On the rare occasions these days I organize a coaching session I still use paper. I know it makes sense to use the range of online session planners but I have not got round to it yet.
Like everything digital I know it makes sense so I would like readers of this blog to help me review the current range of online session planners.
I am aware of Tim Horton’s excellent ’ Soccer Interactive and also of Michael Beale’s Academy Soccer Coach .Recently I came across Magnus Alford and he has outlined his product below.
I really would like readers to provide their views on their experiences of Online Session Planners so that we here at Sports Path can provide a product comparison
Do you use online session planners? Why ? Which ones do you recommend?
Look forward to hearing from you
'Reinventing The Chalkboard'-Planning Football Sessions in the 21st Century
Coaching Planning using Information Technology
Coaching has progressed to a higher level in the 21st Century, and this has been influenced by a combination of technology and education.
I coached at The Liverpool Football Club Academy for 11 years as a Youth Coach and within that time I accumulated folders of magazines, pages of session plans scribbled down on bits of paper and on the back of hotel notepads etc. The difficulty that I had was actually going back to my notes a few months later and then finding a particular session because I had put it in the wrong folder under the wrong session category.
‘Time is of the essence’ and modern day football coaches are usually rushed and under pressure to arrive early plan a session and deliver it to a high standard. It might be the grassroots football coach who volunteers to take the local under 14’s team and trains once a week at 6pm after work and plays a match at the weekend. It could be an elite part-time Academy coach who trains four nights a week, has an Academy match at the weekend and also has a 9-5pm job.
It is important that both types of coaches have an effective and efficient way of creating and filing their session plans so that they can reduce the level of time spent in planning, preparing and selecting their coaching sessions.
So what do we have in the 21st Century to help us with this? Information Technology is one of the fastest developing industries with information now available to us with a touch of a button via our phones, smart pads and laptops.
The new generation of football coach is coming from a 3D computer-gaming culture. They are self-taught and are all very sufficient in operating a computer programme.
How has our Session Planning Software catered for the ‘Modern Day Coach?’
The team at www.SportSessionPlanner.com has fused their knowledge of football coaching and session planning together with world-class Computer programming. The outcome is a quick and simple 3D session planning tool that produces stunning visuals. The difference between this software programme and its competitors is that it has a built in to a powerful database so that once the session plan has been created, it then goes automatically into a session library. The session library can then be accessed and the user can select his session via Title; one-two’s, Category; Passing, or do a keyword search and very quickly they will locate the desired session.
The software is produced using a 3D-Flash based-system. We chose to produce the programme using 3D visuals because we are in the 21st Century and wanted to be at the forefront of today’s cutting edge computer technology.
We have produced a drag and drop system that it very quick, the images change from 2D to 3D and the user has a large variety of functions that can be used to produce high quality visuals. Another key function of the programme is that it has a session library with a huge archive of session plans so the user can create, save and share sessions to share good practice.
www.SportSessionPlanner.com has opened new doors to coaches, has given them the 21st Centuries answer to producing session plans quickly and has given them a way of accessing their sessions efficiently.
Magnus Alford
Managing Director
(SportSessionPlanner.com)
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