As the saying goes: “you’re never too old to learn”.  Well you’re never too young either!  In fact, how you introduce your young player to the game of football will set the foundation of how they feel about it in the future.  You should encourage as many people in your family to engage with them in football so that they realize how important it is to your household.  It shouldn’t just be one person taking the lead, but all people in the family.  Keeping different sized and different material footballs in each room of the house will encourage a natural interest in practice and they will learn what type of ball striking and control feel right.

 

It is important that young players develop resilience and the will to win, but understand that they can’t win all the time.  They need to understand that whether they win or don’t win, there is something they will be able to learn that will help them improve.  They need to be able to embrace that part of the game and, if they can, they are starting to develop the mentality that they will need to enable them to reach their potential.