Football practice for 4–7 year olds: what actually
Your four-year-old wants to play football. So does your seven-year-old, and they need completely different things from you. Five practices that work for both — and what to stop worrying about at each end of that range.
The best practice at this age doesn't look like practice
Search for football practice for young children and you will find cone grids, numbered stations and rotation diagrams. Most of it is built for a coach with twenty players and a whistle. In a garden on a wet Tuesday,
with one child who has been at school all day, almost none of it survives.
What children this age need is simpler and harder to sit still for: touches. Thousands of them. A child who has kicked a ball five hundred times this week is further ahead than one who has correctly completed a passing pattern eight times. The ball should be at their feet far more often than it is at yours.
Four to seven is a wide range, though. A four-year-old is learning that the ball goes where their foot sends it. A seven-year-old is starting to notice where everyone else is standing. So each practice below comes with a way to grow it, rather than five separate lists.
with one child who has been at school all day, almost none of it survives.
What children this age need is simpler and harder to sit still for: touches. Thousands of them. A child who has kicked a ball five hundred times this week is further ahead than one who has correctly completed a passing pattern eight times. The ball should be at their feet far more often than it is at yours.
Four to seven is a wide range, though. A four-year-old is learning that the ball goes where their foot sends it. A seven-year-old is starting to notice where everyone else is standing. So each practice below comes with a way to grow it, rather than five separate lists.
Five practices worth ten minutes
1. Traffic lights
You call green, amber, red. Green is run with the ball, amber is slow dribble, red is foot on top and freeze. It looks like nonsense and it teaches the hardest thing at this age: stopping a moving ball under control. A child who can do that can receive a pass, turn, and keep the ball.
How it grows. At four, call the colours slowly and let them stop any way they can. By six, add "reverse". By seven, stop calling and start pointing, so they have to keep their head up to see you.
How it grows. At four, call the colours slowly and let them stop any way they can. By six, add "reverse". By seven, stop calling and start pointing, so they have to keep their head up to see you.
2. Beat the grown-up
Stand still. Make yourself easy to beat. Let them dribble past you, then celebrate like it was the last minute of a cup final. Children learn to take players on by succeeding at it over and over, not by being tackled. The confidence to run at someone is the thing we cannot coach into a ten-year-old who never had it.
How it grows. At four, be a traffic cone. At five or six, shuffle sideways. At seven, close them down properly and let them lose it sometimes - by then, losing the ball and going again is the lesson.
How it grows. At four, be a traffic cone. At five or six, shuffle sideways. At seven, close them down properly and let them lose it sometimes - by then, losing the ball and going again is the lesson.
3. Knock the bottles over
Three empty bottles on a wall or a bench. Strike the ball at them. Move back a step each time one goes over. A target that visibly falls beats a goal that does not react. Children keep striking because something happens, and you get clean contact practice without ever saying "plant your standing foot".
How it grows. At four, close enough that they score constantly. By six, far enough that they have to mean it. At seven, call which bottle before they strike.
How it grows. At four, close enough that they score constantly. By six, far enough that they have to mean it. At seven, call which bottle before they strike.
4. Two goals, no rules
Two jumpers, two goals, one ball, both of you. No positions, no throw-ins, no offside. Play until someone is out of breath. This is the most valuable ten minutes on the list. Every decision a footballer makes - where to go, when to shoot, what to do when someone is
close - only exists inside a game. A practice with no opponent cannot teach it.
How it grows. At four, you are mostly a defender who keeps falling over. At six, actually try. At seven, add one rule and only one: three touches each, or you must score in one touch inside the area.
close - only exists inside a game. A practice with no opponent cannot teach it.
How it grows. At four, you are mostly a defender who keeps falling over. At six, actually try. At seven, add one rule and only one: three touches each, or you must score in one touch inside the area.
5. The one-touch ladder
Not keepy-uppies. Catch after one touch, then two, then three. The target is never the number. Chasing a big keepy-uppy count teaches most children that they are bad at keepy-uppies. Catching after a set number of touches gives them something they can finish, every go.
How it grows. At four, catch after one, off the bounce. By seven, weak foot only, or thigh then foot then catch.
How it grows. At four, catch after one, off the bounce. By seven, weak foot only, or thigh then foot then catch.
What to expect, honestly
Ten minutes is a long time when you are four. Two good ten-minute goes in a week beat one joyless half hour, and stopping while they still want another turn is the whole trick - at seven as much as at four. Expect no straight lines. Expect the ball to go over the fence. Expect your child to want to be in goal for reasons known only to them. None of that is a problem to solve. A child who associates a football with being corrected will stop picking it up, and that is the only outcome at this
age that is genuinely hard to undo.
What you are watching for is not technique. It is whether they go and get
the ball again.
age that is genuinely hard to undo.
What you are watching for is not technique. It is whether they go and get
the ball again.
Where this goes next
Everything above is built for one child and a parent who is not a coach. What it cannot give you is other children.
Sooner or later a child has to work out what to do when someone else wants the ball, and that only gets learned against players their own size. Our Minis sessions take players from four, in small groups with UEFA-licensed coaches, at Goals Tolworth. First session is free, and nobody minds if your child spends most of it wanting to be in goal.
Sooner or later a child has to work out what to do when someone else wants the ball, and that only gets learned against players their own size. Our Minis sessions take players from four, in small groups with UEFA-licensed coaches, at Goals Tolworth. First session is free, and nobody minds if your child spends most of it wanting to be in goal.
