How to plan a successful pre-season with Conal Murnin | S7 Ep3

Pre-season is your opportunity to set the tone for the season ahead.

It's about understanding your players, creating the right environment and putting the foundations in place for a successful season.

And in this episode, coaching and learning developer Conal Murnin returns to Coachcast to share how coaches can make the most of pre-season. We speak about  reflecting on your own coaching and planning sessions that meet the needs of your players. Conal also explains how small decisions before the season begins can have a lasting impact into the season and keep players coming back for more.

Whether you coach once a week or have multiple sessions to work with, you'll learn how to prioritise what matters most and how to tell if your pre-season is a success.

Covered in this episode:

• 0:00 – Intro
• 1:05 – Top coaching tips.
• 2:38 – Understanding your strengths as a coach and where you need to improve.
• 4:15 – Why self-reflection matters before a new season.
• 5:35 – What to reflect on when planning pre-season.
• 7:29 – Priorities for the first few weeks of pre-season.
• 9:39 – Building an effective pre-season with only one session a week.
• 13:34 – Preparing players for the physical demands without them losing the excitement.
• 17:36 – Understanding players and their ability levels.
• 20:04 – Setting expectations with parents during pre-season.
• 21:54 – Friendlies and tournaments in pre-season.
• 27:04 – Measuring pre-season success.
• 28:48 – The biggest pre-season mistake coaches make.
• 32:28 – A session idea you can use before a matchday.

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Do you have any coaching questions you’d like answers to? Or perhaps you’re facing a coaching challenge that you’d like help with? Simply head over to our England Football Community forum (https://community.thefa.com/) and post them there. We can then put them to our guests in future episodes to get their advice!

Already listened to this episode or the previous seasons of Coachcast? We’d love to hear from you! Pass on your feedback by contacting us via Coachcast@thefa.com.

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