Winter Training Sessions

Posted on: March 6th, 2017 | by Flaviu | 2 Comments

Last Updated on: 6th February 2024, 02:11 pm

Winter Training Sessions

Winter training is almost over, but there are still a couple of weeks to go.

We know that many of you will have had a match cancelled or postponed due to poor weather conditions. It’s also likely that your players will have rolled out of bed for training, seen the horrible conditions, and crawled straight back in! During the winter months, it’s important to change up parts of your usual training routine to make sure you’re getting the most out of your sessions. Add plenty of football training equipment and set up plenty of drills to keep everyone moving.

To help you, we’ve put together a simple training session to keep your players active and warm in the lead-up to spring.

 

The Warm Up

A good warm-up is essential for all training sessions but it’s even more important in winter. Here’s a great one to get your players’ blood pumping and make sure they’re warmed up for the session.

  1. Mark out a large oval with football cones spaced about 1m apart.
  2. Give each player a ball and ask them to dribble in and out of the cones.
  3. Ask them to repeat the circuit but speed up every time.

Step It Up

  • Add more cones
  • Change the layout by adding more complex turns and tighter gaps.
  • Ask the players to use their weaker foot
  • Turn it into a race by making the players sprint back to the starting cone once they have completed the circuit.

Activity 1 – Speed and Agility

It’s important to keep players moving when the weather is cold, so you want to keep your players moving. A great routine for this is a speed and agility activity which is used for a high-intensity workout.

 

Winter football training

Set Up

  1. Lay out two cones roughly 10m apart (cones A and F)
  2. Put a third cone behind them to create a triangle (cone B)
  3. Place three more cones directly behind cone B. Place these about 1.5m apart (cones C, D and E).

Instructions

  1. Players start at cone A.
  2. They side-step to cone B and then sprint up to cone F.
  3. Walk back to cone A.
  4. Repeat the steps for cones C, D and E using the following movements:
    • A-C: Heel Flicks
    • A-D: High Knees
    • A-E: Crossovers

 

Activity 2 – Passing & Ball Control

Get everybody moving and competing with each other in this next activity. It will focus on ball control and passing. It’s an easy drill to set up and will be plenty of fun for all players.

 

Winter football training

Set Up

  1. Mark out a 20m x 20m square with cones or markers. Mark out a 2m x 2m square in the centre of the first square.
  2. Divide your players into two teams but leave 1 individual as a neutral player.
  3. Place the neutral player inside the smaller square.
  4. Place one player from each team on either side of the larger square.
  5. The remaining players should stay within the larger square.

Instructions

  1. The players within the larger square must compete to win possession of the ball.
  2. They must then pass to the neutral player who will return it to a member of the same team.
  3. The ball is then passed to the corresponding player outside the square.
  4. Award the team 1 point for completing a sequence.
  5. Carry on playing until one team reaches a certain number of points.

Game Time

Everyone loves to put their training into practice and what better way to do that than with a proper game? To start with, have players follow standard rules. After about 10 minutes change the rules so that players can only have 3 touches of the ball. This is will help to improve first touch and spatial awareness. It’s also a great way to stimulate passing and moving to support the player on the ball.

Depending on what you want to focus on, you can adjust elements of the game to your liking. For example, if you need to practice crossing the ball into the box, impose a rule that goals can only be scored from crosses, i.e. the ball must be crossed into the box to score.

You can easily adjust play if you want to focus on ball retention or possession. Introduce a 5-minute period during which teams can’t score but have to retain possession of the ball. The team with the ball at the end of the 5 minutes is awarded a goal.

 

The Cool-down

After playing high-intensity games, it’s important to do a cool-down to help avoid injury. The cool-down will return the body to a resting state, gradually reducing the heart rate and breathing.

An easy and effective way to do this is low-intensity jogging or walking for 5-10 minutes. This will help to reduce the body temperature and remove any lactic acid from your body that may have built up during the session.

Get Your Winter Training Wear

The best way to get your players to winter training sessions is with great winter training wear. Check out our range to find everything you need to train in the cold weather. We have everything you need from winter jackets, training tops, snoods, winter hats and gloves.

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2 Responses

  1. Andy Brechin says:

    Excellent, you got some more of these?

  2. Erika says:

    Hi Andy,
    Sorry for the late reply, we have been going through some changes with our blog, but rest assured that we will post something like this pretty soon.
    We will get some video content ready for you!

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