1-to-1 football skills sessions for kids: how to set them up

Offer 1-to-1 skills sessions as their own service, with a slot length that fits the player's age, and place them on the days young players don't train with their club. Ask parents, who make the booking, to write the player's name, age, position, club level and one thing to work on in the booking note. Then turn the first session into a weekly slot: individual technique improves with repetition, and a fixed time every week is easier for a family to keep than a new booking each time.

At club training, a coach works with a whole squad: tactics, team shape, small-sided games. There is little time to correct one player's weak foot, first touch or body shape when receiving. A private session fills that gap. It is short, intense and built around one or two skills: ball mastery, receiving under pressure, dribbling, passing range, finishing, or goalkeeping. Parents look for it when their child wants to move up a level, is going through club trials, or is losing confidence on the ball.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service, with its own start and end. Parents pick a service, then a free slot. With one place per slot, a booked slot is full and disappears from your page.

Lengths and prices are examples: set your own. For two players in one session, one parent books and writes the second player's name in the note.

The public booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, which will be the parent's details, plus an optional note. Say in the service description what you'd like to read there:

You get the note in your new-booking email and can plan the drills before you arrive at the pitch.

Young players already have club training on set evenings and matches at the weekend. A skills session the evening before a match, or the morning after one, isn't the best use of anyone's time. Ask parents which evenings the club trains and keep your slots on the other days: after school on the free weekdays, and weekend mornings for players whose matches are in the afternoon.

Say where you train in the description: a public pitch, a rented five-a-side court, a club ground. If you depend on a pitch booking, create your slots only for the hours you've secured. Write your weather rule too: you train in the rain, or you move the session when the pitch is closed.

Once a player and their parents want to continue, agree on a fixed time. Create the slot on that weekday and repeat it each week until a date, such as the end of the school term, then book the player into each one from your calendar. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; with the parent's email, they get a confirmation and calendar file for each session. Those slots are then full and no longer offered online.

Families go on holiday and children get ill. Parents can't move bookings themselves online: they contact you, and you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list. Book doesn't email them about changes, so confirm the new time yourself.

Parents paying for weekly sessions want to see what changes. Every few weeks, keep five minutes at the end of a session to show them a drill, compare with the first session, and agree on the next focus. If you offer a longer review, such as a match observation, create it as a separate service. Book doesn't take payments, so say in the description how you're paid: per session, or per block of sessions paid in advance.

Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.