You’ve paid the fees. You’ve kitted your child out at no small expense. You’ve got them to training, and you’re standing on the side in whatever weather the day’s thrown at you. However, do you actually know what a good session looks like?
For parents without a sporting background, that’s a genuinely hard question to answer. At WWPIS we think every parent should have some idea of what to look for, so you can tell whether your investment of time and money is paying off the way it should.
These aren’t hard and fast rules as coaching is a broad church, and plenty of excellent coaches do things their own way. But here’s what we’d encourage you to look out for.
Sessions should be fun. This is probably the single most important point on the list. A good session caters to every ability in the group and keeps everyone motivated. If your child is enjoying themselves, they’re far more likely to want to come back next week.
A good adult-to-child ratio. There need to be enough adults for the group size to keep things safe and give your child real, individual feedback, not just a place in a crowd. For younger children, I’d say 1:12 is already on the large side; anything higher and it starts to feel more like supervised babysitting than coaching. Well-staffed sessions tend to produce real, visible improvement and there’s nothing quite like the attention and feedback that comes with it. That said, ratios can stretch much higher in well-designed environments that recreate the old playground or street-football feel many of us grew up with, where coaches lean on peer-to-peer learning and hand children more ownership of their own goals.
Plenty of equipment. You want to see your child busy, actually using the kit, actively practising, not standing around bored or distracted. This isn’t about the latest professional gear. It’s about whatever’s available being used often, by everyone.
No queues, and a mix of structured and unstructured activity. The best sessions can look slightly chaotic, and that’s fine, don’t panic. Organised chaos beats a long, orderly line of children waiting behind a cone for their turn, every time. Too much structure and the session becomes tedious fast.
Well planned and organised. The very best sessions have a clear structure and clear objectives, and they flow. That comes down to good planning by the coach. You’ll know it when you see it.
A clear shape to the session. Most good sessions start with a warm-up or starter activity — often a game — move into a development phase built around clear objectives, give children the chance to practise in a variety of formats, and close with a short review recapping the key points, maybe with a look ahead to next time.
Limited talking. I’ve watched more sessions than I can count where the coach simply talks too much. Good coaching keeps instruction short, sharp and well thought out, delivered quickly to individuals and the group alike. That’s what lets a session flow, and gives children room to actually practise the feedback they’ve just been given.
The right level of challenge. Boredom is one of the biggest problems in youth sport. The stronger players in the group need to be stretched, not left repeating things they’ve already mastered. Equally, if the bar’s set too high for the less experienced players, all they’ll take from the session is a sense of failing.
Room to fail. Children need the freedom to make mistakes and try things without fear of consequence. That’s how they learn, and it depends entirely on the environment the coach creates being a positive, encouraging one.
Genuinely safe. At no point should you feel your child is at risk of injury. Every activity should be well thought through, space, equipment, opposition, all of it and if something looks out of control, that’s the moment to step in.
Don’t confuse this with risky play, though, which matters hugely for building self-regulation and resilience. What we’re talking about is emotional safety: an environment that’s safe to fail in, where children can genuinely learn through trial and error.
One of the best things about sport is that no two coaches deliver it the same way. There’s no single checklist that guarantees a great session, and plenty of brilliant coaches would tick very few of these boxes in exactly this order. But we hope this gives you a starting point — something to watch for next time you’re on the sideline, and the confidence to expect the very best for your child.
