with the Chicago Red Stars, with four webinars based on In Possession, Out of Possession, Transitions, and Player Development at the club, you can find it here.
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