Helping your son progress in football: 9 essential tips.

Author: Ali Abdallah

Do you want your boy to become a professional footballer? Are you having trouble moving it forward? Or you're just running out of time. If you dream of seeing him world champion, he will have to improve. Football is very selective. Helping your boy get better at football can be overwhelming and difficult. You certainly lack time, knowledge and pedagogy. Do not be afraid ! In this article, we give you 9 tips to help your son progress in football.

Getting your son to progress in football: 9 essential tips

What makes a good footballer?

This question is difficult to answer. Each player has his strengths and weaknesses in football. Nevertheless, we can identify some qualities common to great players.

A good footballer is the one who adapts best to the maximum number of game situations. goal.

To adapt to a maximum of situations, whatever their position, must necessarily be:

• tough and fast;
• good technically and tactically;
• psychologically and socially sound.

Even if your son is a goalkeeper, he has to be tough enough to withstand all the little effort for 90 minutes. And yes, relaxing on a high shot in the 5th minute is easy! But repeating this gesture at the 90th is another story.

A good footballer is therefore a complete footballer!

Before giving you the 9 tips, we explain why your boy should start football very early.

To break into football, you have to start as soon as possible

"Everything is decided before the age of 6" writes Dr. Fitzhugh. According to him, everything a child does before this age determines his adult intelligence.

To make your boy a future professional footballer, start as early as possible.

Around the age of 2/3, familiarize them with the footballing environment. You can take it to the stadium to watch a match, for example. And when he plays, encourage him to use the ball with his feet.

When he is 4/5 years old, start applying the tips you are given right after.

9 tips to make your son a footballer

Make him love football

If you miss this step, your child will never make football his career. A professional devotes his life to football: he lives in the city of the club in which he plays, trains regularly, follows a strict diet and rules.

Easier said than done, you might say. Yes and no actually...

This step can be very easy. What young person doesn't like football? Show him the exploits of Griezmann or Mbappé, or buy him a France team jersey, so that he has stars in his eyes .

However, that won't be enough. It will really be necessary to make him like this sport.

To do this, play with him and cheer him on! For example, when you play in your garden with him, value each of his small actions. Whether it's a dribble, a strike or a header.

Above all, if he is wrong, support him. There's nothing worse than a parent yelling at their troubled child. He misses a shot? Tell him it's okay.

And please help him in the right way. No “shoot better” or “make better passes”. Your child will not understand. It is therefore necessary to give him clear indications.Instead, try saying "with the flat of your foot" or "more force in your shot." These examples are concrete and applicable.

Now that you know how to get your son to love football, you need to pass on the right state of mind. We see that right after.

Give him the right mindset

Loving football is (very) good, having the right mindset is better.

When your kid plays football, he will absolutely have to have certain psychological qualities.

With the pressure and the stakes of high-level sport, it is unthinkable to be angry or disrespectful. Indeed, the image of the player and the club is at stake. You must therefore transmit values ​​to him, such as: respect for the referee, fair play, humility...

These are essential in a training center. If your child insults the referee, and a scout is around, he's ruining his chances of being spotted.

To do this, correct him when he gets angry, and have him officiate matches.

We will now explain how to improve your son's level in football.

Contextualization, or the most important element

This is the point that everyone misses. But that's the most important.

To put it simply, contextualizing football is: making training look like match conditions.

Thus, for each exercise, add at least one element found during an encounter: time pressure, an opponent, a partner, a target to defend, a target to attack and boundaries.

Does your son pass? Put a defender at the mark on the receiver. He shoots ? Set up goals for him to defend.

If you don't contextualize, your child will never reproduce the gestures he repeated in training.

Making passes without opponents is easy. But doing the same thing while tired with an opponent chasing you is less so!

You definitely need to contextualize.

You know the basics to make your child a future football master. So we move on to more specific aspects.

Improve his game vision

A technical player, who does not see the positioning of other players, is a bad player. It is enough to dribble in the wrong direction to waste a scoring opportunity.

We give you an example of exercise, to improve your toddler's game vision:

• with colored dots, make a circle 5 to 10 meters in diameter;
• your child positions themselves in the center of the circle;
• at the signal (“green!”), your child runs towards the cone concerned;
• have him repeat the exercise 10 to 20 times.

Read the next part to help your son progress technically!

Advancing him technically

This is the element that fascinates the most. We are all amazed in front of a roulette wheel that erases two players. Beyond the spectacular aspect, the technique is a service to the team. Thus, a player who eliminates two defenders, puts his team in a position of numerical superiority.

Here too, we give you an exercise (simple to set up):

• place cups in line and equidistant from each other;
• your child must slalom with the ball between these cups, with a time limit (contextualization!);
• adapt the exercise methods: outside of the foot, inside of the foot...

Warning, even if your son is a goalkeeper, make him work on his technique. The goalkeepers, participating more and more in the construction of the game, must have better footwork.

Being technically good without letting your team benefit from it is useless. We give you the solution just below.

Advancing him tactically

You're going to need several other players here. Do not hesitate to ask the children around you to take them to play. They'll appreciate it.

Once you have enough people (4/5 players), you can work on the different football positions. On a space, organize a match where each player must respect the area where he is. Place cups to delimit: defense, midfield and attack.

You have everything you need to train your son on your own. However, you cannot do everything. So now we have to choose a good club for him.

Criteria for choosing a good club

By choosing a good football club, you are ensuring quality monitoring for your son. So don't waste all your training. Choose a good club! We show you the criteria for choosing a good club:

• the level: choose a club playing at the regional level (R3 minimum);
• the presence of young section: U7, U8, U9, U10, U11, U12 and U13;
• the level of qualification of the coaches: check if they are qualified;
• the reputation of the club: find out from the inhabitants of the city;
• the attitude of the coaches: go watch some training;
• infrastructure: the number of pitches and equipment;

You've been told almost everything. There are just two small elements missing.

Get him used to physical exertion

High-level football requires great physical effort. Many players practice several times a day. And some, chain the championship, the champions league and the cups.

You are not being asked to make your boy a future athlete. But get him used to physical exertion. To do this, set up games. This is one of the best ways to work on your endurance and speed. Above all, do not run it around a track. He will be bored and hate the effort.

Go for games like Mover or Relay instead.

Only one point left to make your son a future Premier League star.

Don't force it, otherwise...

Don't act like those parents who place their dream on their child. In addition to ruining his life, you will reduce his chances of seeing him play on television. Indeed, your child will not force himself for you.

If he doesn't want to play don't force him, and if he can't, don't yell at him.

Besides, don't spend your time playing soccer for him. Discover with him other activities: reading, music or cinema.

So don't force it, otherwise it will take another path.

You got it, making your son a footballer is not easy. You have to invest. However, if you have the right reflexes, you will get ahead of all the other contenders. Do not hesitate to apply all these tips.

Ali Abdullah.