Individual football training has its place but it’s not a magic wand

Training like this is good for reps & can boost confidence but it’s realistic reps that make the difference come game-day.

It’s great to see kids slamming it in the top corner on social media during 121 training but it only counts when they can do it with defenders and a GK to deal with.

It also comes down to what other football training a child is doing.

Take Annabelle here.

She does group training minimum 3 times per week plus 1-2 matches.

A 121 every so often is a good addition as she already gets plenty of ‘real’ football training.

121’s can help with those little extras.

She moved to the right side of a forward three this season so wanted to work on cutting inside to shoot with her left foot.

Massively out of her comfort zone and something she’s not had do a lot of before.

So we start simple with plenty of reps and completely unopposed.

All fine but remember…that mannequin can’t tackle!

BUT she’s been told time and again (with anything we’ve ever done with her) to try these things in her group training whenever she gets chance.

There will be less reps but the reps she does get will count more as she’ll learn so much from each one compared to this style of training.

If all she did was this she’d get really good at dribbling around a mannequin but she wouldn’t get much better at the game of football.

Side note – Annabelle scored with her left foot the other week 💪

Home/121 training is way better than doing nothing but it’s sometimes miss-sold.

Truth is, a lot of younger players will benefit more from doing extra group training in the right environment with good coaching.

121/home training can help boost confidence in certain areas and give good players those extra 1-2 percents.

But a lot of players, particularly those not doing much group training or new to football, don’t need the extra 1-2 percent.

They need the important foundational stuff that makes the biggest initial difference.

Parents, if your child needs help and you’re struggling to know what to do – speak to us about how we can help ⚽️

#foottech#121training#leeds#kidsfootball#grassrootsfootball