Reader,
As a Director of Coaching at a football club, writing this week’s newsletter is conflicting.
My role is to lead programmes for youth to senior football which provides a great experience for players from U13 – U23, to challenge them, support their football development and most importantly ensure they stay in love with the game.
I am confident that we do that as a club but at times, I do feel the nature of modern football environments can be overly demanding and repetitive.
In discussion with a colleague this week, he reflected that (particularly for very young children aged 5-12), in contemporary society, kids are being dragged here, there and everywhere to engage in organised sporting environments.
Parenting and coaching in 2025 is complex, arguably more complex than ever due to households where everyone needs to work, the cost of sport is higher than ever, the impact of technology in our lives, and it can at times appear as though people compete to be the busiest, or have their children ‘do’ the most activities every single week.
So what impact does this have on kids, and how should it inform our coaching approach?
Three Things to Consider
- If free play with kids down the street, “jumpers for goal posts” and climbing trees are (anecdotally) less present in the lives of children in 2025, whether that’s due to organised sport or the impact of technology and other options for kids, then we need to consider how we maintain freedom, choice and autonomy in our environments. What do the players truly own in their experience?
- Do you offer street football, mixed age groups, multisport or player-led initiatives within your programme? If every session is based on coaches designing a practice with an outcome in mind, things could get very repetitive and robotic.
- Be self-aware enough to know that every intervention matters. At times, the most powerful thing you can do is to stay quiet, step back and observe. Coaching does not mean talking or telling, be calm and confident enough to stay quiet when needed and ensure your interventions add value.
One thing to try this week
Discuss your programme with a coaching colleague. Consider the structure of the week, the design of practices, and the percentage of time the kids spend actually playing the game and decide whether you need to make changes.
This reflective activity could be the catalyst for positive developments in your programme which ultimately should be solely focussed on player experience, not results or tactical outcomes.
One Critical Resource on the Topic
Check out this fantastic article called Playful Mastery from world-class skill acquisition and coaching expert, Mark Upton on the importance of unstructured environments.
