How Youth Soccer Clubs Can Get Every Team Training Between Sessions
To get all the teams in a youth soccer club training between sessions, give the coaches one assignment format (a skill, a count, and a time limit), one shared record of who finished, and one person at the club who reads that record weekly. Club soccer player development at home works best when it doesn't depend on each coach remembering to assign it.
I'm Matt McWilliams, co-founder of Train Daily and head coach of one 11U team inside a program with three 11U teams. I'm not a club director, so the club-level pieces below come from our program coordinators and from one club's results that another coach reported.
Why do most players in a club skip off-day training?
Off-day training usually depends on each coach assigning it, and a club has no way to see which teams follow through. Players who already love the ball train on their own. The rest touch the ball at practice and stop until the next one.
A club with many teams gets as many answers to "what should players do between practices?" as it has coaches. One coach sends a weekly video, another says "work on your touches," and a third says nothing. The director sees none of it.
What does a club-wide off-day system need?
Three parts: one assignment format, one visible record, and one owner at the club level.
The format is the same one I use on my team. Each assignment has a skill, a count, and a time limit, such as "50 inside-foot passes with your left against the wall in 10 minutes." My plan for ages 9 to 11 runs 15 to 30 minutes of ball mastery on days without practice, and every player gets identical assignments for the first two weeks so the habit forms before anything personalizes.
The record shows who finished. A team-only leaderboard and streaks let a coach see at a glance who's completing the work and who's slipping. Without a record, an assignment is a suggestion.
The owner reads the record weekly. That could be the director of coaching or a technical director, and the job is to notice which teams have gone quiet and ask the coach what would help. I haven't run a club-wide version of this, so treat the owner role as my recommendation, not a tested result.
What can a club learn from a shared warm-up across three teams?
A shared structure works when one named person owns it and the activity is specified ahead of time. Our program has three 11U teams and about 40 kids. Zach and Shelly Netherton coordinate the program and run one warm-up for all three teams, which covers the first 23 to 25 minutes of every session.
In August 2026 we folded a 5 to 10 minute ball mastery opener into that warm-up so kids touch the ball from the first minute instead of standing around. The warm-up window grew from about 20 minutes to 23 to 25, and we made that change on purpose.
The opener has to scale to 40 kids with minimal setup. Everyone-has-a-ball juggling or lines of partner passing works, and one giant circle doesn't.
We overlay scanning by holding up fingers or calling colors, and we hold one or two priorities for weeks instead of a new trick each night. For example, juggling with a scan call for a few weeks, then two-touch passing with a turn. I flag the activity at the pre-practice briefing so the coordinators know exactly what to run.
This is a practice-night routine, not an off-day system. It shows how a club can standardize the ball work it controls, and it points to the gap that remains on the days when no coach is present.
How much work does off-day training add for volunteer coaches?
Plan on minutes per day, because many club coaches are volunteers with day jobs. With an app, I spend about two minutes a day: pick a drill from the library or upload a video, let the AI draft the description, add a coaching note and a question, and send. Without an app, the cost is one message to parents that states the assignment, the count, and the time.
I also brief my assistants for 60 to 90 seconds the day before each practice and debrief for one to three minutes afterward. A short, regular touchpoint keeps staff aligned without a long meeting. A club can copy that rhythm with its coaches.
Clubs that want a shared record without building one can look at Train Daily for coaches and clubs. Coaches assign the day's drill from a video library, players complete it in the app, and the coach sees completions on a team-only leaderboard. I co-founded it, so weigh my view accordingly.
How should a club launch off-day training?
Start with the first two weeks. On my team, every player gets identical assignments for the first two weeks, so the habit forms before anything personalizes. A club can do the same: one assignment, the same for every team in the pilot, and no customizing until the routine holds.
Then tell parents what is coming, in one short message. In week one, my Friday message to parents ended with three sentences about what the kids could do on Sunday and where to find the work. A club can send one version to all its pilot teams, so families hear the same plan from every coach.
Set a first benchmark of 75% of players doing 75% of the work. That's the number I plan around, and I haven't tested it across a club. Use it to spot teams that are far below the mark, then ask those coaches what would help.
What results has a club reported?
One coach reported 47 players and more than 100 hours of drills in a single week. He put it this way on the Train Daily coaches page:
"We have 47 players using it and in just the past week, they've totaled more than 100 hours of drills. I don't know what they'd be doing without it, but I doubt it was practicing." Seth Reynolds, Parkersburg PRYS
That is one coach's report from another club, and I can't verify it independently. On my own team, 13 of my players used Train Daily in the two weeks before my season, and on day one their touch was way ahead of the same team a year earlier. That's my observation as their coach, not a controlled test. I don't promise improvement, because it depends on things outside any app's control.
Who pays for off-day training in a club?
Train Daily offers clubs two routes: the club pays directly, or parents pay. Club-paid accounts start with a 30-day free trial. Individual teams are free for the coach, and parents sign up and pay on their own. Current prices are on traindaily.com/coaches, so I'm leaving numbers out of this post.
What privacy and compliance questions should a club ask?
Ask any vendor how it handles children's data before you roll it out to a roster. Train Daily is COPPA-compliant: it requires parental consent for players under 13 and collects no child emails under 13. Coaches and club admins see only roster information they already have, and players see only their own team.
Your club's own obligations on SafeSport, background checks, and data privacy sit with your governing body and your legal counsel. This post isn't legal advice, so confirm requirements with them.
What don't I know about running this across a whole club?
I coach one team. The 47-player result comes from another coach's club, and the shared warm-up covers only the first 23 to 25 minutes of practice. I haven't tested how many coaches a club can bring onto one format, or how a director's weekly review works in practice.
If you try it, start with a few teams, watch which ones stay active, and keep the coach's cost at a couple of minutes a day.
Want the team-level version first? How youth soccer coaches can get players to practice on off days covers the assignments I give, the 75% completion plan, and how I make completion visible to the roster.
What to do this week
- Write one assignment with a skill, a count, and a time limit, and share it with the coaches as the club format.
- Choose one way to see who finished, whether that's an app or a shared tally.
- Name one person who reads the record weekly and checks in with any team that goes quiet.
Frequently asked questions
How can a youth soccer club get all its teams training between practices?
Give every coach the same assignment format (a skill, a count, and a time limit), a shared record of who finished, and one club-level owner who reads it weekly. I use this format on my own team and haven't tested it club-wide.
Who should own off-day training in a club?
Name one person, such as the director of coaching or a technical director. That person reads the weekly record, notices which teams have gone quiet, and asks the coach what would help. Coaches own the assignments, and the club owner owns the follow-through.
How long should club off-day assignments be?
My plan for ages 9 to 11 uses 15 to 30 minutes of ball mastery on days without practice, with a skill, a count, and a time limit in each assignment. I haven't tested other age groups, so older teams may need different lengths.
How do you get coaches to use an off-day system?
Keep their cost to minutes. With an app, I spend about two minutes a day, and without one it's a single message to parents. Start with a few teams, share what the director sees in the record, and add teams once the routine holds.
Is a training app safe for players' data?
Ask the vendor directly. Train Daily is COPPA-compliant, requires parental consent for players under 13, collects no child emails under 13, and shows players only their own team. For your club's own obligations, check with your governing body and legal counsel.
