This is Draft 1. Every session is a draft for the coach to correct. The game designs are suggestions, and the positions in the diagrams are estimates. Change anything that does not fit your children, your space or your club.
What this is
Goalside is named after the coaching phrase “get goalside”: stay between the ball and the goal you are protecting. It is an independent project by a coach with a UEFA C Licence. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, The FA, UEFA or any county FA.
A six-week-block curriculum for volunteer coaches of children aged 5 to 11 (U5 to U11): 7 age groups, 6 blocks each, 6 weeks per block, which makes 252 sessions. The first block of every age group (42 sessions) is free; the other 210 are in Goalside Plus. Each block builds one theme across six weeks. Every session has three coaching points, a kit list, a run list and a diagram for every activity.
How to use a session
Read the three coaching points. They are the only things to call during the session.
Check the kit list and the table Different numbers?, then set up. Arrival activities need almost no set-up, so the first children can start while you build the next area.
Run the stages in order. Each stage has a diagram: press Play to watch it. In the diagrams, blue players are the children with the ball or the attackers. Yellow players are defenders, a partner or a second group. Red is a goalkeeper or the coach.
Each stage ends with a question to ask the children. Ask, do not tell.
At the bottom of each session, Go deeper (closed until you open it) has optional detail behind the three coaching points: what good looks like, common faults and what to try, questions to ask and how to make it easier or harder. You do not need it to run the session.
Week 1 of a block introduces. Weeks 2 to 5 bring new games. Week 6 is for watching: the youngest ages repeat familiar games with a coach checklist, and the older ages play with a coach tally.
The shape of a session
Every session is planned as a 60-minute slot. The stages add up to about 55 minutes (54 to 57), which leaves about 5 minutes for changeovers and water. Stage lengths depend on age because younger children concentrate for shorter spells. The minutes are a proposal, not a rule.
Age
Stages (minutes)
U5, U6
7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, then 12 (free play)
U7, U8
8, 10, 8, 8, 8, then 14 (game)
U9, U10, U11
8, 12, 8, 12, then 15 (game with a condition)
The challenge stages do not have to be timed. A streak, a race to a target or a points game works too, and many of them say there is no timer.
Safety and looking after children
These notes are general. They do not replace your national association's or club's rules, your coaching qualification, your safeguarding training or a first-aid course.
Safeguarding. Follow the safeguarding policy of your association and club, including any required checks, supervision rules and consent for photos. Never be alone with a child.
Group sizes. The sessions plan for no more than six children per adult at U5 to U8, and no more than eight at U9 to U11. Check whether your association sets different ratios. If it does, follow its rules.
Before you start. Walk the area and remove glass, holes, stones and anything else that could injure a child. Check the weather, bring water and have a first-aid kit and a way to call for help.
Goals. Goals must be stable and secured. Never let children hang or swing on them. Stages with shooting have a safety note: balls only go towards the goal, and the area behind and beside it stays clear.
Heading. No session coaches heading, at any age.
Tackling. Tackling is introduced gently and late. Children win the ball by getting in front of it or by a fair challenge with the foot, staying on their feet, with no pushing, pulling or slide tackles.
Children first. Stop any game that is getting rough, tell children to stop if they feel unwell and keep every child involved. Praise effort and trying things, not only winning.
Kit
Every session needs only balls, cones and bibs. The kit list at the top of each session says how many cones you need at once (never more than 12), plus any goals. Where a goal is listed you can use a small goal or two cones. Stage kit lists say exactly what each activity uses, and a drawn line means either a pitch line or a line made with cones.
Formats and ages
The age groups follow the England FA youth formats for 2026 to 2027 as they were when this was written: 3v3 at U7, 5v5 at U8 and U9, 7v7 at U10 and U11, and 9v9 from U12. U11 is planned as readiness for 9v9. The FA gives no format for U5 and U6, so those sessions are suggestions. Other countries and leagues use different formats, and rules change, so check the current rules where you coach and adapt the games to fit.
The season slots on the front page (for example “Sep to mid Oct”) assume a September to July season in the northern hemisphere. Move the blocks to match your own season. Blocks run in order, but you can start at any block if you keep to the order from there.
What is proven and what is judgment
Revisiting earlier games in later weeks is built in on purpose, so children meet an idea more than once. That it helps young footballers learn is plausible, but it is not proven.
The stage lengths, the playing-time targets and the group sizes are planning judgment, not research findings.
The U5 and U6 formats are not set by the FA and have not been checked against a governing body.
The game designs and the diagrams are drafts. Please test them with real children and correct them.
The Go deeper cards are drafted from standard coaching practice, with emphasis taken from FA and FIFA coaching guidance (the principles of football, passing and receiving, finishing, defending and exploiting overloads). Those public pages give principles and key factors, not step-by-step technique, so the technique wording is a draft for a coach to correct. The cards give no distances: defenders stay close enough that there is no gap to play or dribble through.
Distances and words
Distances are in metres. One metre is about one big stride, or a little over a yard. Spelling is British English. “Pitch” means field, and “kit” means equipment.
Using the sessions
Every page works on a phone, with large text and diagrams that have written descriptions. Animations stop if your device is set to reduce motion. Free sessions are ordinary web pages. Goalside Plus sessions need an internet connection to open. They load two web fonts when online and fall back to your device fonts if they cannot.