Private sports coaching

[jamesh84]

Does anyone else have one to one private sports coaching for their son or daughter?

My 8 year old son loves football and I have been told by quite a few people that his skill level is above most children his age. I thought he would benefit from private one-to-one football coaching sessions.

Do any other parents use a private coach for one-to-one sessions? Does anyone know of any good coaches?

[starfleet]

Does your DS play for a team? Teams can sometimes offer one-on-one coaching sessions if the child already plays with them

My DS has one-on-one goalkeeper training, the coach is the guy who runs the keeper classes he attends.

Maybe try some kind of social media outlet i.e., facebook etc to see if anyone in your local area knows of anyone?

[iseenodust]

As with Star, DS goes to training sessions for his sport & then has an hour a week one-on-one with a higher level coach from the same organisation.

If your DS plays for a team then you'll have an idea of if he is outstanding. Word of mouth recommendation of a coach from other local parents is your best bet.

[Bowlersarm]

Ds is a pro footballer. I would say there's no benefit to having a one to one private coach in football. It's such a team sport the benefits of coaching are in drills and exercises with your team mates. We did get ds a private trainer once but that was to get his fitness up. I would say the best thing to do is sign him up to any holiday football courses you can find.

[DeWee]

It also depends on who the "quite a few people" are, and what exactly they mean by "above most children his age".

if the "quite a few people" are other parents/your family/random people who watched briefly then, not saying you discount them, but do take it with a pinch of salt-a bit like "isn't he beautiful" to babies.
If we're talking about the coach for his team/other football coaches they're playing against, then you can take it more seriously-but use that as a chance to say "what do you recommend to help?" "Would 1-2-1 sessions help him?" "Who would you recommend?"

And "above most players" again depends on whether the person saying it is someone who has experience of players that age. Also whether by most players they mean in the top 50%/25%/5%/1%.
Added to that there may be an aspect that at 8yo it may depend on the opportunities he's had so far. I've noticed among ds' friends (7yo) that at the start of last year the best players are those with older brothers/dads who take them out to the park every weekend day they can and kick a football with them.
Now his friends are beginning to get into coaching and teams and some of those who don't go out with family are now catching up as they're doing training and also playing a bit out with friends. They haven't caught up yet, but I can see that they're improving much faster and may well overtake them.

If you think he is good, then some of the pro clubs do start talent spotting round age 8yo, in this area. Is it worth thinking about that?
There's also other things you can do-like build up his stamina, ball skills round the garden, skipping or dancing (to be neat on his toes) which you can do with him which will help his football.

You'll know if he's outstanding because all the other players' parents will hate him.