Coaching girls at under-7 — the 3v3 game
Her first match. Her first teammate. Her first goal. The 3v3 game at under-7 is the entry point into competitive football — and how you run it will shape her relationship with the game for the next decade.
The FA Future Fit 3v3 format at under-7 is deliberately designed — tiny goals, small numbers, short matches, no offside, no heading. All of it is right. But the format alone doesn't guarantee the experience. The coach does.
How you run the session. What you say when the ball goes in. How you manage the first disagreement about bib colours. How you handle the girl who stands by the post because she's not sure what she's supposed to do. That's what this book is about.
More than 2.7 million women and girls now play football in England. The coaches at under-7 are the ones who decide whether that growth sticks.
Boys arrive with more repetitions of ball-based movements because they've been doing it informally for years. Girls often haven't. Design activities that build ball familiarity progressively — joyfully, not evaluatively.
A girl who has fun in her first 3v3 session is being built into a footballer. A girl who doesn't will tell her parents she doesn't want to go back. At 5 and 6, the session plan is the fun plan.
Girls at this age fatigue quickly but recover fast. The worst thing you can do is create queues, long explanations, or sessions where a player stands and watches. Active. Always.
The First Kick is not a repeat of FA resources. It takes the Future Fit 3v3 framework and asks: what does this mean specifically for a girl at this age? What does she need that's different? How do you design 3v3 sessions that keep her in love with football for the next decade?
Chapter 9 includes four complete session plans built for the 3v3 format — each with a developmental purpose alongside the football objective. Chapter 11 covers early retention signals specific to this age group, and what to do when you see them.
The Coach's Toolkit at the back gives you practical checklists and templates you can use pitch-side from session one.
"The research is clear about what happens in the years between five and nine: girls who have a positive, fun, socially warm experience of football stay in the game. Every session you run this season is either building a lifelong relationship with football or quietly eroding it. That is not pressure. It is a privilege."
"The first time a girl misses a ball or loses control of it in front of others — watch her face. If she looks embarrassed rather than curious, she is reading the moment as a social event rather than a learning one. Your response in that moment is the most important coaching decision you will make all session."
The most chapters in the series at this age — because under-7 coaching for girls requires more knowledge than most coaches expect.
Physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development — including coordination under pressure, recovery patterns, and the ball familiarity gap.
Every rule, dimension, and format detail — including what each deliberate design choice is trying to achieve developmentally.
Fun is not decoration. It is the objective. This chapter defines what fun actually looks like in a 3v3 session for girls — and how to design it deliberately.
The attention span of a five-year-old, energy management, transitions, and how to structure a great U7 session so no one is ever standing still.
Girls at 5–6 are often still in parallel play — playing alongside rather than cooperatively. Understanding this changes how you set up every activity.
No queues. No watching. No waiting. Practical session design that guarantees every girl is active, engaged, and touching the ball throughout.
Language for tiny footballers. What words work, what confuses, how to give feedback to a five-year-old that builds rather than deflates.
There's no GK in 3v3 — but the signals are already there. What to look for, and how to think about goalkeeping development at this stage.
Four complete sessions for the 3v3 format, each with a developmental purpose alongside the football objective. Plus an activity bank of additional games.
Their questions, their sideline behaviour, and exactly how to set the tone in the first five minutes of the season — before a ball has been kicked.
The specific signals a girl at ages 5–6 sends before she stops coming — and what to do when you see them. Including the ones coaches almost always miss.
Female participation in England has more than doubled since 2020 — from 1.2 million to 2.7 million. That growth happens at the grassroots. It starts at under-7.
Girls who have a positive, fun, socially warm experience of 3v3 come back for 5v5. Girls who don't, often leave. At this age, they rarely return.
The First Kick. Instant PDF download. The complete guide to coaching girls at under-7 — built for the FA Future Fit 3v3 format, grounded in the science of girls' development.
Getting into girls' coaching — the research, the philosophy, and everything before your first session.
The FA's pathway overhaul explained — every format, rule, and what it means specifically for the female game.
Coaching girls at the Play Phase — U4 to U6. The season before this one — and the most important recruitment window in football.