The Foot-Tech Way: Our Training Explained
We’ve updated our Welcome Emails for new members and thought it was worth sharing to everyone else – check it out:
Our training is a little different than most other places but let us explain…
We want to take you back…waaaaay back.
Back to a time when kids were out playing football on the streets for hours on end.
Boys and girls of all ages and abilities got together to make up all kinds of different football games (our favorite was wall-ie!) and played 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or whatever the numbers allowed.
Those days are pretty much gone.
Due to society and technology changes you now see less and less kids out playing in the street.
The issue is, street football is AMAZING for developing the football skills that ACTUALLY make the difference.
And that leads us to the quote from former Arsenal Manager, Arsene Wenger (see image).
See, the best footballers are also the best decision-makers.
The street was brilliant for developing decision-making because there was so much happening around the playing area:
Parked cars
Moving cars
Loads of players
People walking past
Curbs, grates and grass verges to dodge
Neighbours chasing you away for smashing their window (again!)
You get the idea.
On top of trying to simply keep control of a football, we also had to understand what was going on around us so we could then make the best decision i.e. do we pass, dribble or shoot?
We played a lot more with our head up, because we had to.
We sometimes get asked, ‘but don’t you teach them skills?’.
Well, we do.
Just not the skills you see the ‘Insta kids’ doing on social media that con parents into thinking that is what a good young footballer should be doing.
And that leads us to the next quote from one of the most important people to ever be involved in the game. – Johan Cruyff (see image).
We used to spend a majority of our sessions doing ‘ball mastery’ i.e. tricks, flicks, keepy-ups, dribbling around cones etc etc.
This is a buzz word in kids football that many teams/football schools now use.
Truth is, it is a dated way of coaching and we stopped it years ago because it doesn’t work as well as our street-style curriculum.
What parents need to know is that our way looks far messier.
It doesn’t look neat and tidy with kids in lines…
…or players all doing the same trick at the same time like some sort of football version of a synchronised swim team!
Why?
BECAUSE THAT IS NOT FOOTBALL!
Football training needs to have bits of chaos, lots of things happening and drills that are designed to get kids thinking whilst working out what is going on around them.
(Remember the Arsene Wenger quote?)
Our curriculum is basically street football for today’s children.
We have a variety of games-based activities that give each child what they really need.
Group street-style games, 1v1’s, 2v2’s, 3v3’s and more.
Progress with how we do things is sometimes harder to see at the start.
But we’ve shown time and time again that it works a lot better than just teaching kids the latest ‘ball mastery skill’ – which just isn’t realistic to the game.
We don’t teach them HOW to specifically pass or dribble a ball – the activities we design show them how to do that but in a way that means they also learn WHEN to pass or dribble.
They naturally develop the skills they need because our activities force the issue.
After-all, no one ever showed us how to do a particular skill on the street.
The games we played naturally led us to learn that we needed to do certain things in certain situations.
Those who trust the process and stick with it will see their child become a better, more confident and more complete footballer.
This stuff works whether they are nervous beginners or more experienced players looking to improve.
What we also promise is that your child will be working with coaches who are passionate, dedicated and genuinely care about the development of every child they coach.
