Technical skills

Read the special edition of The Football Coach ('De Voetbaltrainer').

The most important reason for wanting to play football again and again is the enjoyment that players experience. Research shows that the most important reasons for children to play football include the chance to make a decisive run (with or without the ball), a lot of goals, many scoring opportunities, playing as a team and winning. Winning is and remains the goal of a football match. Although this statement can, of course, be fine-tuned. In the first place, youthful footballers believe winning is less important than making a dazzling run or two and scoring plenty of goals. Secondly, it is of crucial importance that children make the most of the opportunity to learn how to play better, in order to win as many games as possible when older. The process of gradually learning to play better to actually winning games must be aligned with a child's development. 

The new game formats contribute to football enjoyment and gradually learning to play better. Fewer players per team, a smaller pitch, adapted rules of play and the implementation of time-outs contribute optimally to the enjoyment and development of youthful footballers. Good examples of the positive impact of the new game formats are more dynamic runs with and without the ball, greater involvement in each game, more situations and opportunities - predictable and unexpected - and more attacking and defensive duels.

Managing and coaching youth teams is a wonderful challenge although a challenge that bears great respoonsibility. In order to carry out these duties optimally, a certain knowledge about youth football is required. Consider football development, age-specific characteristics, supervising and coaching youthful footballers. The KNVB offers numerous training programmes for youth coaches and trainers to help them develop these qualities. Examples of these are the following: basic module, youth trainer and TC III Youth.

The youth learn to play football better and better by, simply, playing football. Making choices on your own, with and without the ball - and experiencing the consequences of that choice - leads to a fast and sustainable development of youthful footballers. In addition, the coach and trainer naturally play a role in taking youthful footballers to the next level. They are obviously the ones who supervise the youth in their ongoing development as a footballer. One way to do that is by positive coaching. In order to do this realistically and throughout every club, the development of a youth football policy based on technical skills is desirable. This policy gives purpose and direction to the vision of learning to play football, coaching and supervising, the game plan, games and training sessions. The KNVB offers the possibility to help clubs develop a youth football technical skills policy by deploying KNVB youth coordinators specialised in technical skills. 

Here you will find the KNVB youth coordinators specialised in technical skills in your region