How long should a children’s football session be?

The Swedish FA’s template for a club’s player development plan recommends 60 minutes in 3v3, 60–75 minutes in 5v5 and 60–90 minutes in 7v7. The FA’s example sessions are 60, 75 and 60–90 minutes. Also count how much of the session the players spend standing still – in one study of youth teams it was 31 per cent.

How many coaches does a children’s football session need?

The Swedish FA recommends “one coach per six players in 3v3, one coach per eight players in 5v5 and one coach per 10 players in 7v7”. Parents count: according to the FA they can run exercises even without a coaching course.

Should children under 12 do Knäkontroll?

For ages 7–14 there is FIFA 11+ Kids, which the Swedish FA recommends at least twice a week. Knäkontroll is recommended by the FA from age 10–12. Both can be slotted in as short breaks in the session’s first exercise.

For coaches

Players stand still for up to a third of a training session

By Gustav, founder of Breakout · 5 min read

You do not have to invent the session yourself. The Swedish FA has example sessions for 3v3, 5v5 and 7v7 lasting 60–90 minutes, and all of them mix exercises with games in the age group’s own format. The hard part is time: in a study of 34 youth coaches, players were inactive for 31 per cent of the session. Plan out the queues and the long talks first.

The FA has already written the session

The Swedish FA’s game format handbooks include example sessions as PDFs. The minutes are examples – the FA’s template for a club’s player development plan recommends 60 minutes in 3v3, 60–75 in 5v5 and 60–90 in 7v7. The principle is in the player development plan: “Sessions should consist of a mix of game exercises and skill exercises and follow a theme. Games in training should be played in the format and with the number of players that apply to that format, or on smaller areas with fewer players.”

This is what three of the FA’s sessions look like. The end-to-end game, pendelspel in Swedish, means two teams playing the ball from the goalkeeper on one short side to the goalkeeper on the other.

3v3, “session 1”, 60 minutes: five 12-minute blocks – play, game exercise, play, a game of “3v3 (or fewer)” and play. Stations of about six players each.
5v5, “pass, receive – mark”, 75 minutes: preparation 10, game with goalkeepers 15, end-to-end game 15, “Game: 5v5 (or fewer)” 15 and play 10. The blocks add up to 65 minutes.
7v7, “build-up play”, 60–90 minutes: end-to-end game with coordination and mobility 15–20, end-to-end game with a numerical advantage 20–30 and a 7v7 game 20–30.

The time disappears into waiting and talk

O’Connor, Larkin and Williams (2018) filmed 34 coaches with teams from U11 to U17. The sessions consisted of 40.9 per cent games, 22.3 per cent exercises such as drills, 31 per cent inactivity and 5.8 per cent transitions. Before a new activity the coaches generally talked for over three minutes.

Roca, Pocock and Ford (2025) found the same pattern among grassroots coaches of 9- to 11-year-olds: 41 per cent of the time went on activities with decisions to make, such as small-sided games, 42 per cent on activities without, such as technical practice, and 17 per cent on transitions. The games came late in the session. Ford et al. (2010) found that coaches of under-9, under-13 and under-16 teams spent more of the session on exercises than on games.

The FA’s advice to new coaches: “Avoid queues and waiting.” “Use exercises that give every child lots of touches.” Talks and theory should be “as short as possible”. And: “Use the same exercises for the first few sessions.”

What you save on huddles and transitions becomes playing time. What to say in the huddle is covered in the guide on feedback in youth football.

Games produce more actions – not proven better learning

The Swedish FA’s laws for children’s and youth football (2023): “If children get the chance to touch the ball often and make many decisions, it has a positive effect on the development of their skills and understanding of the game.” For 7v7 the FA suggests fewer players and a smaller area: “That increases the number of football actions with the ball per player.”

Lex, Simon and Schwab (2022) compared U7 matches: 3v3 produced roughly twice as many dribbles and two to three times as many goals per minute of play as 6v6 and 7v7. The figures are for the whole match, not per player.

But the studies measure time and the number of actions, not learning. According to Farrugia et al. (2024), isolated exercises can build a technique step by step, but what is practised without opposition does not reliably carry over into decisions in a match. Choose games because they give more actions and decisions – not because they are proven to teach technique better.

The warm-up is training too

The player development plan says: “An effective method is to put short breaks into the session’s first exercise, in which an exercise from, for example, the Knäkontroll programme is done.” The FA’s 7v7 session does just that: “2 min game – 1 min mobility/coordination”.

According to the Swedish FA, FIFA 11+ Kids is for “children and young people aged 7–14” and cuts the most common injuries by “30–50 per cent” if it is done at least twice a week. In Rössler et al. (2018), a FIFA-funded study of 3,895 players aged U9–U13 from 243 teams, the teams using the programme had 48 per cent fewer injuries and 74 per cent fewer severe ones. It takes 15–20 minutes; the effect needs at least one session a week, and two are recommended.

According to the Swedish FA, Knäkontroll is done in the warm-up, “10–15 min twice a week”, and according to Linköping University’s training booklet the FA recommends starting at age 10–12. The study behind the programme (Waldén et al. 2012) involved girls aged 12–17 – more on it in the guide on strength training for young footballers.

One coach for every six, eight or ten players

If there are not enough coaches, the parents are the answer: “All parents can usefully be involved and run exercises even if they have not yet done a coaching course.” For 3v3 the Swedish FA adds “Station training gives high activity” and “Short huddles between exercises”.

If more or fewer children turn up than planned, there is no FA norm. Our suggestion: two smaller games when there are many of you, fewer against fewer when there are few – the FA’s own sessions say “(or fewer)”. Pick the teams and hand out the bibs before the session, and the transitions get shorter (Farrugia et al. 2024).

The FA’s coach ratios and the areas in its exercises:

3v3: one coach per six players. The exercises have about six players on 15 × 10–12 metres.
5v5: one coach per eight players. About ten players on 20 × 15 metres.
7v7: one coach per ten players. About ten players on 25 × 15 metres.
Balls: the exercises often say “a ball each”. There is no stated norm.

What a 60- to 75-minute 7v7 session can look like

The structure is the Swedish FA’s build-up play session. The minutes are editorial – ours, not the FA’s. If you only have an hour, shorten the blocks.

0–15 minutes: end-to-end game with about ten players on 25 × 15 metres. Two minutes of play, one minute of mobility or coordination – put an exercise from 11+ Kids or Knäkontroll into the rest minute.
15–40 minutes: end-to-end game with a numerical advantage, for example 6v4. Progression: more defenders.
40–70 minutes: 7v7 game.
70–75 minutes: short huddle. The FA: “The match talk in 7v7 should focus on the training week’s theme and the joy of playing”. How to choose the theme is covered in the guide on football training by age.

More exercises are available from the FA

The Swedish FA’s exercise bank at ovningsbanken.svenskfotboll.se has taken over from Fotbollsportalen and requires an account.

Breakout has an exercise bank of 74 exercises, 20 of them without premium. You put the exercises into a session plan and link it to the training in the team calendar, so the players can see the session in advance.

Common follow-up questions

How long should a children’s football session be?: The Swedish FA’s template for a club’s player development plan recommends 60 minutes in 3v3, 60–75 minutes in 5v5 and 60–90 minutes in 7v7. The FA’s example sessions are 60, 75 and 60–90 minutes. Also count how much of the session the players spend standing still – in one study of youth teams it was 31 per cent.
How many coaches does a children’s football session need?: The Swedish FA recommends “one coach per six players in 3v3, one coach per eight players in 5v5 and one coach per 10 players in 7v7”. Parents count: according to the FA they can run exercises even without a coaching course.
Should children under 12 do Knäkontroll?: For ages 7–14 there is FIFA 11+ Kids, which the Swedish FA recommends at least twice a week. Knäkontroll is recommended by the FA from age 10–12. Both can be slotted in as short breaks in the session’s first exercise.