Who am I?

I am now a grass roots coach. I previously taught PE in London secondary schools for 20 years. I have worked with some players who went on to play at international level and hundreds more who did not. The 7Skills Challenges, like everything else I do, comes from a teaching and learning perspective, which is why you will find a lot of reference to learning theories on this site.

What is the 7SC?

The format outlined here is one I developed in order to give the players I was working with a clear indication of their strengths and weaknesses. I created a set of rubrics for each technique I felt players needed to be complete as individuals and then used the colour grade system from the martial arts as a framework to hang everything on.

Due to the good work done by my lecturers at college I have always taught from the game. The combination of the fixed rubrics and a games for understanding approach quickly became a feedback loop that made me a better coach, but most importantly it was like watching the lights come on in the eyes of the players, aged 8 - 14, and their parents. It appeared I had stumbled onto something that really did work for all parties in grass roots football.

How effective is the 7SC?

I have used the system in the UK, Caribbean and Brazil. Its impact has been the same in each region with players from the age of 5 up to 15. Players and parents love the system and it seems to marry into the ‘skill hungry years’ of player development very well.

I have been fortunate in my travels to have met some very talented ex-players. When I asked them about their memories of youth football they have tended to highlight that their attitude toward training was different to their colleagues, that for them training was an opportunity to experiment and dig deep into what was possible, whereas their colleagues saw training as a task to be performed in order to be picked to play.

It was a conversation with a World Cup winner that inspired me to try and build a model that would allow all children to develop his elite mentality. Six years later the comments of a second World Cup winner so closely matched the first that I believe there is something to this that may be worth sharing (no names as I don’t want to falsely imply their endorsement of the 7SC).

If their is a ‘secret’ to 7SC it is that it focuses almost entirely on the players attitude to training. It attempts to hand an elite mental model to young people who are not lucky enough to have one through nature or nurture. Its challenges are wholly quantitative and players respect each others success as a shared experience; everyone had to achieve the same things to get to the same stage.

It works for me, some or all of it might work for you, or you may have a better way of doing it already. Take a look at the site and use, dismiss or adapt whatever you wish to.

Should you choose to use any of it please take care to give credit where it is due.