How to coach kids football (Soccer)
Thoughts on coaching kids football by FA Qualified Football Coach Paul Butler, for Blues Talk
Above all else, teaching kids’ football should be fun for all concerned. Yes, it’s about playing football. Well obviously! However, coaching junior football also helps young players to mix with others, communicate better and build self-confidence. In other words, there’s more to being a junior football coach than just winning matches.
The FA provides a wealth of information and guidance, most of it for free too. Plus, once you are on the coaching pathway there is a number of online courses on the England Learning portal to help you develop and grow depending on the type of coaching you might want to pursue.
The first step is a 4-hour free online course entitled EE Playmaker by England Football. It’s a great introduction to coaching. It gives anyone thinking of taking up a coaching role the basics, or indeed if you’re supporting someone else who coaching kids football. Once completed you can look at taking it further with the Introduction to Coaching Football Course and so on.
You might choose to remain as a junior football coach when your own child has grown up into adulthood. You may want to follow them and coach a youth squad and then a senior team. You might find it interesting to work with those with disabilities or work with teams abroad perhaps. There’s certainly enough choice when it comes to the coaching pathway.
Everyone who is working with young players under the age of 18 is required to be checked for a criminal record. You need to hold a valid Emergency First Aid certificate and you are also required to take a course relating to Safeguarding. This protects both the child and indeed you.
Anyone can find an age-appropriate football coaching session online. There are several smartphone apps which provide ideas too. However, as a coach, you need to understand why you are teaching specific skills, how to do it correctly so that they remember it and how to review progress. Ask yourself, who is to blame if a player doesn’t put into practice on a match day what they have learned during training?
Coaching football is a huge topic. Ultimately you can be an average coach or a good coach. However, you need the right tools and support to be able to become a great coach though and the FA together with other qualified football coaches are there to help. The resources available have been developed and updated over many years. Taking the knowledge and expertise from thousands of highly qualified football coaches from across the world to help you improve your game, your team, yourself.
Being part of the coaching community is an honour. Genuinely, there is no greater feeling than seeing the look on a child’s face when they make a save, successfully defend against an attacker or score an absolute worldie.
I’ve done it for 20 years. Coached kids from 7 to youth football and then in to the senior game. Go on, it’s fun, give it a go.
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