At the beginning of every week, usually on the day off, the coaching staff begin planning and thinking about the following week's training sessions. Our job as performance coaches is to guide their thoughts into a plan which will fulfill the team's physical needs. This means what types of stress, how much stress, and when to apply stress during the week. Please note there are multiple ways to train through the week, the above example is in more of a tactical periodization morphocycle but that is one of many approaches.
This "roadmap" is a way to guide the coaches through the week's training sessions. It gives them an idea of what to do and when to do it within the week. It's important to say that we are not telling the coach what to do or dictating what specific exercises they should use. Instead, we are giving example of exercises that that coach already uses. The exercises are merely placeholders to guide the coach on what type of exercise works on that specific day. The coach can then utilize their own library of drills to plan the session, hopefully with similar characteristics to the placeholder exercises. The day I tell a coach what drills to run is the day I will probably need to find a new job!
Let's start breaking down the "roadmap"...
Day Specifics
It seems simple but outline what day of the week, what match day it is, and the tech/tact size of of spaces and size of player groups is very important to keeping an organized week. It will also allow you to begin keeping track of what exercises you've done on what days. This is important to reflect back upon when looking back on match performance. Were the players tired? Were they sharp? What did we do that week and when did we do it? It will help you build out your optimal training weeks.
Drill Specifics
When the coaching staff looks at your training outline "roadmap" they will want to see specifics in regards to spaces and work/rest periods for each exercise. This will allow them to plan out the exact exercises they want to use but with these spaces and times in mind. Chances are the coaches' training outline won't perfectly match the suggestions you have made. This is ok as our goal isn't to give them a rigid outline but merely a guideline to work from. We need to remember that the coach takes into account more than just the physical development of the team. Some exercises are planned to test the team in different areas. Again by outlining specifics this will allow you to keep track of exercises and if they were successful or not. If not you can address these specifics and potentially adjust them to meet desired outcomes. An example would be that you want to achieve some sprint speeds organically within a training exercise but after completing the session this wasn't achieved. You can then look back and make adjustments to achieve it next time this exercise is used, maybe opening up spaces or adding repetitions.
Exercise Diagrams
Sometimes descriptions are not enough to give the coaching staff an idea of the types of exercises you are suggesting through the week. By adding simple diagrams you decrease the chances of misunderstanding, visuals can be very powerful. It's important to keep these diagrams simple so they are easier to understand. Your job isn't to add loads of arrows or lines as we are not the coach. We want to just give them idea of spaces, numbers of players, and areas of the field. As you spend time with a coaching staff it is wise to begin diagramming the exercises that your staff uses, every single one. Then you can use their actual work when creating your week outline. This will create buy in as the staff will see you are using their work. In my experience coaches are more willing to collaborate when they see something with their fingerprints all over it.
Session Metrics (Team Averages)
I was hesitant to even add this component to this writing because of how misunderstood and abused training metrics can be. I like to add these to the bottom of my weekly outline is to educate the coaches on how exercises match physical demands. I would keep this to a few very simple metrics so the staff can master what they are and what they mean. Once you've begun to run drills over time you can put exact team averages within these spaces. This allows you to use exercises that in the past have met your physical goals. For example if you have a drill that has achieved a team average of 36 meters of sprint distance then you should use it as a placeholder on a day where you hope to achieve this kind of work. When using GPS/HR for training I believe it should be used as a series of checks and balances once training as finished. Did you exercises meet the day's preferred type of training? If not how can we adjust these exercises in the future to make that happen?
Remember that this is only an outline or a set of guidelines for the coaching staff to work from. Your hope is that the final plan shares similar characteristics as your roadmap. I like the analogy of a roadmap because you will take many detours as the week progresses but hopefully you return back to the main road, which meets the week's goals.
Thanks for reading and take care
Josh