Coaching the opposition: Getting more from your sessions

One of the most common frustrations in training is when a session has a clear objective, but the outcomes don’t quite match it. The practice is set up well, the focus is clear, but the situations you want to see either don’t happen often enough or don’t look like they do in a game.

 

A big reason for that is often overlooked: the opposition in your practice are not being coached.

 

In small-sided games or opposed practices, coaches naturally focus on the team or unit they are working with. The detail, interventions and feedback are all directed at them. But if the opposition is passive, unrealistic, or inconsistent, the practice loses its value.

 

To hit the ‘three Rs’ - realism, relevance, repetition – as well as intensity, both sides need a clear purpose.

 

For example, if your session is focused on playing out from the back, but the opposition sits back in a low block, the in-possession team lose any form of realism or challenge. Players don’t need to problem-solve, or move or pass with intensity or purpose. So, realism starts with behaviours.

 

Coaching the opposition changes that. Giving them clear roles, triggers and objectives makes the practice feel real. It forces your focus players to make decisions under the same conditions they will face in a game. In the above example, you can set the out-of-possession team a challenge to win the ball in their attacking third for a bonus goal, which will naturally get them pressing higher up, increasing the challenge and realism for the in-possession team.

 

Relevance comes from aligning both teams with the session objective. The opposition should not just be there to “make up numbers.” They should be part of the problem your players are trying to solve.

 

If your focus is defending crosses, the opposition needs to be coached to deliver from wide areas with intent. If your focus is pressing high, the opposition needs to be coached to try and play through or around that press. This creates a genuine contest, where both teams are working towards something meaningful.

 

When players can see that both sides have a purpose, the session becomes more engaging. It feels less like an exercise and more like a game.

 

Repetition is where the learning really happens, but it only works if the right situations keep appearing. If the opposition is not consistent in their approach, those moments might only happen once or twice in a session.

By coaching the opposition, you can increase the frequency of key moments. You are not scripting the practice, but you are guiding it. You are creating the conditions for the same problems to appear again and again, giving your players multiple opportunities to learn and improve.

 

This is particularly important for team who only train once or twice a week. You need to maximise every minute. If a key scenario only happens once, the opportunity for learning is reduced. If it happens repeatedly, players start to recognise it, anticipate it, and deal with it more effectively.

 

Intensity is another area that improves when the opposition is coached properly. If one team is unclear on their role – or feel like the session isn’t really aimed at them - the game can become flat.

 

When both teams understand what they are trying to achieve, the level of competition increases and the session lifts without the coach needing to constantly intervene.

 

There is also a psychological benefit. When the opposition is active and purposeful, success becomes more meaningful. Players know they have earned it. That builds confidence in a way that unopposed or passive practices don’t.

 

Coaching the opposition doesn’t need to be complicated. It might be a brief instruction before the practice starts, a quick reminder during a break, or assigning a clear objective to that team. It could even involve giving leadership responsibility to a player within that group. If you have more than one coach available, one can be responsible purely for managing the opposition.

 

It also requires balance. The aim is not to overload the session with detail or turn it into two separate coaching plans. The focus remains on your primary objective, but the opposition is shaped just enough to support it.

Over time, this approach ensures that what happens in training starts to show up in matches. Players are better prepared because they have already experienced those situations, at a realistic tempo.

 

Coaching is often about small details that have a big impact. Paying attention to the opposition in your practices is one of those details.