Haha he loved that car!

For most European countries. For England it’s September-December

Best thing you can do is open up communication with them and explain how they can support but unfortunately some parents still won’t care. You control what you can control and that’s at least speaking to them

Yeah. Not sure why we do it like we do but the RAE is still a problem whether birth year or academic year it seems - really interesting topic!

Well done 💪

Yea thank you for the staff that train us

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jamie 👍

Thanks, James. Glad you’ve taken some ideas from it 👍

Some great points there. Appreciate you sharing. Definitely about letting them make the decision but us coaches guiding them with things like you’ve said. Issue with the 2 touch rule is the bad habits it can embed at the younger ages. What happens when they have 2 touches? They then stop because they aren’t allowed 3rd touch! Absolute madness when you think about how that doesn’t transfer to the game at all. No need to use rules that don’t exist in a match. Thanks again for the feedback and sharing your views 👍

Glad you took something from it, Alan ⚽️

That’s a shame but at least you’ve: 1. Had the self-awareness to recognise the issues 2. Been humble enough to admit it Too many would be ignorant to their behaviour and/or wouldn’t admit it. Hopefully you can convince him to carry on with his football and you can simply enjoy watching him for many years to come 🙏

Very welcome. Thanks for listening

Yeah it’s a good point. It’s looking at the difference between being a parent who ‘forces’ a child into something because they know it’s good for their well-being and the parent simply wants them to be healthy etc. And then the parent with a kid who wants to do an activity but then the parent takes all the fun out of it because they become too obsessive.

Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed listening

It comes down to context. Are they trying to make more forward passes? Are the passes just sideways or backwards with no real use? What if they made 1 pass straight to the striker and you score a goal? We’d say focus more on the purpose of the passing then assess things from there. Data like completed passes is fine but it can be misleading depending on what the context is. Hope that helps. And thank you for the positive feedback 👍

That makes sense thanks, mainly passes are sideways or forward with a focus on Midfield possession but through passes when on make a lot of sense alright...... Last question I have been working on shape with and without posession as a group rather then individually do u think that's a better approach thanks

@@Sp-mv5ki doing it as a group will make more sense to the players as it's closer to what they'll be doing in the game. Ideally, you'd do it in a realisitc training match - 9v9 or 11v11 etc - you could then (if you wanted) give individual players information specific to them and their role within the team shape but doing it in a game-situation would hopefully embed the learning. This way means they get an idea of what the shape needs to be in and out of possession and in relation to where the ball is on the field. Just our opinion but hope that helps.

Excellent thanks very much we will continue to work on that.... Keep up the good work great channel and enjoy the content very much

Thanks, Robert. Glad it was helpful ⚽️

Hi, typical Funino pitch (the game at the end) is 25m across and 30m long so work from that. You may decide to vary the size of the first 2 games to work on different things or to suit the ability level of your players. Bigger areas = might be easier, more opportunities to dribble. Smaller area = might be more challenging, less touches, quicker decisions needed. For ease as a coach starting with the same pitch size above means you can literally just pick up some cones and you’re into then next games. Hope that helps

Trying to work out what age you must be to have such a good knowledge/experience of every childhood generation from the 1950’s to now 🤔

@@FootTechAcademy I've got the same amount of knowledge/experience you have to make sweeping generalized statements with no evidence. Difference is I'm not making KZbin videos about it

@@FootTechAcademy I've got the same amount of knowledge/experience you have to make sweeping generalized statements with no evidence. Difference is I'm not making KZbin videos about it

@@personalsigh we coach over 1000 children every week, work in 8 primary schools through the day and have been teaching/coaching for 20 years. This is our opinion based on what we’ve experienced as well as countless chats with people in educational settings. Does it apply to all children? Absolutely not. Have we noticed a general change from when we started to now? Very much so. You’re very welcome to agree or disagree but our views are our own and always from our experience 👍

@@FootTechAcademy if it doesn't apply to all children then don't make content that implies such! Be better! As a parent and a teacher who had seen many many more children in their 30+ year career I can tell you that kids are kids they were the same in 1995 as they are today. Some are arseholes some aren't. Full stop.

Really appreciate the feedback - thank you. Great question. Short answer is no. Longer answer… We get a lot of requests for 121’s for children as young as 4-5 and we turn them all away. You’ll have plenty of cowboys out there who will happily convince parents to part with their money for 121’s for this age but we know, from experience, they aren’t worth it. The best thing for football at this age is more group sessions. The trick is finding a good environment for your boy with the right coaching and right ability level. The group training gives him what he needs at this age to get better at football so long as it meets the criteria above. Ability level could mean you find somewhere with high ability or possibly even slightly lower ability whereby he might get more touches and can try more things but still in an opposed environment. Truth is, you could get him out to the park and do the things he’d need in a 121. If you’re out with him focus on dribbling and ball striking (make it fun, not serious - set him little challenges etc) but if you want another formal session for him try to find a group session. Happy to send you some ideas if you need them. Another idea would be to round up his pals on a weekly basis and hire out a pitch for them to just play - kind of the street-style approach when we were kids. This can be great. Lastly, you might find if he’s training with a grassroots team then adding 1-2 sessions with City, he might be best just playing with you on his non-training nights or just generally playing and being a kid. Can be tempting to overdo it once a club comes along but it’s so important that he has time to be a kid. Let him lead it. He’s still so so young. The more it feels like play for him the better. All the above is just our opinion but I hope it helps. Good luck to the little man ⚽️

@@FootTechAcademy Thanks for your input it’s greatly appreciated. Yes I’ve had mixed opinions when reached out to various people about this . But I’m swaying towards not going down that route at this age . We are lucky enough to live opposite a field and have spent hours together training the fundamentals together since him being very young . I’m sure many will agree it’s quite challenging coaching your own child but as you’ve said nice learnt keeping it fun is most important and when he learn the most . He currently trains with city on a Monday and his grass roots team on a Thursday and has matches on Sundays . I’m debating looking a getting him into some fun child based strength and conditioning sessions with his sister in the area just to get him doing something different that’s going to help with his movement and strength and to break up all the football he’s currently playing . As much as we all want him to do well I’m very conscious it can all become to much for such a young child

@@pettdogg8943 another sport or activity can be great for his physical development. See your time on the park with him as less a coaching session with Dad and more a kick around. That’s where little challenges can work wonders as you’ll get him doing specific things but in a fun way. Challenge-reward can work really well. For his ball striking it could be he has to hit the back of the net with no bounce 10 times in a row then he gets ‘X’. Loads of ways to do it but the second it becomes a training session with dad is when you might lose him - particularly as he gets older. Strength & conditioning isn’t really a thing at his age - it’s about movement so you could look at things like athletics, gymnastics, basketball, tennis etc. It all helps with his athletic development and overall love of moving. The great thing about sports like basketball ball, rugby etc is that they are invasion games just like football so he’d be playing a different sport, getting all the physical benefits but also improving things like his spatial awareness which can help his football. There’s no magic, one-size fits all approach. The key is environment, right ability level, good coaching and making sure he enjoys it.

Depending on ability levels and ages, here are some ideas: Arrival matches - get them into small-sided matches as each player arrives. This keeps them moving, gets them ready for the session and allows you time to see how many players have turned up so you can amend your plan if needed. 1v1 work - great for developing dribbling skills under pressure as well as some football fitness. Try to use goals where possible. We have loads of ideas you can use if you check our channel under the 1v1 playlist. You could add GK’s into your goals to give the players more decisions to make. Games-based activity - an activity using more players and closer to the game. Check our games-based football drills playlist for loads of ideas but use overloads, underloads etc to add different challenges. These ones will also mean more opportunities to develop passing in the right context. Small-sided matches to finish - Leave them to play and possibly add a ‘big’ match at some point in the same format they play at a weekend. You can also condition these games for a period of time - 1 touch, 2 touch etc - to work on certain things. Hope that helps. We’ll do a video going into more detail ⚽️

Be careful with rondos - rondos without a purpose or consequence aren’t overly effective compared to more representative drills

@FootTechAcademy a typical rondo we would do would be 4v2 with a pugg goal either side, if the 'piggys' intercept the ball it becomes a 2v4 breakout towards either goal, would you consider this consequential as its transitional with direction?

@@danegrindell5784 tough one as the 4 aren’t really playing a representative game (assuming you’re asking them to simply pass around the 2 and not aim to score). Could be better setting it up with the goal either side but the 2 can score in either goal and the 4 can only score in 1 of the goals. It’s like when players are asked to make ‘5 passes before you can score’. The issue is, what if the best pass is available but they’ve only made 2 passes? It becomes passing for passings sake. Could possibly set them a scene like ‘we have 30 seconds left of the World Cup final, we’re winning 1-0 and we need to keep the ball’ which might make it feel more appropriate but we’d say it’s always better that each team has a target to aim for whether that be to score a goal, make a pass to a teammate etc.

We’d vary it depending on the ability level of the players 👍

We vary it depending on the age/ability level of the players but you could keep the width (for example) roughy the same as you’d use in your match format but feel free to vary it for different challenges 👍

Thanks for the feedback - glad you enjoy the videos. Love the points about encouraging the right things and how language can have a big impact. Perhaps more context needs to be given as playing out from the back can be quite a generalist phrase (and maybe a better headline for the video is needed 🤣) but the point isn’t that kids are left to just boot the ball up field. It’s about how there is a growing obsession within grassroots that kids play out from the back, play through the thirds etc to the point where it’s almost become frowned upon to score a goal from a long ball. If a long ball (not an aimless kick) is the right pass to make at the time, this should be seen as a positive because the player made the right decision. There are still plenty of teams who blast the ball up to the striker no matter what. It’s boring and might not do much for developing players but they’d argue it’s effective for them and opposing teams should be coached in how to deal with it. Defenders should be scanning (or communicating with their environment) all the time regardless of whether they are under pressure or not - this should be encouraged but also be unconsciously developed with the right activities so it becomes automatic for every player. Remember, scanning isn’t only about seeing defenders. It’s also about looking for space & teammates and it doesn’t matter whether a player has the ball or not. They need to be encouraged to keep looking, keep checking whats going on with and away from the ball. Obsessing over playing out from the back means goal keepers & defenders will develop an unconscious habit of only looking so far. What if the goal keeper is way off their line and the CB could score? What if the striker is in loads of space in a threatening area and your keeper could play a long pass to them? Encouraging players to keep the ball, play through the thirds etc etc is fine but encouraging playing forward first (if it’s the best decision) regardless of whether that is short or long, is (in our opinion) a better thing for development. Think longer-term, in the future we’ll better equip players to have better technique to execute the right action at the right time. If we simply want them to pass short for passing’s sake we rob them of creativity and developing more facets of their overall game. I too used to believe we should play a certain way. The ball should be played on the floor, short passes, through the thirds but we had our eyes opened at a course in Amsterdam a while ago that really challenged the conventional thinking. We’ll do a video on that soon. Thanks again for watching and please do comment and challenge our opinions as this is often how we all learn 👍

@@FootTechAcademy Yep, pretty much agree with everything you've said there. We do tend to come up against the route one aspect more than anything else, and when I coach a lot of the thirds work, I will always say we must play forward to score so if you can see a pass that is more direct , then play it. In our girls team we actually have two very quick wide players but our more target based strikers aren't particularly quick so we work on both hold up play, but also if our midfielders , or in fact our defenders see a pass into space behind a high line, then to definitely hit that pass. I do focus on possession football a lot though because we have a varying degree of composure across the team and I don't want the girls kicking the ball away or out, so they need to stay composed on the ball until a pass is on so i generally place one restriction is that they cant blast it away or kick it out for a throw. I totally agree though , that obsessing over playing through each third will no doubt be counter productive as essentially we want to kids to be imaginative too don't we ? great content

Not too sure where we’ve said scanning isn’t important when playing out from the back? The whole idea of the video is around making sure kids aren’t taught to have tunnel vision and instead how we should help them understand the importance of looking at the whole picture and making the best decision from there. i.e. if the best decision is to play a pass to the most advanced forward player instead of playing out from the back, do that instead of playing a short pass out from the back because it looks prettier. Activities without goals/target players essentially become a rondo without a purpose, which is passing for passing’s sake and not how kids should be taught to play. The best activities are those that develop the right unconscious habits that best help a child in a football context. Activities without goals (and therefore without a consequence when they lose the ball) are not game-contextual. That’s not to say coaches can’t use games without goals but many grassroots coaches only have a short time with their players so the idea should be to maximise development. You do that with activities that are as close to the game as possible which then helps develop the right decision-making skills and game-related techniques. A lot of of we discuss is based on the science of learning via an ecological approach i.e. learning is enhanced when children train in an environment that closest resembles the game. This is of course just our approach based on what we have learnt and read over the years but the beauty of football is that all coaches have a way of training/developing players and it’s always interesting to hear how others view things so thank you for commenting with a detailed reply 👍

couldn't agree more, if there is a pass forward into space or feet, play that first, if not , the players off the ball needs to move to create space, either backwards, sidewards or forwards, hence it helps scanning if defenders have to have the ball under pressure.

100%. Unfortunately some kids are being coached in a way where they become petrified to play the right pass because it doesn’t fit into what the coach’s ’philosophy’ is

Link not working. Not clickable, not a link, can't copy it either

@@bearnecessiteespolio5359 not sure why it isn’t working but head to our channel and you’ll see How To Coach Scanning vol 2 for the full video 👍

@@FootTechAcademy great got it, thanks

Could do but the chaos that's created by having more players with a ball at the same time also helps with the scanning elements. One way we adapted it to work on passing within the game was to simply add another attacker into the area who the other attackers could use if they wanted. This way we now have them scanning for team mates, space, the goals and defenders. But try it out and see what works best for your players and what they enjoy the most. Hope that helps.

Thanks Luke

www.sambasports.co.uk/5-x3-Aluminium-Folding-Goal.html By far the best we have used. Not cheap but last for ages and can be sent back to Samba to be maintained. Hope that helps