Excellent summary of the rights of children to participate fully in sport

The first duty of the coach is to ensure that everyone gets to play

A study of 510 children aged 9 - 19: Inlcusive coaching leads to a positive experience

The most joyful football programme I have seen, brilliant

Letting children play gives them a chance to find Joy through Play

Sensory-rich guided-discovery stimulates opportunities for flow in training and competition

Find out more about how we can help children learn to learn

Some excellent short publications to download - on developing 'learnacy'

A community / resource on learning and learning environments

The type of environment we create is essential to the learning that takes place there

A reminder of the importance of experiencing other cultures

A look at why we do what we do - what are we trying to achieve?

Learner-centred coaching gives players better tools to produce results and a greater confidence in their ability to do so

Sitting still and listening to someone talk is a demanding and inefficient way to learn

The Observer newspaper looks at the need for creativity and expression in children's football development

Excellent set of articles/blog compiled by Paul Cooper on some of the challenges facing today's footballing children

Play Works promotes safe, healthy and inclusive learning through Play

The effects of England's obsession with pyhsical strength and speed, in terms of player development

The dangers of raising children in sterile, risk-averse and highly-structured environments

Creativity also requires convergent thinking, the ability to sharpen focus, to narrow down, to synthesize ideas and information

More free play, more divergent thinking

Inspiration - where does it come from?

How coaches and parents can help build self-esteem in football children

Some tips for coaches on developing confidence

The Guardian newspaper looks at the way we grow our young players in England and concludes that they need lots of touches on the ball and not be fussed about making mistakes when they're develolping.

A superb article looking at the Role of Discovery on leanring, and the implications for how we teach

A fascinating look at the role of neuron wiring in the development of Russian female tennis players

A superb article which challenges the prescriptive approach to teaching football children

Soccerlens contains some fantastic articles on all aspects of football from a wide variety of guest writers. This link will take you to an article Mark Carter wrote on How To Create Inventive Football Players.

A valuable reminder of the importance of making our activities relevant to football games

Developing Skilful Players: Small-sided games and play time are what's needed

Set-up by Academy Director at Watford FC, Mark Warburton, this site contains some excellent advice for coaches and players, with examples of sessions and drills from around the world.

Lots of football information, including some excellent activities - following a similar philosophy to MoF

Ignore the title, these are great drills for 3-4 year olds though

Concludes: Interventions comprising music can enhance performance by triggering emotions and cognitions associated with flow.

This article from the US Sports Academy looks at the effects of music on performance and skill acquisition

Running tracks specially deisgned to increase motivation and performance

Why the adult model of competition doesn't work for children, and what we can do instead

Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph reports on the use of small-sided games to develop skills at United's Academy

How over-coaching and the emphasis on winning stifle young players

Why the 4v4 format is the answer for youth football

A Nation Stunted of ‘Technical Quality’, or a Nation Inferior as clinical ‘Decision Makers’?

Why should our young players play small-sided football?

SSGs: Letting the Game be the Teacher

Pitch layouts and formats of SSGs in the MUFC 4v4

The case for SSGs in sport to enhance development

When should we move children up to the 11v11 adult format of the game?

Where do you put 'the score' in the scheme of things for children and what determines 'winning' for you?

Quite possibly the best football book so far... a must-read for all coaches and parents of football-children

An innovative four-sided goal which adds something different to sessions and challenges the players in new ways

The UK's leading sports agency - a shining example of how a sports development agency should operate. See the 'Jobs in Sport' page for a inspiration if you'e bored in the office...

The Children's Football Alliance is a coalition of agencies and organisations that safeguard and advance the rights of children in football.

A good resource for the football-loving mums

A warning against getting too serious too early

Another warning against getting too serious too early!

Competitive parents are taking the joy out of childhood by subjecting sons and daughters to regular tutoring at a young age

Puzzling Absence of Women As Coaches Criticized As Backward Tradition

A useful guide to help parents bring character to their family

An excellent resource: Helping you on your family journey in sport

The Kids Coach is a great resource for parents

A blog about travelling with kids

A social network for Dads with children under 5 who live around Highgate, East Finchley and Muswell Hill.

Parent and toddler sessions in Oakwood, Enfield and Grange Park