Could a bad selection of the training content affect the motivation of the player? Before going deeper in the answer of the previous question, we will reflect on the following phrase from Horst Wein.

“Boys, girls and youth players play football with their own-size boots. It’s obvious that we won’t make kids play in adult-size boots as they will be too big’’ (Horst Wein)

After reading and thinking about this phrase, as the author says, we cannot make a child play with the same boots as an adult, therefore, the same happens with the training content.

In grassroots football, the mistake is often made by wanting to train complex content (which is beyond the player’s reach) with the false hope that the players will internalize these concepts and differentiate themselves from other children of their age. This wrong choice of content usually causes demotivation since we will be setting unattainable goals for the players due to their current level of cognitive and coordinative development.

• To take a more ordinary example: it is as if a child who in the subject of mathematics is just beginning to learn to subtract, we try to teach him to divide with decimals.

In addition, in football, as in life, each child learns at his/her pace. We even increasingly identify many differences in level between players of the same age when we compare them with each other.

So, How could we know which contents should be worked on with the players ?

For a correct choice of the contents to be planned during a season, from MBP School of Coaches we have developed different ludological tests, which will allow us to know in which ludological stage the individual is and how is their cognitive capacity with respect to their game understanding.

Once the tests have been carried out, visualizing the player’s behavior on the pitch, we will be able to recognize the player in one of the stages and sub-stages that we have defined. With this, we will know with certainty what content can be planned during the season based on the current evolution point of the player and the capabilities to internalize the following content.

At this point, the next step will be the programming of the content. Or put in another way, the horizontal and vertical organization of all the content during the season.

For this, we will use another test of our own: the developmental zone test, which will allow the coach to prioritize appropriate content with respect to the player’s needs.

Achieving a correct identification, prioritizing, ordering and sequencing of the contents to be trained, will directly lead to an increase in the motivation of the player, since he / she will be able to achieve the objectives set during the training session, he / she will feel that you are constantly progressing, and therefore they will have more fun playing.