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Portable Plastic goals Corners The corners are the most important part of a plastic goal. This is where the strength is needed to keep the goal in shape and prevent the crossbar from dipping and the goal looking like it is made from plasticine! The larger the goal the more this matters. An 8ft or 12ft wide goal will not...

The Outliers   In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell came up with the 10,000 hour rule, which he considers the key to success in sport, business, and lots of other fields. His argument is that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, with the quality of practice also being key. He refers to many...

A coach without a set of cones is like fish without water! The humble cone is the foundation of many coaching drills and it does sometimes feel like a set of cones is the coaches left arm. But what to do with those cones? There are thousands upon thousands of cone-based football drills out there and here are 10 of...

The Bleep Test The Bleep Test, also known as the beep or multistage fitness test, is a method of testing the fitness and aerobic capacity (stamina) of an athlete. It is used by military and police organisations worldwide. From a football point of view, it is an extremely useful tool to determine the fitness of a player. What is The...

Challenge Your Players In a recent youth football game, the team I coach were 6-0 up at half time but in truth, it could have been more. About 10 minutes into the game I asked the team to retreat to halfway when the opposition goalkeeper had the ball so the opposition could practice playing out from the back. This is...

What size football do I need? I cannot stress enough the importance of choosing the correct ball size for youth football. This is one area of football equipment you need to get right. How many times do you see small children trying to kick a size 5 ball around, nearly tripping over it because it is too large? The FA...

At grassroots level, players sometimes get placed in positions based on their physical makeup – the fast kid is a winger or striker, the slow kid is a defender or goalkeeper, and so on. At a young age, if you label a player as a defender then what's the problem? Well, placing young players into positions too early might only expose...

There is nothing more enjoyable than scoring goals. So how can you score more goals? There is no magic formula, but there are some simple tips to help increase your chances of scoring goals. 1. Technique - First Touch All players must have a good first touch to get the ball under control quickly. However, the key is to make...

Does anyone remember their younger days? Football in the streets or a park from first light to last. We all have fond memories of those days but drive past any park today and it is highly likely that there won't be a football in sight! You will also struggle to find anyone playing in the street. Kids just don't do...

Game Realistic Warmups I was at a 7-aside grassroots game recently where one team did a rondo and a short passing exercise as part of a warmup. The game kicked off, and for the rest of the game, they kicked the ball long to their striker. It left me wondering why they focused on shorter passing for the warmup when...