Football Training Equipment Every Grassroots Coach Needs

Most grassroots coaches discover what they forgot to buy at 6.25pm on a Tuesday, with fourteen children waiting and one deflated ball in the bag. The club gives you a budget of a few hundred pounds, the catalogue offers 400 products, and nobody tells you which football training equipment actually gets used every week and which ends up mouldy in a container.

This is the list I wish someone had handed me in my first season. It is built around what a coach of an under 9 to under 14 team needs to run two sessions a week, priced at typical UK retail, with notes on what to skip.

The football training equipment you use every single session

Start with the items that appear in almost every drill. If the budget only stretches this far, you can still run a full season of good sessions.

• Balls, one per player plus three spare. For a squad of 14, that means 17 balls in the correct size: size 3 up to under 8, size 4 for under 9 to under 12, size 5 from under 13. A decent training ball costs 8 to 15 pounds. Expect to spend around 200 pounds here.
• Flat marker discs, 50 of them. About 10 pounds for a set with a carry stand. They mark grids without tripping anyone and survive being stood on.
• Bibs in at least two colours. Buy 10 in each colour, roughly 2 pounds each. Ten, not seven, because odd numbers and late arrivals always happen.
• A ball bag and a good pump with a pressure gauge. About 25 pounds together. Underinflated balls change how every passing drill feels.
• A first aid kit and ice packs. Around 30 pounds for a sports kit. Check it monthly and restock after every use.

That core set comes to roughly 300 pounds. Everything after this point is optional, and it pays to be choosy.

Second tier kit that earns its place

Once the basics are covered, a few extras make sessions noticeably better. These are the ones I see used week after week at clubs that run well.

Pop up goals

A pair of pop up goals around 1.2 metres wide costs 40 to 60 pounds. They turn any grid into a small sided game in thirty seconds, which matters when you only have the pitch for an hour. Small sided games are where most learning happens at this age, so these give the best return of anything on this list.

Tall cones

Twelve tall cones at 30 to 45 centimetres, around 20 pounds, are useful for gates, dribbling channels and marking goals when pop ups are not available. Players can see them from across the pitch, which flat discs cannot offer.

A coaching board

A small magnetic tactics board, 15 to 25 pounds, saves a lot of shouting. Children aged 10 and over follow a drawn picture far more easily than a verbal explanation, especially when it is windy and you are talking to the back of fourteen heads.

Goalkeeper gloves in spare sizes

Keep two pairs in different sizes for whoever goes in goal that night. Rotating keepers is common at grassroots level, and a child in gloves three sizes too big will not want to try again. Our guide to youth goalkeeper training covers the drills to pair with them.

Equipment most coaches can skip

Here is where I disagree with the standard advice in coaching catalogues and many club starter lists. They push agility ladders, speed hurdles and resistance parachutes as essentials. For children under 14, they are mostly a waste of money and, worse, a waste of session time.

The reason is simple. A ladder drill trains a child to move their feet in a fixed pattern with no ball, no opponent and no decision to make. Football asks for the exact opposite. Ten minutes of a game with a ball at their feet develops footwork, balance and timing more than ten minutes of ladder work, and the children enjoy it more. Coaches who rely on ladders often have queues of six players waiting for a turn, which means most of the squad is standing still.

Rebound nets fall into the same trap. They cost 60 to 120 pounds, take up storage, and a partner passing back does the same job better. Mannequins and dummies are another expensive item that rarely beats a real defender. If you have money left, spend it on more balls. A drill like the rondo drills for young footballers needs nothing beyond discs, bibs and balls, and it teaches more than any gadget.

How to buy, store and look after it

Good kit lasts three or four seasons if it is treated well. A little planning before the season starts saves a lot of replacing.

1. Buy in July, not September. Stock runs short and prices rise when the season begins. Many suppliers run summer offers for clubs.
2. Write the team name on everything. A paint pen on balls, discs and goals stops kit from drifting to another team when several squads share a container.
3. Dry bibs and bags after wet sessions. Bibs left in a damp bag go mouldy in under a week. Hang them up at home or in the clubhouse.
4. Check ball pressure every session. Most training balls want 0.6 to 0.9 bar. Ten balls checked with the gauge takes four minutes.
5. Keep a kit list on your phone. Count balls in and out. Losing two balls a month adds up to over 200 pounds a season.

Ask parents to help as well. At our pre-season meeting, two parents volunteered to take the bib bag home on alternating weeks, which solved the washing problem completely. If you have not held one yet, see how to run a pre-season football parents meeting and add kit duties to the agenda.

A sample budget for a new team

Here is how a 400 pound budget might be spent for a squad of 14 players aged 10.

That totals 395 pounds and covers every drill in a typical grassroots session plan. If your budget is half that, buy fewer balls of better quality and borrow goals from the club store until fundraising catches up.

Frequently asked questions

What equipment do you need for football training?

At minimum, you need one ball per player in the right size, marker discs, two colours of bibs, a pump and a first aid kit. That core set costs around 300 pounds for a squad of 14. Pop up goals are the most useful next purchase.

How many footballs does a coach need for training?

Aim for one ball per player plus two or three spares. Fewer balls mean queues, and queues mean children standing still instead of playing. Buying cheaper balls to reach the right number is better than buying a few expensive ones.

Are agility ladders worth it for youth football?

For most grassroots teams, no. Ladder drills develop fixed footwork patterns without a ball or a decision, while small sided games build the same movement skills with far more relevance to matches. Spend the money on extra balls or goals instead.