Shouting From The Sidelines

In this episode, we look into the fascinating world of the Relative Age Effect and its implications for young football players.

We discuss the issues that can come for early and late developers and how parents and coaches can offer support.

We explore how birthdate can influence a child's athletic development, opportunities, and potential pitfalls in the youth football world.

Whether you're a seasoned football parent or new to the game, understanding this phenomenon is crucial for supporting your child's journey in football.

We'll also provide actionable tips to help you navigate this often-overlooked aspect of junior football that continues to play a big part in the development and enjoyment of young players.

Are you a coach who still teaches dribbling, passing etc in isolation? i.e. without defenders on in a game-situation? Are you a parent who watches their child's football training sessions and sees nothing but kids dribbling around cones or passing in two's? It has long being believed that we need to teach young players 'skills', 'the fundamentals' before we can put them into a match. But there isn't any research or evidence to say this is the best way. There is, however, loads of research into how the fundamentals can be developed in a way that actually makes kids better at football. In this episode we look at that and explain the best way for children of all ages to be taught the basics and how it is time for more coaches (and parents) to see a better way of training junior footballers. Credit to Rob Gray for loads of information on this area. You can listen to the episode of his podcast discussing the study here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/58qIslhHeSajj0b1OSoH1j?si=XlK1o8QYTRSrLHuZmweP3A Join our football classes in Leeds: 5-14 year olds - https://www.foot-techacademy.co.uk/football-sessions 2-4 year old (pre-school football)- https://www.foot-techacademy.co.uk/3-4-year-old-football-training 121 football coaching - https://www.foot-techacademy.co.uk/1-2-1-coaching School holiday camps - https://www.foot-techacademy.co.uk/school-holidays

Imagine playing professional football then having it all taken away in one moment.

Luke Lyons went from grassroots football to academy through to professional.

As as a youngster he was highly regarded at Leeds United and was part of the league-winning u18 side that had many players who have since gone onto big things in professional football.

He eventually played professional for Airdrieonians FC in the Scottish Championship after a short stint with Bradford Park Avenue.

Unfortunately, he had it cruelly taken away from him due to injury and is now coaching the next generation with his time split between coaching at Foot-Tech, Leeds United and Notre Dame College.

He sits down with us to tell his story of all the ups and downs along the way.

We discuss:

• Why junior footballers DO NOT need to be in academies at 5 years old to make it (he is proof of this)

• Why joining a grassroots team later in Primary School actually helped him

• How playing street football (even when in the academy system) massively helped his development

• What he wishes he’d have done differently when playing for Leeds United Academy

• The difference he sees with high-level grassroots footballers compared to academy kids

• How his parents helped and supported him (plus advice to current football parents) 

• What he learnt from playing against Jude Bellingham

The way he sees football going in the future and how we need to develop kids for the future game

And much much more.

This was such a great chat and there’s loads for parents to take away from it.

We hope you enjoy listening.

Easily one of the most common things parents ask us - how can I get my child to tackle? It’s a tough thing to coach in football terms. It can come down to mindset and mentality BUT the good news is there is something parents and coaches can do to help youth players. It’s a little tip that can also be applied to many other areas in football, not just tackling. Have a listen and comment with any questions.

We've learnt a lot about child development and parenting in almost a decade of running Foot-Tech.

And we've learnt so much over the last 12 months when we've been going into primary schools to deliver PE.

It's been an eye-opener to see some general changes in children which we think are a concern for them now and most certainly in the future.

Listen to find out our 2 biggest worries and what parents can do to help.

So many youth footballers are made to play in 1 position which they are then led to believe is 'their' position. Young players miss out on so much football development as a result. Playing in multiple positions helps improve players technically and tactically. Whether you're a coach or a parent listen to find out why this simple thing is so good for the individual player and the team as a whole.

Looking to help your child become a more confident with their football?

In this episode, we'll share four expert tips to help kids of all ages and skill levels improve their game.

Listen to understand more about some really simple, easy to do things that we've found to help children improve not just for football but their overall fundamental movement and confidence.

For any more advice just drop us a message and don't forget to subscribe to the show.

A question we get asked a lot - what separates an academy footballer from the rest?  

We've been lucky enough to watch many academy teams both in the UK and abroad.  

We've also coached players who are in or who have been progressed to a professional academy.  

Check out this episode if you're interested to know what our thoughts are on the biggest differences based on our own experiences.

Development Centres...

What are they? What should you do if your child gets asked to go to one and are they worth it?  

We discuss it all in this episode of Shouting From The Sidelines.  

Football Development Centres don't all have great reputations and some are just not worth yours or your child's time.  

Things are hopefully improving but there are still things that parents needs to be aware of.  

#If you have any questions after listening to this just drop us a message.

Do you teach them skills?

What about ball mastery?

These questions seem to be on the rise recently.

We think it is down to parents seeing more of those ‘Insta kids’ doing all kinds of flicks & tricks on social media.

They then assume that is what a good footballer looks like - most of the time they are wrong.

Ball mastery has been around for 20+ years but it has only recently started to creep more into grassroots team football.

For some, it is seen as revolutionary.

For those in the know (i.e. those who do their research 😉), it is pretty dated and there are much better things that kids can be doing to improve.

We’ve spent time at pro-academies recently who have also moved away from it.

We were big believers of individual ball mastery and very much used it at our sessions when we first started.

But then we realised there was a better way. That’s when we changed to the more street football style approach.

In this short episode we discuss:

What is ball mastery

What it good and bad about it

Why we stopped doing it

What your child should actually be doing instead

Football trials can be great experiences IF players are prepared for what to expect.  

In our latest podcast episode we give our best tips for preparing for trials and how your player can get the best out of the time they have.

Listeners of the podcast will have heard us bang on about the important of exposing children to a wide variety of sports at a young age.

We believe there are 3 things that can really help the overall athletic development of a child:

• A chosen sport
• A donor sport
• Play

We discuss what all this means and the proven benefits.

As always, remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review.

Did you know that Germany have just completely revamped their approach to grassroots football?  

They have introduced a lot of new things including adopting a game called Funino.  

Funino is a game first developed by legendary coach, Horst Wein.  

The style of game helps to develop junior footballers but also ensures a lot of enjoyment.  

It is something, along with Horst Wein's other teachings, that we have implemented at our sessions.  

There is a change coming and we will see a return to street football style games with a focus on development over winning.  

Listen to find out more about this exciting development in youth football and how it might impact your child.

We never like to see our children quit.

Resilience and character can be built by pushing through hard-times, but there comes a point where quitting might actually be the best option.

We discuss all this in this episode of Shouting From The Sidelines plus:

• What to ask your child in these situations
• How to approach the coach in the right way
• Red flags to watch out for to know when the time is right to quit

Enjoy and let us know your thoughts.

What do sports superstars like Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant, Zlatan Ibrahimovic & Tom Brady all have in common?

You'd be right if you said they are all leaders in their chosen sports but...

Did you know they all credit playing a variety of sports as a child as a reason for their high level of ability in their chosen sport?

This is something we have been researching and looking into for a number of years and the info suggests that kids who are exposed to a variety of sports tend to do better both in sport generally and in their chosen sport.

Why? How? And what can you do to help your child? 

We discuss all of this in this episode.

Don't forget to review us and let us know what you think.

As always, thanks for listening.

In this episode we discuss our recent experience of taking a Foot-Tech team to a tournament.

We saw a few things which we feel need to be highlighted in order to give parents a a good idea on how to pick the best team for their child.

We discuss:

• Why putting children into positions early is NOT the best thing for them longer-term
• How constant instructions from coaches/parents can actually damage their learning
• Why we need to simply let them play

...and loads more.

Have a listen and let us know your thoughts.

Life is generally quite stressful.  

A parents life can be even more stressful!  

Now we are seeing that kids are also becoming increasingly stressed-out with with everything from school to sports.  

We sat down with Sophia Taylor from Apollo Nutrition who is an expert in all things mental-health, nutrition and stress management.  

She shares with us some great tips on how we can all manage stress to make our lives that little bit easier and also help our children along the way.

We've been doing our bit to help girls football ever since we started.

But we now know we can do more and this has led to our decision to start our first-ever girls only groups at our weekly sessions.

In the episode we discuss:

Why now?

Why we haven't done it before?

When it will start

Enjoy!

Resilience is one of the most important things for our children.

It will help them in and out of sport and there are ways we as parents can help.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why you don’t need to worry about your child catching up at school
• Why comfort zones are so bad for children
• Tips you can use to help grow a more positive mindset for your child (and you)

This was a request by one of our members.

She thought it would be good to know how and why we started Foot-Tech.

Nick and I sat down to talk all about it including what still drives us and what the future holds.

Enjoy!

Becoming a Black Belt means more than just fancy kicks and punches.

It's about a journey of building confidence, perseverance, resilience and character.

It doesn't just apply to martial arts, either.

Creating this mentality in our children will help them now and in the future. But how do we do it?

We chat to Ricky Lam, a martial arts expert and owner of Premier Martial Arts, who has trained 100's of black belts and met 1000's of parents and children along the way.

He tells us what separates the black belt children and parents from those who don't make it plus what parents can do to help their children build the habits needed to have a growth mindset.