Foot-Tech Tournament Week

Possibly the most important week of the month at Foot-Tech is Tournament Week.

This is when the children get to put into practise what they have learned.

As you’d expect, we do things a bit different.

Our focus is simply playing (see the first quote from Guardiola).

He knows a thing or two does old Pep…

But he’s 100% right and this is why on the last week of every month the players play mini matches all session.

Limited interruptions from us grown-ups

Loads of encouragement to try things and be creative

Lots of fun & no pressure

The players play in 1v1’s, 2v2’s and 3v3’s.

Small pitches are used to develop that all-important decision-making we always go on about, as well as learning the skills/techniques they ACTUALLY need…(see second quote from Pep).

We also use a game called Funino.

This is a special kind of match where we use 4 goals.

It’s used a lot in junior football across Europe and is brilliant for helping children improve.

What to watch out for:

Your child might be new to football or new to how we do things.

It may be they don’t get as involved as others (at the start) during their first tournament week.

This is absolutely fine and is not uncommon.

It is very much part of the process.

Pretty soon they’ll love it and look forward to it.

It may need some extra encouragement from you the first 1-2 times but stick with it. You and they will see the benefits.

If you have a child in reception/year 1 you may find their concentration dips a little on tournament week.

Again, this is absolutely fine and it can happen.

For the older kids, playing matches is THE best thing in the world.

For the younger ones/those new to football, matches might not be as exciting…yet!

The coaches know this and it is just a case of persistence from you and us as we know how amazing these mini-matches are for their development.

After a while all they will be asking is:

‘Can we play matches yet?’

‘Is it time for matches?’

‘When can we play a match?’

…you get the idea.

And that’s all you need to know about tournament week.