How to run a video review session with a youth soccer team
Watching yourselves play can teach a youth team more in ten minutes than a whole practice of explaining, as long as the session is short, focused and positive. Here is a simple format that works from about under 10 upwards.
Keep it short
Attention runs out fast. Around five minutes for under 10s, ten to fifteen for under 12s, up to twenty for teenagers. It is better to stop while they still want more.
One theme per session
Pick one idea, for example "playing out from the back" or "what we do when we lose the ball", and choose four to six clips about it. Show a clip of it going well first, then one where it didn't, then another where it did.
Ask, don't tell
Pause the clip just before the moment and ask: What can you see? Where is the space? What would you do? Players remember what they work out for themselves. Let the player in the clip answer first if they want to.
More good than bad
Aim for more clips of things going right than going wrong, and never single out one player's mistakes in front of the group. Individual corrections are for a quiet word, with the clip, one to one.
Take it straight onto the pitch
Run the session just before practice and make the first drill about the same theme. Seeing it, then doing it, is what makes it stick. At the next game, look for the same moments and show the team the improvement.