Another weekend of grassroots football being cancelled due to the horrible weather. I honestly can’t get my head around why leagues aren’t suspended at this time of year, and they try futsal instead? Oh well, we get the girls who know and supported by the parents who want to stay warm and dry!!

We had a new girl come and try futsal for the first time – welcome Miesha – we hope you had fun and look forward to welcoming you again very soon!

Well, this season was brilliant but total chaos. Four 1v1s on the court together, which then became 2v1, 2v2 etc, in fact anything. I love watching sessions when it is totally chaos and players are concentrating loads on what they are doing. The court was mental with players and ball going everywhere, but the outcomes were superb, seeing players go from just madness to starting to think about solutions to eventually producing some fab play. I always tell my players I will never give them all the answers, they are expected to work out some, if not all of it, for themselves.

Click the image below to download this weeks session plan

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Naomi L – well what can you say about this young lady! She is an absolute delight to coach and has the ability to go with it, happy to answer questions and tell the coaches they are wrong! She is always thinking of ways to ‘bend the rules’ in her favour, which we absolutely love! 

2nd Session – Jessica W – this is a top goalkeeper in the making – brave, agile and determined, great qualities in any player. She performs at the highest of levels week after week and we can’t wait to see how she develops over the coming years!

3rd Hour – Hattie F – another fab session from Hattie, her pace, especially in recovery is simply scary but she has also found her voice with clear and confident communication to all her teammates, brilliant to see and hear!

4th Hour – Imogen T – still new to futsal Imogen is gaining confidence each week. She has such good feet and very happy to take players on in a 1v1 situation, and a great finish to match. We like what we see, and we are looking forward to working with her in the future.

Final thoughts of a coach – The weather is a constant amongst parents and coaches at grassroots football! It has been a terrible November in the UK and so many matches have been cancelled. I have a note on our website that says we can organise friendly futsal games at a day’s notice, for any age group, on our website, it’s only been there for 5 years…and guess show many times I have been contacted…once!

As a grassroots coach I was always looking at challenging my players in various ways, they all played different positions – believe me that took a while to convince the parents, entered different tournaments in different locations – get out of your area/town/county, and trying different formats of the game – we won a futsal tournament when we didn’t really know what we were doing. I guess most grassroots coaches are doing so because of a family member, and a weekend off is seen as a chance for them to spent time with the rest of their family, so the chance to try different ideas is very alien to them.

I believe for futsal to develop, the County FAs must really push it, to support futsal leagues across winter, financially if possible, and show to the clubs the real benefit. Who pays for this investment – the FA and the professional game. There is so much money in football at the very top, so surely, we can have a little. On well, off my soap box, and back to what I love, fingers crossed someone higher up one day realises how much the kid love playing this game…

Coach Chris