https://playing.football/why/ Recent content in why on playing https://playing.football/images/og.png https://playing.football/images/og.png Hugo en Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/two-hundred-touches/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/two-hundred-touches/ Solo repetition is how a weak foot or a scruffy first touch actually gets fixed — and it is not what separates the players who make it. Both things are true, and the difference matters. https://playing.football/why/the-training-that-happens-in-bed/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/the-training-that-happens-in-bed/ Sleep is where the week's training actually gets absorbed — and the one thing adolescents are biologically set up to get wrong. What the evidence supports, and why 'go to bed earlier' isn't a discipline problem. https://playing.football/why/the-minutes-nobody-schedules/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/the-minutes-nobody-schedules/ Two minutes on one leg while you brush your teeth adds up to about a day of balance work a year. Why the smallest habits survive a hard week when ambitious ones don't. https://playing.football/why/speed-and-what-it-predicts/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/speed-and-what-it-predicts/ Sprint speed is the single physical measure that keeps winning in the research — and the one most likely to be misread at 13. What it predicts, what it doesn't, and how much of it is trainable. https://playing.football/why/what-stretching-does/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/what-stretching-does/ Stretching is both overrated and underrated: the evidence that it prevents injuries is weak, but for a growing body it does something quietly valuable that the debate usually misses. https://playing.football/why/landing-is-a-skill/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/landing-is-a-skill/ Kids don't get injured the way adults do — they get hurt in falls, collisions and awkward landings. The programmes that teach landing, balance and falling cut children's football injuries by about half. Why that works, and what the honest dose is. https://playing.football/why/two-kinds-of-mistakes/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/two-kinds-of-mistakes/ A brave pass that goes astray and a safe pass that ignores the open run are not the same mistake — and sidelines reliably punish the wrong one. How execution errors and decision errors get confused, and what the confusion trains. https://playing.football/why/the-pickup-game/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/the-pickup-game/ Unstructured football — park games, uneven teams, made-up rules — shows up in the childhoods of future professionals more than extra coached hours do. Why the game nobody organises teaches what drills can't. https://playing.football/why/mental-rehearsal/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/mental-rehearsal/ Visualisation isn't wishful thinking — it's motor practice at low volume. What mental rehearsal actually does, what it can't do, and the five quiet minutes a young player can use it for. https://playing.football/why/video-across-languages/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/video-across-languages/ How a family and a coach who don't share a language work together — unlisted video, the player's own tagged moments, and what live translation can and can't do today. https://playing.football/why/fun-is-a-signal/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 18:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/fun-is-a-signal/ Enjoyment isn't the opposite of serious training — it's the instrument panel. Why the best few minutes of the week tell you more than the score. https://playing.football/why/the-next-minute/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/the-next-minute/ What separates young players isn't avoiding mistakes — it's the first minute after one. What the response cycle is, and how to train it. https://playing.football/why/the-car-ride-home/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/the-car-ride-home/ The ten minutes after a match shape a young player's relationship with the game more than most training sessions. What the research-backed move is — and it's mostly silence. https://playing.football/why/scanning/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/scanning/ The best midfielders don't have more time; they have more information, because they looked before the ball arrived. Scanning is measurable, trainable, and almost nobody drills it. https://playing.football/why/breadth/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/breadth/ Future professionals, on average, played more OTHER sports as kids than their peers who plateaued — and variable practice beats repetitive drilling. Why breadth is training, not truancy. https://playing.football/why/late-developers/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/late-developers/ Thirty years of talent-development research keeps finding the same thing: the kids who dominate at 13 and the adults who make it professionally are mostly different people. What actually predicts the long run. https://playing.football/why/relative-age-effect/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/relative-age-effect/ In most youth leagues, kids born early in the selection year are picked far more often — not because they're better, but because they're older. How the bias works, and the strange advantage of surviving it. https://playing.football/why/how-much-is-too-much/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 11:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/how-much-is-too-much/ There's no magic number of hours — but there are honest rules of thumb, and four quiet signals that show up before an injury does. https://playing.football/why/strength-training-kids/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/strength-training-kids/ The 'lifting stunts growth' idea is a myth — the major sports-medicine bodies agree. What safe youth strength work actually looks like, and where the real risk lives. https://playing.football/why/knee-pain/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 10:30:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/knee-pain/ The bony bump below a young footballer's kneecap that hurts during and after training: what Osgood-Schlatter is, why it arrives with growth spurts, and the work that actually helps. https://playing.football/why/heel-pain/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/heel-pain/ Sever's disease is the most common cause of heel pain in football-playing kids aged 8–14. What's happening, how to ease off without stopping football, and when to get it checked. https://playing.football/why/keeping-score/ Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://playing.football/why/keeping-score/ Why streaks, ratings, and comparison quietly harm a developing young footballer — and what to measure instead.