If we ran a business the way most of us run a soccer team we would be bankrupt. Fail to plan = plan to fail is true for business as it is for coaching. Two years ago our coaching staff implemented a simple month to month plan. We picked two simple themes for that month and created practice sessions for that month around our theme. We notified the Ajit staff who adjusted their Saturday sessions to support our themes. For example one month we chose a tactical theme of 'Balanced Defense' and a technical theme of 'Directional Heading'.

We stuck to the monthly plan in spite of the temptation to change mid week because of a bad team loss. It helped our p_layer_s focus on a couple of learning points and helped the quality of our training through repetition, clear goals and expected results.

We now deploy a full year development plan, where we set the team learning expectations at the start of the year. This acts as a roadmap for all we do. It has simplified our preparation time and has established goals loftier than just trying to win. We measure our success against the development plan - not our win loss record. As my mentor Bob Irving states focus on teaching and winning will take care of itself.