FA Playmaker Update

FA Playmaker Course Supports Active Football Roles

New Grassroots Learning Through Online Modules

The online FA Playmaker Course is enhancing knowledge of the ‘brilliant basics’ of football, providing current and future grassroots volunteers with a new course which will help them to get involved and create fun, safe and inclusive experiences.

Over five modules, the free, entry-level football course provides a toolkit anyone can make the most of. It’s supported by BT and is open to anyone aged 14+, requiring no previous experience or qualifications in the game prior to signing-up.

The FA’s Head of Education, Lucy Pearson, explains it’s important to offer a course like this to grassroots football: “As well as providing an exciting new entry-point into football education, FA Playmaker marks an important new step in how The FA provides learning to volunteers across the grassroots game.”

“Whether it's cost, time or aspiration, we’ve acknowledged that the FA Level 1 in Coaching Football isn’t always a realistic first step for everyone into football. So, we needed to look for a new option. Something more affordable, more flexible and better suited to the needs of volunteers wanting guidance, tips, and tools to contribute to safe, fun and inclusive football.”

While FA Playmaker is a football course, you don't need to have extensive football knowledge or experience of the sport to get the most out of it. The focus throughout is about providing skills, guidance and tips so anyone can help create safe, fun, and inclusive football. The modules include:

* Creating Fun Sessions: a module focused towards FA session plans and ideas which anyone can pick up and use at training straight away
* Connecting with Your Players: a module which explores motivation and communication techniques to help engage individuals and teams
* Make Football For All and Keep Football Safe: which provide guidance on concussion management, sudden cardiac arrest and safeguarding children


“We’ve designed it with everyone in mind," explains Pearson. “It's for the mum who takes her daughter to a Wildcats session every week and wants to get more involved. It's for students looking to add new skills and experiences while at school, college or university education. And it's for anyone who just needs some tools to improve their weekly football experiences. It really is a course for all.”

FA Playmaker has been developed in collaboration between The FA’s Education and Grassroots Participation Departments. The FA’s Head of Grassroots Football Development, Steven Day, added: “This fantastic new course has the potential to make a significant difference to the way we support our football volunteers to support and drive our grassroots game.”

“The fact it’s online, free and designed around the needs of current and prospective volunteers means it can be a realistic entry point into football education for a lot more people. We’re really looking forward to seeing a new community of FA Playmakers emerge and have an even greater impact on the quality of experiences for players up and down the country.”

If you would like to take the FA Playmaker course, you can sign-up right now via this link. You’ll need an FA Number (FAN) to register. If you don’t have one, you can create one right now via the website. Information is also shared by @EssexCountyFA and @EssexCoaches on Twitter and by searching for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.

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