It is import that all the different aspects in your training are
considered. I always give the following example; Technical long
passing might not get the heart rate up but ‘pinging’ a ball 50m
across the field for 45 minutes is going to tax the players in
different ways, and especially so at the present time because they
have most likely not been training in that way for quite some
time. Related to this I have seen crossing and finishing drills the
day before a game go on for almost 2 hours because there were
not enough goals scored …. and then the coach wondering why
the wide players were looking flat the next day in the actual
match.
The sessions need to be carefully managed with training time
and rest periods within each of the drills carefully monitored and
adhered to, just because a drill, that has a large physical
component to it, is working well and looks good from the sidelines
doesn’t warrant overloading your players just so that
everyone thinks you’re a great coach because it all looks good.
The number of times I have witnessed a coach beating his players
into the ground physically because the session was not going to
plan from a technical or tactical perspective ….. and then
wondering why there were injuries. I have witnessed first-hand
sessions in which coaches that have ‘killed’ some players in a
possession game because they were happy with the tempo,
however that is defined?
As a general model for progression players should start with
Straight line running then into multi directional running, they
might have done this already on their own. Then progress into
change of direction skills working on cutting, acceleration and
importantly deceleration work. Then into reactive agility drills
with the coach, then other players and finally into games. The
technical aspects should follow a similar low intensity (short
passing) to high intensity (long passing) progression as well.