Philosophy

The Football Football programme is based on the philosophy that:

  • All children should have the opportunity to access age appropriate football programmes independent of ability
  • The children are central to the programme. It is essential that children are:
    • Always having fun
    • Always engaged
    • Always learning new skills
  • Children should have the freedom to play and learn without pressure from coaches or parents
  • Learning is more important than winning

All the stakeholders will be expected to sign up to the core beliefs of the philosophy which the programme will support by the following principles:
  • The programme will be delivered across the UK at accessible venues
  • All children between the ages of 5 and 12 will be eligible to play independent of gender or ability
  • The programme will incorporate the principles of the FA “RESPECT” campaign
  • The sessions will be organised within 2 year age groupings
  • The games will not form part of league tables and the competitive element will be the natural desire to win each game
  • There will be a minimum of 90% of time spent in practical sessions with all “game” formats following a small sided (5v5) format
  • All children participate for the whole session, substitutes are not allowed


The Football Football programme utilises a variety of learning theories including:

Child centred approach: one of the major reasons children play football is for the human movement experience, and the excitement and indescribable feeling that comes with it. That sense of ‘play’ that used to pervade the physical activity of children has arguably been diminished.

Sport has been dominated by a system where the needs and interests of adults have over taken those of the children where they seem to make all the important decisions and are mostly devoted to winning rather than the process of developing our children.
 
In a child centred approach there is a games focus where children share success and failure; they learn how to trust each other and to care about each other’s ways of competing and making decisions. It aims to develop children who are independent and active learners who acquire a lifelong love of physical activity, football and health.
 
Freeflow: developed by Coach Malcolm Cook, Freeflow looks at empowering players and preferred learning styles. Some people are visual learners, some are auditory learners and others kinaesthetic learners.
 
Guided Discovery: the coach asks questions to ascertain players grasp of elements of the game rather than giving the answer first.