England Football · free preview
EE Playmaker
Your first step: how to help at a grassroots club — include, communicate, motivate, and plan, deliver and review a session safely.
Free · about 5 hours · 100% online, self-paced · age 14+ · no experience needed
Free lesson · How to create inclusive football
Your role: a helper, and a welcome
The EE Playmaker is the free, online starting point for anyone aged 14 or over who wants to help at a grassroots club — a parent asked to "help out", a teenage volunteer, a teacher. You need no football experience. What you are training to be is a helper: the person who supports the lead coach, sets up, encourages the players and never undermines the adult in charge.
That role matters more than it sounds. The first adult a child meets in football does not need a licence to be useful — they need to be safe, positive and welcoming. Football's mission at grassroots level is a game for all, and the law and the governing body's policy require fair access whatever a child's disability, sex, race, faith or background. The deeper standard is cultural: every child who turns up should be expected, welcomed and planned for.
A boy arrives for his first session, holding his mum's hand and looking at the floor. You learned his name from the register, so you greet him by it, give him a ball straight away and pair him with a friendly player in the arrival game. Two minutes later he is dribbling. Nothing clever happened — he was simply expected.
Source: Coaching certifications reference · 1. EE Playmaker
The syllabus: 10 modules, 40 lessons
- 1
How to create inclusive football
- Your role: a helper, and a welcome free preview
- Player first: including disabled players
- Adapt, don't exclude: the Inclusion Spectrum
- Girls, mixed football and new arrivals
- 2
How to communicate with players
- Words that build players
- Show, don't lecture
- Feedback that helps
- Voice, body language and group control
- 3
How to motivate your team
- Why children keep coming back
- Three needs: choice, progress, belonging
- Praise the controllables
- Building confidence
- 4
How to plan a session
- The shape of a session
- The SAFE check
- Plan for every child: STEPS
- Putting it on paper
- 5
How to deliver a session
- Before the first whistle
- Teaching a technique
- Coaching while they play
- When it isn't working
- 6
How to review a session
- Plan, do, review
- Audit a practice with SPACE
- Asking the players
- After the session: closing the loop
- 7
How to plan for a medical emergency
- The Emergency Action Plan
- Calling for help
- Everyday first aid you should know
- Weather, kit and equipment
- 8
How to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest
- Recognising a cardiac arrest
- The chain of survival
- CPR: hard and fast
- Using the AED
- 9
How to manage a concussion
- What concussion is
- Spot it: clues, symptoms and red flags
- If in doubt, sit them out
- The road back
- 10
How to prioritise safeguarding
- Everyone's responsibility
- Noticing the signs
- If a child tells you
- Safe volunteering: your conduct and your limits