The mission names parents. A player’s environment is a coach two evenings a week and a parent every other hour: the sideline, the car, the kitchen table. This page is what we ask of you, and why.
Six words. That’s the whole job on the drive home. Not a preamble to feedback, and never followed by “but.”
A child leaving a game is spent and raw. It is the worst moment for analysis and the moment most of us instinctively choose for it. If they want to talk about the game, they’ll start. Then the job is to listen, not to assess.
No analysis of the goal, the miss, the referee, or the coach’s decisions.
“Why didn’t you shoot?” is heard as an accusation whatever the tone.
Not to a teammate, not to a sibling, not to last week.
A parent who coaches in the car undoes an hour of a player being asked to decide for themselves.
Twenty-four hours, and let the child open it.
Ask about food. A hungry child asked about football remembers the conversation badly. A fed child asked nothing will often start talking about the game on their own.
A parent shouting instructions does the same damage as a coach shouting instructions. Every “pass it!” removes a decision from a child who was in the middle of making one.
The player who tried to beat someone and lost it deserves the loudest noise of the afternoon.
Including a good goal against us. Especially that.
“Let’s go, Sofia” is support. “Sofia, pass it” is coaching.
Often a teenager, always doing their best, and the children are watching how adults treat someone in authority.
One voice. A disagreement happens later, away from the field.
Distance helps everybody, including you.
Development is slow and it is not a straight line. These are the things that change, in the order they change.
Look for: they want to go back. They kick a ball around the house. They try the move and laugh when it fails.
Look for: the ball stops being a problem. Both feet, without you noticing. They practise a move in the driveway nobody asked them to.
Look for: the head comes up before the ball arrives. They can tell you what they saw. They know when to take someone on and when not to.
Look for: the skills hold up when it’s hard and when they’re tired. They can explain their own plan. They lead without being asked.
Every session at FTBL is built around one theme, and every theme has a question. We post it each Monday. It’s the one thing worth asking on the drive home, once, if they want to talk.
One of the ten. The others come around every ten weeks, four times a year, for as long as your child trains here.
Within two days: one true thing a coach saw, where we’d start, and why.
A written plan with your child’s name on it.
A family review. Your child in the room, the plan on the table, what changed since last time and the next thing, chosen together. Fifteen to twenty minutes.
Ask any coach what tonight was working on. You’ll get the same answer from all of them.
Not in a meeting, not in passing, not as reassurance. A player is compared to the standard and to their own last page.
No club, no college, no minutes, no timeline. What we promise is the work, and you can watch it.
