Kevin Middleton Profile picture
Jul 19, 2025 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
When coaching stoppages, do you only focus on the player on the ball?

For example, the player is struggling to win their 1v1. You stop, coach them, and then restart play?

What about looking at the bigger picture?

The player on the ball, the players around the ball, and the players away from the ball.

🧵Image
2/

To break this example down further:

Your wide player struggles to beat their defender, so you coach them on how to do that.

They then cross, and if your furthest away wide player is standing still instead of making a back post run, do you stop the play again to coach their movement?

And if the type of cross is wrong, do you stop again to coach the cross?

It's a flippant example, but everything is connected in football.Image
3/

If you were to consider coaching on the ball, around the ball, and away from the ball, then it would be one stoppage.

One stoppage, with three quick coaching points, with maximum impact.

and this would be throughout all phases of the game. In the image below, around the ball we have stability to counter-press if we lose the ball.

A really important consideration in this phase of the attack.Image
Players who understand how their actions and their inter-actions impact the team will see the game differently.

Every stoppage is a choice between fixing a problem and building understanding.

I've found that if you choose understanding, the problems will fix themselves.

You connect actions to outcomes.

If you choose to constantly stop and fix problems, players may lose contact time with the ball and tune out of sessions, learning very little.Image
All this information is taken from courses in my community.

So, learn the what, why, and how in the Football Coaching Academy.

Check out the How To Coach Technique and 360TFT Game Model courses there:

skool.com/coachingacademyImage

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More from @coach_kevin_m

Nov 20, 2025
For me, coaching isn’t about running through exercises and ticking boxes.

It’s about creating the conditions where learning sticks.

So how do we do that? 👇🧵 Image
2/

At the youth level, especially, our job is to build technical fluency and decision–making through purposeful practice.

Not paint–by–numbers sessions where kids follow lines and rules, and never learn to think. Image
3/

The aim isn’t to make players predictable; it’s to make them adaptable.

That means how you coach matters just as much as what you coach.

What Makes Coaching Effective? Image
Read 14 tweets
Nov 19, 2025
Grassroots Coaches!

Every parent is unique, but across thousands of coaching interactions, I've found that patterns have emerged

Here are my 8 parent types that you may have to deal with when coaching

(Warning! You may recognise yourself in one or two of them!)

👇🧵 Different parent types
2/

Type 1: The Supportive Parent

The ideal parent who understands development, trusts your expertise, and provides positive support.

Characteristics:

- Asks questions to understand rather than challenge your methods
- Focuses on the child's enjoyment and development over results
- Provides positive sideline support without instruction
- Communicates concerns privately and respectfully
- Volunteers help appropriately without oversteppingSupportive Parent
3/

Type 2: The Anxious Protector

A genuinely concerned parent whose anxiety about the child's well-being creates hovering behaviour and excessive worry.

Characteristics:
- Frequent questions about a child's happiness and inclusion
- Worry about physical challenges and potential injuries
- Concern about the emotional impact of criticism or mistakes
- Reluctance to allow the child to face appropriate struggles
- Need for regular reassurance about the child's progressAnxious Protector
Read 11 tweets
Sep 18, 2025
Lost count of the number of times I've been at a youth game and heard this phrase:

"🤬We worked on this at training last week "

Why Youth Football Development is like reading a factual book

(Hear me out)

🧵 Image
2/

When you read a factual book:

- Initially, you're just seeing words on a page that may make very little sense

- If you re-read or read on further, the words begin to associate with concepts

- By the end of the book, the words connect to layers and layers of different conceptsImage
3/

And if you reread the book:

- You start to think ahead of the page you are reading as the dots connect quicker in your head. Image
Read 12 tweets
Sep 13, 2025
My experience

The players who master the ball at 8 become the players who are still playing at 18.

All surfaces of both feet.

Ball Mastery isn't optional. It's the foundation everything else builds on.

Master the ball, stay in the game 🧵
2/

and Ball Mastery can be done anywhere, anytime. Players are freed from only touching a ball at an organised training session

"But, there are no defenders"
"He won't use this in a game"
"His eyes are down"

I despair when I hear these things.

Do you think the Real Madrid kid in the first Tweet just magically happened to be able to manipulate the ball with both feet and 3 different surfaces of both feet in the 1v1 and then 1v2? And could do so in a:

Balanced
Coordinated
Controlled
Comfortable

manner, while retaining the ball with the correct weight of touch?
3/

I doubt it.

Ball Mastery helps you get 100's of reps to build a love for the ball, so when you are learning a move or going into a 1v1 that involves using both feet or any part of them, players are not doing so from a standing start.

Will static or even some functional ball mastery moves be used in a game? No.

Will the game require players to be comfortable using both feet and all parts of those? Yes
Read 7 tweets
Sep 11, 2025
Technique about everything 💪

So how do players get from mastering the ball in the foundation phase to what you see in the video?

🧵

1/

Can you imagine how many hours of

- Juggling
- Ball Mastery
- Football

These players have had to invest to get to this level?

Thiago and Rodri have spent most of their lives doing this.
2/

So how does this even apply to my u8's, Kevin?

Well, I'm still reading coaches who are overly focused on the tactical, instead of the areas above.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 5, 2025
"Kids don't want to win."

A huge myth in Youth Football.

They absolutely do.

They just don't want to be DEFINED by the result.

Here's my experience of what adults get wrong about youth competition.

🧵 Image
1/

Kids forget the score 10 minutes after the game.

Some adults obsess about it for days.

Who has the healthier relationship with competition?

Children naturally focus on the experience.

Some of us teach them to focus on the OUTCOME. Image
2/

So what do kids actually want?

- To feel successful and capable
- To improve and get better
- To have fun while competing
- To be part of something exciting
- To celebrate moments of brilliance
- To try their best without fear Image
Read 9 tweets

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