How Children’s Football Coaching has Evolved

We used to blindfold kids because we thought it would make them better at football

This pic came up on our memories from 10 years ago when we first started.

Back then we thought we were going to revolutionise kids football training…

We had eye-patches, playing with tennis balls, balancing bean bags on their heads and all sorts of other stuff.

Why blindfolds?

We’d seen Everton put eye-patches on their academy players to work on scanning so we took it a step further

Surely if a kid can control a ball blindfolded it’ll be so much easier when they take it off!

Back then we also spent a big part of the session working on individual tricks.

It was all great fun and the kids loved it.

Of course, some learning occurred and we saw big improvements and boosts in confidence.

But we started to see that it was the things like the opposed group drills, 1v1’s and the matches at the end that were having a much bigger impact than the other stuff.

Why?

Being good at kicking a ball isn’t the same as being good at playing football.

To get better at football kids need to play more football.

The game is king & queen

That’s why we completely changed our approach to a more games-based model.

We stay as close to the game as possible when designing training sessions.

That doesn’t mean we just play matches.

It means we have activities that test skill and decision-making.

Each activity needs to tick certain boxes to meet the criteria and ensure the players get the development they need on and off the ball.

That they develop good unconscious habits and learn the fundamentals that actually make the difference.�

Over the next few months we’re going to share more of how we do things with some resources for grassroots coaches.

More info coming soon.

PS one player bust his nose in that session because he ran straight into the wall