Thinking about practice design, here are some thoughts.
Hi coaches, thinking more about the challenges we can provide for our players will, hopefully, lead us to more effective practice design. I wanted to share with you some interesting research to help you plan more effectively and understand that for any constraint, rule or condition you are hoping to get more of one thing whilst knowing you will trade off other things (this is the nature of a constraints based approach).
Firstly there is a comparison between 3v3 and 5v5 and the subtle things players would do more of (or do less of). These returns are interesting as we explore the returns from smaller formats of the game.
For those of you who work with youth players there is an analysis of the responses from players to constraints coaches have included in their practices, particularly line ball and placing two goals wider apart at each end of pitch. You can probably guess the type of things the players did during this challenge but seeing the results of this research may help you plan in the future knowing the returns you are likely to get for these two scenarios.
Enjoy and please share your thoughts and experiences.
You don't have to read it all as I have highlighted some interesting points in BLUE but for me it was an interesting read.
Pete