Key principles

The suggested approach is based on some key principles:

Streaming teams… eventually

We believe that there are pros and cons of both streaming your teams by ability (e.g. having A, B and C teams) and having mixed ability teams. The best environment for player development is probably to have exposure to both types of football, i.e. sometimes be playing and training in streamed teams where their team mates and opponents are of similar current ability, and sometimes in mixed ability groups. The fact that leagues are streamed into A, B and C divisions from under 11 onwards means we are also likely to want to stream teams eventually. Our recommended approach to doing this is on the next page.

Train together always

We can’t avoid our age group being split into 2 or 3 squads/teams on match days but we can all continue to train together.  We know that this can be difficult logistically but strongly believe that it is worth working hard to keep all teams in your age group together. This means not only training at the same time/place but also mixing teams during training on a regular basis or for part of each session. The most successful age groups are the ones who stay together.

Children develop at different rates

This may seem obvious but there are lots of factors which affect development. We need to support all children, whether they are early or later developers.  Your ‘best’ players at under 8s will not necessarily be your ‘best’ players at under 16s. A key priority is keeping all children playing and giving them time for that development journey to work itself out. In particular, related to this, all age groups should offer development football alongside league football for those players who would benefit from this, i.e.  friendly games where the other players on your team and the opposition are evenly matched to allow them the chance to be involved in games.