How to tell your child is improving at football: four signs
Parents pay for the membership, drive across the city twice a week and, six months in, quietly ask themselves whether any of it is working. Here is why the usual measures — goals, powerful shots — show almost nothing, which four signs reveal real progress, how long each one takes to appear, and what parents can do to help rather than get in the way.
Why "his shot got harder" is a poor measure
The most common way to judge progress is to count goals. It is an easy measure and an almost useless one.
Goals in youth football depend on things that have nothing to do with skill: where the child is played, how strong the team is, whether the opposition happened to be weak. A forward in a good team will score five; a defender with better technique will score none — and by goals alone the first one looks like the one improving.
The second unreliable measure is shooting power. It grows almost on its own as the child grows: they get heavier and stronger, and the ball travels further. That is puberty, not coaching.
The third is "does he enjoy it". A child can love the sessions and still spend twenty minutes of every hour queueing for a touch of the ball. Enjoyment is essential, but it is not evidence of progress.
Real progress in football shows not in the outcome of a moment but in how a child behaves when things go wrong: the ball arrives awkwardly, an opponent closes them down, the legs are heavy. That is what the four signs below are built on.
Four signs of real progress
1. Technique holds up under fatigue
This is the most honest indicator of all. At the start of a session almost everyone controls the ball neatly — they are fresh and focused. Forty minutes later the same drill looks different: the ball bounces off the foot, the pass goes past the teammate.
A developing player is one for whom the gap between "at the start" and "at the end" of a session gets smaller. In a match the decisive moments almost always come in the second half, when the legs are heavy and a decision has to be made in a second. A child who only ever practised technique while fresh loses it exactly then.
How to check from the sidelines: watch the last ten minutes of a session or a match, not the first.
2. Decisions come faster
A beginner stops the ball first, then lifts their head, then looks for someone to pass to. By then the moment has gone. Progress is when the child starts scanning before the ball reaches them and takes their first touch in the direction they already chose.
From the outside it looks unspectacular — no tricks, no dribbles, just a game that flows faster with fewer turnovers. In fact it is the most valuable skill of all, and it is the last one to arrive.
How to check: count the touches your child takes before passing. Four or five became two — that is progress.
3. The child moves without the ball
Children who have just started stand and wait for the ball to come to them. The ones who are improving begin to make themselves available: they drift into space, signal where they want the pass, track back to defend.
This is the sign that a child has understood the game, not just learned to handle the ball. And it is the easiest one for a parent to spot: simply watch your child during the moments when the ball is at the other end of the pitch. Standing and watching — or moving?
4. Mistakes stop derailing them
The most underrated sign. A beginner who misplaces a pass drops their head, stops asking for the ball and plays the rest of the session afraid to try. A child who has grown makes exactly as many mistakes — but plays the next five minutes as if nothing happened.
This is about character, and in football it matters no less than technique. Coaches at club academy trials watch for it deliberately: how does the child react when something does not come off. More on what is assessed at trials in our article on getting into the Spartak, Dinamo or CSKA academy.
How long each stage takes
The timings below assume two or three sessions a week without long breaks. Every child moves at their own pace, and that is normal.
| What changes | When it usually shows |
|---|---|
| Stops being shy, asks for the ball, knows the rules | 3–6 weeks |
| Runs with the ball confidently without staring at their feet | 2–4 months |
| Uses the weaker foot, plays passes with a purpose | 4–6 months |
| Holds technique under fatigue, decides quickly | from 8–12 months |
A word on breaks: a month without training in summer sets a child back by roughly two months — not physically, but in their feel for the ball. That is why we run summer camps: they hold the skill while regular sessions are paused.
And a word on age: for children of 3–4 the first months are not about technique at all — the job there is to learn to listen to the coach, work in a group and not be afraid of the ball. How that works is covered in football for children aged 3–4.
What parents can do — and what only gets in the way
Helps: ask the coach directly. Not "how was he today?" but specifically: what are we working on over the next few months, and how will we know it worked. A good coach answers without platitudes.
Helps: play with your child for no reason at all. Twenty minutes in the yard with no intention of teaching anything is worth more than another session. The ball should be part of ordinary life, not just "the thing we do on Tuesdays".
Helps: film them every couple of months. Day to day nothing seems to change, but two clips three months apart show progress better than any words — and children love seeing it.
Gets in the way: analysing the match on the drive home. Right after a game the child is still running on emotion, and any analysis lands as criticism. The best question in the car is "did you enjoy it?", not "why didn't you pass?".
Gets in the way: shouting instructions from the sidelines. When a parent and a coach shout different things, the child stops making decisions at all — and that is precisely the skill we are trying to build.
Gets in the way: comparing with other children. A year's difference in age within one group is a huge difference in physical development. The only fair comparison is with the same child six months ago.
How we build this into sessions at BAF
We design sessions around these four signs rather than around how spectacular a single strike looks.
Technical drills are deliberately placed towards the end of a session, when the children are already tired. For the first few weeks the execution is worse than it would be on fresh legs, and that is expected — but the skill settles in the conditions where it is actually needed.
We work to the Brazilian method: the ball is at the child's feet for almost the whole session, with minimal standing in queues — the more touches, the faster confidence arrives. More on this in our article on the Brazilian method.
We play a lot of small-sided games: in a three-a-side or four-a-side format a child touches the ball several times more often than in a full game and has to keep making decisions — which is what builds thinking speed.
Groups are formed by age and level so that the load fits: mini-groups when a child needs more of the coach's attention, individual sessions when one specific element is lagging.
We train children aged 4–16 at two locations: Khimki, Kudryavtseva St., 10B and Moscow, Capitol Mall, Pravoberezhnaya St., 1B. The first session is free — come to a trial session, see the level of the group and ask the coach what your child specifically should work on. Memberships and terms are on the prices page, and parents' reviews are here.
Frequently asked questions
How many sessions before I see results?
Behaviour on the pitch changes first: after about a month of regular sessions a child stops hiding and starts asking for the ball. Visible technique comes later, usually within 4–6 months, and consistency under fatigue closer to a year.
My child doesn't score — does that mean no progress?
No. Goals depend on position, the team and luck. Look instead at ball control under fatigue, decision speed, movement off the ball and the reaction to their own mistakes.
How often should a child train to improve?
At least twice a week. One session a week keeps up interest and fitness, but the skill barely settles — between sessions the child forgets what was learned.
How do I know my child has outgrown their group?
Drills come without mistakes and without effort, the child looks bored, and in games they constantly take over because teammates cannot keep up. Then it is worth discussing a move to an older group with the coach, or adding individual sessions.