I’m an under 8s coach, but also and more importantly a dad to an under 8 player. I’ve been shocked this season moving into u8s at the increased physicality (all part of the game I know). My question is, as coaches do we need to do more to protect players? Two weeks in a row opposition players have lost it with my son, last week he was kicked to the floor off the ball, today he was grabbed by the neck and thrown the the floor. On both occasions the offending player was subbed off (although today he was brought straight back on after 2 minutes) but can/should we do more? How do we teach kids to handle emotions better to avoid this happening? Should we have better methods of handling this? I get that physicality is part of the game, my son gets kicked a lot as he is a player who likes to run with the ball and take players on, it’s this next level of aggression off the ball that worries me! 🤷‍♂️ Questions…. What would you do if your player lashed out off the ball? What would you do if you were the ref? What would you say to my son if you were his coach? What would you say to my son as his parent in this situation?

A big welcome to the new coaches who've joined this week. Really glad you're here. Here's the question I start with whenever I work with a coach: Ten years from now, one of the young people you coach this season is grown up. Someone asks them about their grassroots football. What do you hope they say about you? Not the results. Not the league table. You. When coaches answer this honestly, it almost always comes back to three things: they felt safe, they felt like they mattered, and they loved coming. The useful part is that all three get built in small moments, not big team talks. Try watching for these at your next session: • The first thirty seconds. Who gets greeted by name when they arrive, and who just drifts in? • Who gets the jobs. Cones, bibs, captain's armband. Is it the same few every week, or shared around? • The moment after a mistake. What's the first thing you say, and what does your face do? Those three moments are where your ten-year answer is being written right now, every week. This is the exact question we open the Ethos Foundations course with inside The Dressing Room, because everything else builds from it. Coaches write their answer down in week one and keep coming back to it as they go. Your turn: tell me what age group you coach, and finish this sentence in the comments 👇 "In ten years, I hope they say I…"