My understanding of the FA's model is that personal possession is the most important attribute at this age. I recently purchased a book by two well-known Italian grassroots coaches and they appeared to agree. In fact, they coach shooting ahead of passing at this age, which makes perfect sense.

What I have found, in practice, with my own players, is that it pays for me to emphasise to them good examples of passing. By coincidence, on Sunday, one of the parents captured an excellent video clip from our match where three of our U8 players combined for a goal. I will now take this to training and show them what can be achieved when players think about passing.

I’d suggest that unless you have exceptional players, or are training them three times a week, at this age the focus shoukd be on ball mastery - control, run, dribble.  Passing is an essential skill but I’d suggest the FA say to focus on that only once ball mastery is there.

I’d suggest that unless you have exceptional players, or are training them three times a week, at this age the focus shoukd be on ball mastery - control, run, dribble.  Passing is an essential skill but I’d suggest the FA say to focus on that only once ball mastery is there.

I totally agree with the core skills approach. I've also found the 'less exceptional' are also the ones most likely to pass it, so I make sure to stress their contribution.

As an aside, I ran my first indoor session for some of the U7 and U8 as an extra mini-event this week. I used the floor markings to set up a rondo as an arrival game (never done one in training before). And the kids loved it! I assume because it's classic piggy in the middle stuff. Would recommend for fun if for nothing else.