Preseason is a stressful, busy, and unpredictable time for everyone involved. We plan, organize, communicate, and put in significant amounts of time to ensure everything goes smoothly. This involves planning sessions, using data to progress from week to week, calling off-site gym locations, working with hotels to ensure spaces are available, setting meal times and what they consist of, meeting with staff regularly, ete etc etc! The reason I mention all of this is because we have all these answers on what we should do and how we should do it but never ask ourselves the most important questions. What is our goal for preseason? What do we hope to accomplish? Why do we want to accomplish it? And even more importantly, will what we are doing help the team win?
Below I've tried to put together a checklist of goals for any team, no matter the level, for preseason. I hope they will help put the great work you are already doing into perspective. These are in no specific order, just as they came to me.
Preseason Goals
Establish Training Standards - From the first day. Can you set standards in every area of your training day. This includes any pre training or post training work. Poor training habits develop easily and quickly so we have to be vigilant from day 1. This doesn't mean yelling and screaming or punishing players. It means you establish professional, selfless behavior through communication of standards and most importantly by your own behavior.
Build Relationships - This goes for both players and staff members. Please know this doesn't mean you need to be friends with anyone you work with (it does help in my experience). The relationships I am talking about are those of trust, care, and collective responsibility. Every person you come across will take your input on board if they know you are a trustworthy person, you care about them, and they know you want the same end product as they do. These relationships are built by working hard together, having conversations about work but also life, and establishing what our ultimate goal should be.
Preferred Methodology - How are we going to work? This should be established and carried out through the rest of the season. Are we a team who works in a tactical periodization model, structured training, whole part whole, etc? We need to have a clear idea as we will create routines and expectations based off of our methodology. There is nothing worse than a coach who has no idea how to train and everything seems random or last minute. The team will respect your way of working if they know you have a plan and believe in it. There isn't a best way to work but having a way is vital. If you do not know then stop and reflect on what you love about training.
Preparing for the First Match - Is the team prepared to meet the demands of the game for the first match of the year. Can they play in your preferred system in they style that you want? Can they physically compete for 90+ minutes? Hopefully these questions are answered by meeting the previous three goals. If you establish incredible training standards, build unbreakable relationships that feel a collective responsibility, know how you will work and what that will consist of, then chances are you have put yourself in a position to be successful.
This might seem overly simplistic and it probably is to some degree. Obviously there are layers upon layers of details that you as a staff will need to pay close attention to. But I honestly do believe that these four goals are so important to a teams success. You can have the best facilities, planning, coaching, or players but you will come up short if these four are not met.
Thanks for your time and take care.
Josh
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