How We Maximise Learning In Kids Football

We only have a short time with our players so we need to maximise learning

What we could do is make it so it ‘looks’ like they’re learning by getting them to pass in 2’s, dribble around cones and do loads of drills with no defenders.

‘Performance’ in those things will be high i.e. the kids would be pretty successful at doing it.

But just because they can perform those things, does that mean they’ve learned anything?

Not exactly.

Sure, they might take a bit but those sorts of activities miss one vital ingredient that’s needed to really maximise learning…

Decision-making

Football involves other kids trying to take the ball from the child who has it whilst that child tries to find a way to get the ball into or closer to the other teams’ goal.

That child needs to make a decision based on what’s going on then execute that decision with a shot, pass, dribble etc.

So to truly maximise learning football we need to stay as close to the game as possible whilst adapting activities based on ability.

This is how we do it because we need to make sure we squeeze as much learning as possible out of the time we have with our members.

If you’re interested in some of the science behind this check out the paper by Dr Mark Williams:

Effective Practice and Instruction: Skill Acquisition Framework for Excellence (SAFE)