Before you can start you need to know were you are now.

The development model I use is built on these “Pillars”:

• Tactical aspects;
• Technical skills;
• Physical aspects like growth;
• Mental aspects;
• Nutritional aspects, you are what you eat;

So, when preparing your program and you want to define your starting situation, typical questions to ask are:

• What is the team capable of tactically?
• How clear are the positional requirements to the individual players?
• How skilled are the players and has the skill mix been optimised for the 15 positions?
• How old are the players in my team? How long have they been playing?
• What phase of development are they in? (I spent a whole season running a Under 14 program with a senior team, working on taking field positions)
• How have they been coached in the past, how will they react to my style of coaching?

Find the answers to all these questions. You might skip a lot of work and save valuable training time.

Next step is to define where you want to be, using the same pillars. You now have a clear understanding what your trainingsprogram has to achieve and you can start building your season.