As a parent, you want what’s best for your child. That’s true in every walk of life, including football – a sport which elicits plenty of passion and feeling in adults and children across the county.

Any parent with a football-mad child dreams of their son or daughter playing professionally one day. Of reaching the Premier League. Of walking out at Wembley in an England shirt.

Not many children go onto achieve any of those things. And those who do will have had the love and support of their family to get there. Which begs the question – how did they do it? How can I help my child become a better football player?

SIGN YOUR CHILD UP FOR FOOTBALL TRAINING SESSIONS

There are countless football training academies operating across the country which offer players the chance to have weekly sessions with FA qualified coaches. Being taught by experienced professionals with a strong background in the game is one of the best ways to help your child become a better football player.

Football academies such as We Make Footballers cater for young players of all abilities. Whether you need an enjoyable environment for your child to take their first steps in the game or you’ve got a player who is looking to further their abilities, having them train under the wing of an expert will deliver significant improvements.

Coaches can identify areas of a child’s game that need to be worked on and devise training plans which do just that. They can help prepare a player for trials for a club, knowing exactly what it takes to get scouted but most important of all, they’ll deliver football in a fun manner.

After all, players tend to perform best when they are enjoying themselves.

HELP THEM AT HOME

Practice makes perfect is one of the world’s oldest sayings and it is applicable when it comes to helping your child become a better football player.

After all, there’s only so much football that a child can play under the supervision of FA qualified coaches and at their local grassroots club. A player won’t reach their potential if they’re simply relying on the couple of hours a week of contact a week that they get at training or on matchdays.

Cristiano Ronaldo famously practiced for at least five hours a day on his own to achieve his status as one of the world’s best players. Now nobody is saying that you need to devote that amount of time to kicking a ball around with your child – even as little as 10 minutes per day playing in the back garden can lead to a huge improvement in their footballing ability.

Click here to check out some great online coaching content that you and your child can use at home!!!

ENCOURAGE THEM

Ultimately, the most important thing that a parent can do to help their child become a better football player is offer encouragement. You often see an adult telling their child off because they haven’t yet mastered or a skill or because they’ve made a mistake. This is detrimental to their enjoyment of the sport and ultimately, their ability.

Children learn best when they are confident and encouraged. Give them praise for trying and understand that failure is all part of the learning process; when something goes wrong, the best thing a child can do is learn from their mistakes. They won’t do that if they are too afraid to make mistakes in the first place through fear of failure and the telling off that comes with it.

Many children fall out of football because playing it is no longer fun. Parents have an important role to play in ensuring that doesn’t happen, by always encouraging and nurturing a love of the sport.