5 Ways to Make Training Sessions More Engaging

Brenda BarronDecember 14, 2017

Training is a crucial part of your team strategy, no matter which sport you play. Not only does it give your players a chance to improve their skills, it’s also an excellent opportunity to bond with other teammates.

It’s also a great way to add extra content to your site and give your fans and potential members an insight into how your team prepares for the big matches, how they stay in shape, and what all is involved in the training process.

However, a training session doesn’t have to consist of only practicing specific moves or doing repetitive exercises over and over. As a coach, you can add more excitement to every training session and make it more engaging for both your team members and all those who attend it as viewers.

If you’re wondering how to make your training more engaging, this post is for you.

5 Ways to Make Training More Engaging

The following techniques will help you add an element of fun as well as create plenty of opportunities to challenge your players whether you’re training children or adults.

1. Add an Element of Fun

If you work primarily with children, it’s important to add an element of fun to your training activities. If your training session focuses solely on warm-up exercises and repetitive drills, they might lose interest quickly. The same applies if parts of your training have some players watch others practicing while they wait for their turn.

Use your creativity to come up with activities where every player participates or add a new element to regular drills. For example, instead of doing regular hopping drills, make your players do it while they throw a ball to each other at the same time. Another way is to incorporate some free flow time where players can interact freely with each other, the ball, or the bat.

Copyright: matimix / 123RF Stock Photo

2. Create a Challenge

Practice is meant to improve a player’s skill as well as the gameplay of the entire team. No matter what age group your players are, they can all benefit from a challenge here and there.

Structure your practice in such a way that it challenges their current skill level and pushes them to improve their best results. Challenge players to kick the ball harder, shorten the time needed to run the length of the field, or ask them to do an extra set of drills.

3. Let the Players Guide the Session

When working with adults, sometimes they are aware of areas that need improving. Listen to their suggestions and let them guide the session. Not only will this allow them to bond with each other but it shows that you as a coach value their opinion and builds their trust in you.

You can still provide structure and your observations and input that will benefit the entire team. Additionally, you can use this opportunity to interact with each player individually and walk away with a better understanding of your players.

4. Don’t Neglect Individual Aspect

Practice is often focused on teamwork and rightly so. After all, if your team works well together, they have better chances of winning. But, you shouldn’t ignore the fact that the entire team play depends on the actions of individuals whose actions play a role in the overall outcome. Take time to ensure your team understands that and work on improving player interaction so each team member knows how to react.

A good coach will also understand that some players work harder when they are pushed to their limits while others need more encouragement and responsibility. Learn to communicate with your players and adjust training as necessary to suit each player, so they all feel like they’re giving their best, which ultimately benefits the entire team.

5. Turn Mistakes Into Learning Experience

Mistakes will happen during practice just like they will happen during an important game. Use them as an opportunity to grow together as a team and have a brief discussion on what went well, what was hard, and what could improve.

Regardless of mistakes, continue to be the main support pillar for your players and provide encouragement and leadership for your players. This will motivate them to train harder and become better, more confident, and clever players.

Boost Your Website Engagement With Training Session Replays

The tips above are a good start towards adding engagement to your practice session, however, that doesn’t mean the engagement has to end there. Consider adding the ability to watch training replays on your site.

By posting training sessions, not only can you bring your players back to your site so they can rewatch and reaffirm the lessons learned during training, you can also use them to provide more content for your visitors.

Consider filming portions of your training with a tablet and adding them as posts or as a part of a separate category. Your visitors will be able to watch them from the comfort of their home and cheer you on in the comments section.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to boost interest in your team during the recruitment season and give a clear picture to potential recruits of what will be expected of them. Joining a team that looks like they’re having fun during practice as well as during matches is always more exciting than joining a team that follows a rigorous and predictable routine.

To add new a training session to your site, you can add it as a new event under Matches. Simply select Add New and then all the details as well as a recording of the training uploaded from YouTube.

You can also add a regular post by going to Posts > Add new.

Engage Your Players More In Training

While the core of your training should focus on improving athletic skills, there is no reason to ignore mental skills. After all, by engaging players’ mental skills, you’ll create clever players who will get better results. Use the tips above to engage your players and add additional content to your website with training replays. And don’t forget to download our cheat sheet that will help you keep these tips in mind during your next training session.