You’ve got a kid who is already showing a love of football, so what comes next? How do you turn that love into skills, talent and hopefully a lifelong affiliation with the sport?

There are some basics that are the key to every footballing success story. Here are our five basic footballing tips.

Learn to control the ball

Controlling the ball is the most important skill that a player can have. If you can’t control the ball, then you won’t be able to do anything else – it’s nigh on impossible to receive a pass, get into a position to shoot or dribble without developing ball control.

Being able to control a ball with both feet is vital, as is the ability to use the thigh and chest when required. The best way to learn to do this is through practice.

Thankfully, that practice is easy to get. Anytime a player starts kicking a ball around, they are working on control, whether they realise it or not. It doesn’t matter whether they are practicing in the garden or at a fully-fledged session at a football coaching academy, if they are playing with a football then they are learning and improving their control.

Become a pass master

It doesn’t matter what position a player ends up playing on the pitch, you need to be able to pass the ball. That’s especially true in the era of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur, when possession is everything. Even goalkeepers must have the ability to orchestrate play.

 

The best passers of the ball make the right pass at the right time. They have the vision to see options that others might not and know exactly how much weight to put on the ball to get it from A to B with precision.

While none of that is easy, the best passers tend to be those who are the most comfortable and relaxed on the ball. Being able to relax when you are in possession can help you master the art of passing.

Dribbling with the ball

Being able to run with the ball at your feet is an important skill to have.

Dribbling can be difficult, but it can make all the difference to a player’s game as they need to be confident in various match situations such as 1vs1 challenges. It is also an important skill to have for the player as an individual.

Dribbling the ball requires lots of skills such as ball mastery, control, concentration, spatial awareness, planning and creativity! The new England DNA taught by the FA focuses on helping players become more technically gifted, as does We Make Footballers  weekly training which you can try for free!

Don’t underestimate the importance of speed and stamina

Nobody is expecting a football player to be sprinting like Usain Bolt or covering marathon distances like Mo Farah, but speed and stamina are still important weapons in the armoury of any player.

The fitter a player is, the more exertion they can put into matches. The more ground they’ll be able cover which can help in tough games and based on their position. They will also be able to concentrate for longer and ultimately have a greater chance of impacting on a game.

Professional footballers are athletes and much of their training can take place without a ball - they can also cover up to 10km in a game, so being match fit is a must!

Again, the more that your play football, the fitter you’ll become and with that, stamina increases. A healthy and active lifestyle away from the pitch helps, but ultimately if you spend your spare time running around after a ball, you’re going to become fitter anyway.

Hard work trumps talent when talent doesn’t work hard

It’s an age old saying, but hard work really does trump talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Look at some of the best players throughout the history of the game. Cristiano Ronaldo’s work ethic needs no introduction, he was always the first to arrive at training and the last to leave. David Beckham would spend hours after training had officially finished practicing his free kicks. Lionel Messi was made on the training pitches of Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy.

A player can have all the natural ability in the world, but unless they are prepared to work hard, they won’t make the most of it. And that’s probably the best football tip there is – enjoy it, work hard and love the game - and it will love you back.