Brazilian creativity combined with British structure.

All Players Want is to Make Progress.

When a player feels they are improving they are likely to keep playing.

Be it a birthday party, the playground, the school team or at a club the first aim of young players is to be good enough to play with their friends and for other people to show confidence in them by trusting them with the ball.

Nobody knows what position or at what level a young player will end up. As long as the way forward is clear and they believe they can take the next step they will want to continue.

7Skills recognises that whilst the destination may be uncertain, the path should not be: Using a structured program of skill development we guarantee that players are able to achieve the level their efforts and motivation merit.

7Skills teaches all the students all the skills they will need to become, at minimum, competent players at any level of youth football.

A Football Education System.

7Skills has been designed by an educational professional, not an ex-player or as a club development system.

In education we demand that every child learn to read and write irrespective of ‘talent.’

7skills offers a structured scaffold that allows all players to make visible progress irrespective of ‘talent.’

7skills tracks player progress using a system of coloured grades borrowed from the martial arts; white to black, where black grade is designed to represent a level required to gain a full scholarship to an NCAA division 1 soccer team.

Challenge the Excellent, Develop the Inexperienced.

The two biggest barriers to progress in youth training sessions are

* The most skilful players rarely play out of their comfort zone against less experienced colleagues.

* The less skilful players rarely receive the ball thus lacking the opportunity and freedom to develop.

7Skills ensures every player touches the ball as often as possible, differentiating the challenge in order to allow fair competition.

Inexperienced players know a higher grade player has followed a path that is clearly mapped out; to develop they can follow it too.

When a higher grade player achieves their latest challenge the reward is permission to push on to the next level.

7Skills measures what is not obvious.

People obsess over the scoreboard as it is often the only visible or quantifiable metric of success.

7Skills provides players with individualised, specific and countable targets for improvement in training and competition.

The grades, wristbands and challenges are a scaffold to help a player shift their focus to learning and wining, not just wining.

7Skills provides parents and coaches with real tools that provide a hard evaluation of a players individualised development goals.

7Skills, 7Challenges, 7Levels

The 7skills are:

* Goal keeping

* Shooting

* Passing

* Dribbling

* Touch

* Heading

* Crossing

Each skill has a challenge to be completed which demonstrates to the player that they now possess a more complex physical ability.

The 7 levels are:

* White

* Red

* Orange

* Yellow

* Green

* Purple

* Black

Each level makes the challenge a little bit more difficult, showing the player the progress they have made;

the ability to perform something previously impossible.

It takes between 6-8 years to progress from white to black.

Taking it to the Game

Completing a challenge is not playing football.

Being able to do something does not guarantee a player will recognise the opportunity to do so.

Being able to do something and recognising the opportunity to do so are essential steps to becoming confident in ones ability to apply an ability as a successful solution.

7Skills uses a structured system of small sided games that ensure that every player has ample opportunity to learn how to take their newly demonstrated physical ability and adapt it into something they can confidently use in a competitive game.

O Jogo Bonito

7Skills sets the players challenges, it does not provide solutions.

Players are encouraged, from white grade onward, to find their own way of meeting the challenge, to find how best to use a skill in game situations and to choose when it is the correct tool for the job.

The game will let them know if they need to do more thinking.

The greatest players from the history of the game had individual flair i.e. creativity and end product.

The ability to adapt their creativity to the needs of the moment, the team around them and the individual abilities of their team mates.

7Skills sets these attributes as its target, not the mechanical efficiency of tactical systems.

7Skills ultimate aim is to open the door to every young player who wants to play.

7Skills provides a clear, structured path that allows players the ability to determine how they play the game and to what level.