As a first-time grassroots coach, keep it simple: get your safeguarding check and a free entry course done, plan short sessions built around games, give every child a ball and equal game time, and talk to parents early. You don't need to have played to coach well.
You don't need to have played
Most grassroots coaches are parents who said yes when nobody else did. Children at this level need an organised, kind adult who keeps them busy and keeps it fun. Tactics can wait.
Your job in year one: everyone gets lots of touches, everyone plays, nobody is shouted at, and they want to come back next week.
Your first week checklist
- Ask the club secretary or welfare officer about your safeguarding check (DBS in England, PVG in Scotland) and the club's codes of conduct.
- Do the free entry course: EE Playmaker in England, or the Scottish FA Introduction to Coaching. See our coaching badges guide.
- Find out your age group's format: Future Fit formats by age.
- Get a list of players (first names and initials are plenty). Snap the club's team sheet and Gafferbook fills your squad in.
- Set up a parents' chat and send one clear fixture message. Our fixture message tool writes it for you.
Your first training session
Plan about 60 minutes: a warm-up game with a ball each, one main practice, then a match. Kids learn most in the game, so give it at least a third of the session.
- Warm-up (10 min): Traffic lights or Sharks and minnows.
- Main practice (20 min): something with goals and decisions, like 2v2 four goals.
- Match (25 min+): small teams, lots of goals, minimal stoppages.
Not sure? Tell the session planner how many are coming and what to work on, and it builds the whole session with diagrams.
Your first match
Decide subs before kick-off so you're not doing maths on the touchline. Equal game time is the expectation in mini-soccer, and the sub planner gives you a rotation in seconds.
Keep instructions few and positive. Praise effort and brave decisions, not just goals. After the game, note one thing that went well and one thing to work on.
Let the admin look after itself
Coaching is the fun bit; the admin is what burns volunteers out. Save your squad once and Gafferbook remembers it in every tool, then just message your assistant after games ("we won 3-1, Kai was brilliant in goal") and it keeps your season record and each player's progress up to date.