coaching_practice_planning v1.0.0

name: "coaching_practice_planning" description: "Plan sports practice sessions that actually teach: one clear session goal, a timed block sequence from warm-up to representative game, drill progressions and regressions for mixed skill levels, load checks with session RPE, and notes that carry into the next session. Sport-neutral. Use when someone asks for a practice plan, a training session, drill sequencing, how to structure practice time, or how to adapt a session for beginners and advanced athletes together."

Coaching Practice Planning

Purpose

Most practice plans fail in predictable ways: too many goals, drills that do not connect, no way to adjust when half the group is lost and the other half is bored, and nothing written down afterward. This skill builds a session that avoids all four. It works for any sport because it plans the learning structure, not the sport content: the coach supplies the drills, the skill supplies the arc, the timing, the progression logic, and the note loop.

Workflow

1. Take the intake before planning anything. Get: sport, age group, group size, session length, space and equipment, the last game's or session's biggest problem, and the next competition date. If the user cannot name a problem, use the last session's carry-forward note (step 8).

1. Set one primary goal and at most one secondary. A session teaches one thing well or five things badly. Phrase the goal as an observable action, not a topic: "first touch away from pressure" beats "ball control". Every block in the plan must serve the primary goal; cut anything that does not, however good the drill is.

1. Generate the timed skeleton with the planner script, then fill in sport-specific drills per block:

python3 scripts/plan_session.py --minutes 75 --theme "first touch under pressure" --sport soccer --players 14 --level mixed --planned-rpe 6

The script allocates the standard arc (warm-up, blocked skill primer, main skill block, representative game, conditioned competition, cool-down and debrief), prints a harder and easier variant for every block, and appends the session-notes template. Short sessions merge middle blocks but never drop the warm-up or the debrief.

1. Sequence for learning, not for variety. Open with blocked practice (same skill, repeated, no opposition) so a new technique can settle. Blocked practice looks cleaner in the session but interleaved practice retains better, so move to serial and random ordering in the main block: vary the feed, the angle, the starting position. Finish in a representative game, a small-sided version of the real thing with one rule changed to force the session goal. If a block does not change what athletes perceive or decide, it is conditioning wearing a drill's clothes; place it honestly or cut it.

1. Write the progression and regression for every drill before the session. Use the constraint levers, one at a time: space (bigger is easier), numbers (an extra attacker or neutral player is easier), opposition (passive, then active, then live), feed (predictable, then varied, then random), time (more time is easier), and scoring (bonus points pull behavior toward the goal). The script prints one lever per block; the coach names the exact change in their own sport terms.

1. Plan for mixed levels with tiers, not separate sessions. Run one drill at three constraint settings: tier 1 gets the easier line, tier 3 the harder line, same space, same rotation. Athletes pick their tier each round and may move up mid-block. Never let athletes pick teams for games; the coach sets balanced groups, because being picked last is the part of practice athletes remember.

1. Budget the coach's voice. Aim for athletes active roughly three quarters of the session. Keep each intervention under a minute: one cue, one demo, play resumes. Give feedback on a bandwidth, only when a rep falls outside an acceptable range, and not on every attempt; athletes who get corrected on every rep stop reading their own feedback. Rotate strenuous blocks with slower tactical ones so attention recovers.

1. Close the loop with notes the same day. Fill in the template the script prints: what landed, what stalled and at what minute, who needs a regression, who is ready for the harder tier, the actual session RPE, and one starred carry-forward line. The next session's goal comes from that line or from the last game, never from a generic curriculum. Across a season, sequence fundamentals first, then unit or position work, then team concepts, weighted toward whatever games expose.

1. Check the load. Before the session, set a planned RPE (0 to 10). Afterward, ask athletes "how was the session?" on the same scale and compute session load as duration in minutes multiplied by RPE (the Foster session-RPE method; compute it with python3 scripts/plan_session.py --load --minutes 75 --rpe 7). If the actual RPE runs two points above plan twice in a row, the plan is lying about its intensity; trim the next session. Week to week, keep total load increases gradual, roughly 10 to 20 percent for young or returning athletes.

Output Contract

Deliver one plan per session containing:

• Header: sport, date, group size and level, total minutes, the primary goal stated as an observable action, planned RPE and planned load.
• A timed block table with start and end clocks that sum exactly to the session length, one coaching cue per block, and a harder and easier variant per block written in the sport's own terms.
• The tier assignment rule if levels are mixed.
• The blank session-notes template, with the carry-forward line.
• A one-line load check: planned load, and where the actual RPE gets recorded after the session.

If any element is missing, the plan is not finished. Do not deliver a list of drills with no times and call it a plan.

Operating Rules

• One goal per session. A second goal is allowed only if it costs no time (for example, a communication habit reinforced inside existing drills).
• Drill blocks run about 10 to 15 minutes. Shorter teaches nothing, longer loses the room. If a drill dies early, note the minute it died; that is planning data, not a failure to hide.
• Every drill ships with its progression and regression already written. Improvising adjustments mid-session is how sessions drift off goal.
• Progress one constraint lever at a time. Changing space, numbers, and scoring at once makes the drill unrecognizable and the result unreadable.
• Practice must stay representative: include real opposition, real decisions, and the information athletes will actually see in a game as early as the group can handle it. Isolated technique work is a primer, never the whole meal.
• Young athletes: warm up and cool down for 5 to 10 minutes, build in water breaks, keep at least one or two rest days in the week, and never use exercise as punishment. Supervision ratios for strength work stay near one coach per ten athletes.
• Never invent sport rules, governing-body standards, or research numbers. If a claim about load, ratios, or development cannot be sourced, frame it as coaching judgment or cut it.
• Safety stops the plan: pain, head-impact symptoms, or heat illness signs end an athlete's session immediately, whatever the block table says.

References

• references/session-examples.md holds two fully worked plans, a 60 minute youth soccer session and a 90 minute adult basketball session, each with tiers, cues, and a filled-in notes example.
• Sources behind the research claims in this skill are listed in the build notes; the load method is Foster et al. (2001), session RPE, and the practice-ordering guidance follows the contextual interference literature (Shea and Morgan, 1979) and the constraints-led approach (Renshaw and Davids).