Coaching Drill: Training with Intensity

Training with intensity is crucial for any team in order to make sure they are ready to play the game, there is an old saying, "You play as your train," and to a degree, this is true, because often if you don't train at an intensity that is either of or greater than the same level you will face in a game, the team tend to struggle in a game. When I am training a team I like to be making what they face in training much harder than what they would face in a game, because this brings change and adaption and grows the individual players and the team's comfort zone. One game practice drill I use is 

Go Hard then Rest

This game practice drill can be run on a full field or half field, and it's set up the following way-

- Team: Split your number into two teams with one team having 1 more player than the other

- You then start the game with 5 minutes playing/3 minutes resting

- Then you progress to 7 minutes playing/2 minutes resting

- Then you progress to 9 minutes playing/1 minute resting

- Then you progress to 11 minutes playing/30 seconds resting

You want your team to work hard during the playing period at game pace, as this practice progresses they will get tied and skills will start to drop it's at this point you as a coach want to be encouraging your team to focus. This is basically simulating what tends to happen late in each half or quarter of a game as your team becomes fatigued. If they can work through this then they should be able to handle whatever is thrown at them during a game.

- Variations you can add to this, you can reduce the size of the playing area, adjust the makeup of each team, overload one team with more players than just the original 1, you can also eliminate players during the game.