It's 5:45pm on a Tuesday. Training starts at 6:30. You've been in meetings all day, the kids need feeding, and you still haven't planned tonight's session.
Relax. You don't need an hour of prep time, a coaching manual, or a diagram that looks like a military operation. You need 10 minutes, a theme, and a rough structure.
Here's how.
The 10-minute method
Grab your phone, a scrap of paper, or just think it through in your head. Answer these four questions:
1. What's the theme? (30 seconds)
Pick one thing. Not three things. One. Passing. Dribbling. Shooting. Defending. 1v1s. Turning with the ball. Whatever your team needs most — or whatever you fancy working on. It doesn't matter that much at U7-U10. What matters is that the whole session connects to the same idea.
2. What's the warm-up game? (2 minutes)
Pick a fun, active game that loosely connects to your theme. If the theme is dribbling, do a dribbling-based warm-up like "traffic lights" (dribble on green, stop on red, change direction on amber). If the theme is passing, do a passing-based game like "pass and move" in a small grid.
Don't overthink this. The warm-up has two jobs: get them warm and get them smiling. That's it.
3. What's the main activity? (5 minutes)
This is the only part that needs real thought, and even this doesn't need to be complicated.
The golden rule: design a game, not a drill. A "drill" is where kids stand in lines and take turns. A "game" is where everyone's involved at the same time, making decisions, with some element of competition.
For example, if your theme is passing:
Bad option: kids line up, pass to each other, run to the back of the line. Half of them are standing still at any given moment.
Good option: 3v1 keep-ball in a small square. The three players have to make 5 passes without the defender winning it. If the defender wins it, they swap. Everyone's moving. Everyone's thinking. Everyone's touching the ball.
You can add conditions to make it harder or easier. "Two-touch only." "Must play with your left foot." "Make the grid smaller." These small tweaks let you progress the activity without needing a completely different exercise.
4. What's the end game? (2 minutes)
Small-sided game. 4v4 or 5v5. Roughly 20 minutes. You can add one condition related to your theme — "goals from a first-time finish count double" if the theme was shooting — but honestly, just letting them play is fine.
That's your session. Warm-up, main activity, game. Ten minutes of planning. Done.
The cheat sheet
If you can't think of a theme, here's a rotation that works for an 8-week block. One theme per week:
Week 1: Dribbling and close control Week 2: Passing (short) Week 3: Turning and receiving Week 4: Shooting Week 5: 1v1 attacking Week 6: 1v1 defending Week 7: Combination play (wall passes, give-and-go) Week 8: Free play — just games, no coaching points
Repeat that block with slightly harder conditions each time and you've got a full season of sessions planned in about 15 minutes.
The equipment question
You need less than you think. For most sessions:
- •12-16 cones (to mark out areas)
- •A bag of balls (ideally one per player, but one between two works)
- •4-8 bibs (to split teams)
- •2 portable goals (or use cones)
That's it. If you're spending time setting up elaborate cone patterns with different colours marking different running lines, you're overcomplicating it. A simple square, a couple of goals, and a bag of balls is enough for 90% of grassroots sessions.
What to do when the plan falls apart
It will happen. The activity you planned doesn't work. The kids don't understand it. It's too easy. It's too hard. Two kids are arguing about who gets the yellow bib.
Don't panic. You've got two options:
Tweak it. Make the area bigger (too hard) or smaller (too easy). Add or remove a condition. Change the numbers — go from 3v1 to 3v2 if it's too simple.
Scrap it. Go straight to the end game. There's absolutely nothing wrong with spending 40 minutes on a small-sided game. The kids will learn more from 40 minutes of 4v4 than 40 minutes of a drill that isn't working.
The best coaches aren't the ones who plan perfect sessions. They're the ones who can adapt on the fly when things aren't working. That skill comes from experience, not badges.
Planning across a season
Once you're comfortable with the 10-minute method for individual sessions, you can start thinking about the bigger picture.
Are there patterns in your team's play? Maybe they always panic when pressed. Maybe they never use the width. Maybe they struggle in 1v1 situations. Those observations tell you what to work on next.
If you're tracking player development through something like InsideFooty, this becomes much easier. You can look at your squad's Four Corners ratings and see where the gaps are. If the technical scores are lagging behind the psychological ones, that tells you to spend more sessions on technique. If the social scores are low, you know to focus on communication and teamwork. The data gives you a theme — you just need to plan the session around it.
Stop aiming for perfect
The biggest barrier to session planning isn't knowledge or time — it's the fear of getting it wrong. New coaches especially feel like every session needs to be polished and professional.
It doesn't. A decent session plan, delivered with energy and enthusiasm, beats a perfect session plan delivered with stress and self-doubt every single time.
The kids don't know if your session is "correct." They know if it's fun. They know if they touched the ball a lot. They know if the coach was encouraging. That's what they remember.
So stop scrolling through coaching websites at midnight looking for the perfect drill. Pick a theme, pick a game, let them play. You'll learn what works by doing it, not by planning it.
Ten minutes. That's all it takes.