How to give feedback to young players

There is a well-tested way of giving feedback that most coaches know intuitively, and that falls apart in practice — not because the coaches are bad, but because there are twenty-two players and ninety minutes, and because you remember the last ten.

Here is the craft, cut down to what actually moves something.

1. Feedback is about the action, not the player

The single most important rule.

"You are careless" is a characterisation of a human being. "You had your back to the ball when the cross came in" is a description of an action.

The player can do nothing about the first tomorrow. She can do something about the second.

Young players hear characterisations as verdicts on who they are. It is also why phrases like "you always" and "you never" are worth removing entirely.

2. Specific beats correct

"You need to press better" is true and useless.

"When their full back gets the ball, go the last five metres instead of waiting" may be a simplification — but the player can go out and do it.

A good test: can the player do it in the next drill? If not, it is too abstract.

3. Timing matters more than people think

Feedback closest to the action works best. But mid-match, neither coach nor player is capable of a conversation.

A workable model:

• During the match: short corrections. One thing. Loud and clear.
• Straight afterwards: collectively, calmly, about the team — not individuals.
• The next day: the individual part. By then both parties have slept on it.

It is also why what gets said on the touchline should rarely be passed on in that form. It was meant as a shouted correction, not as written feedback to a child.

4. Limit the number

Two development points. Three at most.

A list of seven things is not feedback, it is a verdict. The player remembers the worst one and forgets the rest.

For players under fifteen the tighter version is worth holding to: strengths first, at most two development points, no superlatives at the negative end.

5. Write it down — even if you never send it

This is where most coaches lose it. Not on the craft, but on memory.

If you observe eighteen players over ninety minutes, you typically remember three to five concrete things, and they almost always concern the players involved in something decisive at the end. The quiet full back who did their job well for seventy minutes gets nothing.

It does not have to be sophisticated. A notebook in your pocket works. An app that listens while you coach works too. What matters is that the observation survives until tomorrow.

What about the harder conversations?

Sometimes post-match feedback is not enough. Then it needs a proper conversation — about role, about minutes, about development across a season. That is a different craft, and we have written about it in player development conversations.

In short

• Describe actions, not people
• Be specific enough that it can be done in the next drill
• Correct during the match, talk individually the next day
• Two to three points at most
• Write it down, or it will not exist tomorrow