Quick Guide to Using TeamSnap+ at Your Next Youth Sports Practice
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We’ll cover four quick tips for using TeamSnap+ to enhance your next youth sports practice thanks to new coaching and management features.
If you’re like most youth sports coaches, you probably have a lot on your plate! Youth sports coaches, especially volunteers, are juggling more responsibilities than ever before. Between all of the personal day-to-day tasks in our lives (like a job, getting the kids to school, taking care of the house, etc.), adding on coaching duties is a lot.
Practice planning is one area that may seem… next to impossible! Luckily, TeamSnap takes care of our youth sports coaches with TeamSnap+. With instant access to expert-led team activities, practice plans, and one-on-one drills, your organization is a lot closer to unlocking its full potential.
But, how exactly can you use TeamSnap+ (and TeamSnap+ Coaches Pack) at your next practice? I’m Tori Burnett, Enterprise Account Manager at TeamSnap and a long-time soccer fanatic and coach. Here are a few quick tips for using TeamSnap+ to the best of your advantage at your next practice session.
How to Effectively Use TeamSnap+ at Your Next Youth Sports Practice?
Take five minutes to play with our easy-to-use app
We always want to go into a practice session with a plan. TeamSnap+ takes a lot of this work off your plate, but we’d be lying if we said “Just go and roll the soccer ball out at 5 pm, everything will be fine.” All you need is about five minutes – seriously! Take five minutes (maybe during your lunch hour) to quickly explore TeamSnap+.
Use this time to familiarize yourself with the upcoming session, whether that’s in the form of a couple of drills pinned for today’s practice or a full practice plan available on the app. Reviewing the drills or practice structure ahead of time will allow you to ensure you’re mentally prepared for the day’s session. Plus, TeamSnap+ content includes equipment lists so you’ll know exactly what you need for an organized practice. Step on the field with confidence and a strong idea of your team’s goals for practice.
Let the young athletes warm up before kicking off
This tip accomplishes two things. For starters, it allows the youth athletes to get into practice mode. Warmups should be fun, engaging, and help the athletes kick practice off with some energy. Some of the best warmup drills I love are tag, a short scrimmage, or some kind of knockout game… have fun with it!
Starting with a warmup also allows us coaches to get into practice mode. Get back on the TeamSnap app and review the session again. Give yourself a quick rundown of what today’s practice will include from a schedule perspective, an equipment perspective, and a goals perspective. You can also share these details with the team once they’re finishing warming up.
The transition into practice is especially important in today’s busy world. Likely, kids are showing up right until the last minute (maybe a few are even a bit late with traffic!) and you need to quickly engage them for the day’s activities. An easy way to get their bodies and brains warmed up is by playing simple games such as tag, small-sided scrimmages, or even sharks and minnows for the youngest players! These small games allow the younger players to gradually work their way into the practice session and can help to focus their minds.
Dynamic warm-ups in youth sports
For the older groups, dynamic warm-ups are extremely important to activate muscles and prevent injury. TeamSnap+ has a few videos showcasing different dynamic warm-ups if you need some inspiration! Once you decide the structure and cadence of the warmup, oftentimes, this is a great moment to allow the team to lead themselves as well.
Warmups also allow you to put any finishing touches on the session at hand. This extra 10 minutes can be helpful to finish setting up the next activity, or reviewing the practice plan for the next topics and further coaching points!
Take learnings from previous games and performances
The best coaches are always analyzing or learning from previous games, individual performances, or practice sessions. As a coach, I like to address things immediately. If I notice a certain moment of the game or skill the team struggled with in our previous session (or game), I like to find ways to address and work on these areas immediately.
Not only does TeamSnap+ have organized practice plans, full curriculums, and videos to explain things in an easy-to-understand method, but you’ll also get access to a full library of drills. It is easy to pick out a few activities to work on the skills you noticed were lacking from the previous game. They are sorted into their own categories within the app as well! Work these into your practice structure and keep the athletes on track with their skill development.
Stay on schedule with built-in curriculums
Follow the weekly curriculum already built out for you to keep things simple and easy!
This is my favorite part of TeamSnap+… built-in curriculums. Curriculums accomplish so much for our teams: they allow us to stay on schedule throughout a long season, they are age-appropriate, they give us consistency across the entire organization, and they are flexible. Within every TeamSnap+ activity, there are options to make the activity harder or easier based upon your teams’ ability, ensuring that everyone is met where they are with quality resources!
TeamSnap+ curriculums
TeamSnap+ is loaded with developmentally focused week-by-week curriculums with coach-driven instructions and equipment lists. The grassroots coaching curriculum from US Youth Soccer is easily digestible and age-specific within the TeamSnap mobile app, making it very easy to find what you are looking for. No matter what level of coaching experience you have, TeamSnap+ gives you the tools to succeed. Some of the best results from using TeamSnap+ curriculums include:
- Confident coaches who are fully equipped to run team practices
- Happy parents who see their athletes having fun and growing skills
- Program consistency with standardized curriculums
- Developmental, age-specific, curriculums include week-by-week practice plans designed to give you a full season (10 weeks) of developmental practices.
Check out a quick demo video of TeamSnap+ in action below!
Tori Burnett was born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she grew up with a soccer ball at her feet (when there weren’t skis!) and a love for the game of soccer. She played collegiate soccer at the University of Minnesota and then continued working in the soccer space post-graduation. Tori has coached at many levels, including NCAA Division 3 women, USL2 men, Girls Academy, National League P.R.O., and grassroots soccer in Minnesota. She has been an account manager in the youth sports technology space for over three years, and enjoys watching the US Women’s National Team and Chelsea FC.