Your training measurements - Finding a 'zero point’

During your training sessions you’ll use a variety of different practices, in order to reach your objective. While considering what you want to use, in order to execute a given intention, it’s important for you to analyse the variables that surround the situation. This could be;

• What size area do you need?
• What part of the field does this situation take place in?
• How many players take part?
• What are the rules of your practice and are there any conditions?
• How long are you going to allow for ball rolling time?

If you take football as the starting point and then consider the external factors, you will undergo the planning phase of your ‘experiment’. Along with designing ‘what’ you want to achieve, you also have to consider ‘how’ you’ll apply it.

While the application is completely open to the coach in question, there should be some consideration given and a possible framework that you work to, when deciding a certain format or workload (periodisation). There could be occasions when you are concerned that something could be too easy or alternatively too hard? How would you know this and find it out as a coach?

Obviously, trial and error contributes to this and you’ll only know of something, if you plan, execute and evaluate accordingly.?

On this occasion let’s say that your players are showing signs that a practice is too easy. The body language of the players isn’t showing signs of unconscious stress, success is frequent and visible, with the intensity of the practice dropping, as the players are finding it far too easy. When you evaluate, all of these notes have to be recorded to ensure that in future training sessions, the players are challenged.

The following training session arrives and you change the format of the respective practice, to manipulate what both teams can/can’t do. On this occasion the players show many signs of unconscious stress because they are challenged far more than last week. The question now is, where is the point in which players can gradually feel uncomfortable, while being challenged? You don’t want to move from one extreme to the other, so ensuring that learning is a gradual process, there has to be logical steps that you can take as a coach.

This is where, the zero point measurement comes into practice. This is an extremely useful tool and one that you can use, to ensure that gradual learning can take place.

An example here is;

Step 1 - If you used a kicking practice that was 6 v 0 and was extremely easy and the players showed signs of success, then you would have to make this more challenging.

Step 2 - You wouldn’t then add a player to make it 7 v 0, but instead add some contextual interference to make it 6 v 1. This is now a passing exercise as there is communicating, deciding and execution of decisions taking place. Once the players have experienced this, you could then assess whether it is again too easy or too hard. On this occasion, it is too easy…

Step 3 - We then progress to 6 v 2 and notice that again, the players are getting success relatively easily, so we quickly decide to move to a 6 v 3. Here we now encounter some challenges…

Once the signs of challenge are seen and the previous step was easy, this now is called your zero point measurement, in the context of team formats. 6 v 2 was easier, but 6 v 3 is too challenging. In future training sessions, you can now save time, as you know where your group needs to be challenged from a starting point.

As well as team formats, the zero point measurement can also apply for the timings that the players participate in and also the size of the training area.

Planning ahead for your training sessions will always bring new challenges, so why not start using this method to record where your players need to be challenged? It will save you time and also allow for learning to take place, in a gradual format.

I’d love to hear on any other methods coaches use, in order to record accurate measurements in their training sessions.?Thanks for reading!

Spencer Fearn Jack Brazil Alexandru Bourceanu Bart Caubergh Harrison Gilkes Anshul Kumar Tamta Eduardo (Duda) Coelho Shawn Bishop Anton Sundberg Mario Hansi Alex Stylianou Christos (Chris) Themeliotis Nico Koch Julius Riemann