It is crucial that young players experience a fun, enjoyable and rewarding return to football. In the first of a two-part blog, Vinny Halsall, regional PE and coaching in education manager (West), outlines his three key principles for creating a positive football environment.

Never before has the saying “the only two bequests we can give our children are the roots to grow and the wings to fly” had more relevance than these unprecedented times as we deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.

My childhood memories of grassroots football, growing up in Bootle (a suburb of Liverpool), included ‘practice sessions’ out on the tarmac square (which was a triangle shape) with up to 30 youngsters, ages ranging from six to twelve, playing a variety of games.

It was filled with fun, freedom and friendships. Nowadays, we have a much more controlled programme for children to participate in grassroots football. So, how can we create the most positive environment to enable our children to thrive as they return to play what we all believe is the ‘beautiful game’?

Fine tune your philosophy

Every grassroots club should have at its core a clear philosophy which features an aim, values and methods to underpin how it aspires to support all players, families and club representatives. My club, Easington Sports FC, an FA accredited Community Charter Standard Club, has the following core values:

E – enjoyment
S – sportsmanship
F – friendship
C – competition

As society moved out of lockdown, we arranged Zoom meetings with coaches to revisit these values and consider how we might refine things, not least with the constraints that returning to the game present with ongoing restrictions. We agreed that enjoyment and friendship should be our main focus (which took me back to my childhood days).

Person before player

As we re-engage with our squads, there is a huge opportunity to demonstrate how much we are interested in our youngsters as individuals. Every neighbourhood, every family, every child, will have their own experiences of Coronavirus.

Part of our responsibility is surely to support children and their parents/families as we move back into regular practice sessions and matchdays. I would encourage a strong focus on the social corner with the following mantra shaping our behaviours: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Focusing on the social and psychological corners is a good general guide in terms of how to approach your planning. For our first session back with U12 players we greeted each other with a foot-shake dance which is great fun whilst also meeting COVID-19 guidelines and avoiding handshakes and fist-pumps.

Children are the curriculum

When considering what our ‘return to the game’ programme looks like, it is crucial to recognise that the children haven’t been involved in organised football for at least four months – more than double the normal summer months.

What will the children most want to do? I would suggest have fun and play games with their friends. Well-designed game-based activities have many benefits:

• they enable development in all four corners (social, psychological, physical and technical/tactical)
• they maximise activity time and ball-rolling time
• they provide a structure which allows coaches to connect and interact with every child using ‘drive-by’ praise and encouragement.

In doing the latter, there is no better time to embrace our FA Respect mantra: 'We Only Do Positive.’

In sharing with you the first three of my six key principles built up over 32 years as a qualified coach, I hope to promote lots of thinking and discussion around how we might work together to give our children the best experiences possible to sustain their love of the game as we return to football. In and through the game, we really can give them “roots to grow and wings to fly”.

Author biography:

Vinny Halsall is currently FA regional PE and coaching in education manager (West) and he has worked for The FA for five years. Prior to this Vinny was a secondary school PE teacher for 26 years while also being a part-time FA tutor for 17 years and an FA mentor for a couple of years. The main influences throughout his career have been the many inspirational colleagues that he has had the pleasure of working with in education and at The FA. Vinny believes strongly that ‘every day is a school day’ and that there is always something to learn, not least from our mistakes and less positive experiences.