Initial squad assessment: what to measure in the first 4 weeks

The first four weeks are for getting to know the group before you fix contents, positions and roles. An initial assessment gathers information to adjust your work, not to rank children from best to worst. Solo Fútbol Formativo takes the same line: the point is what you do with the results to improve.

The UEFA Grassroots Charter (2023 edition) asks federations for children's formats built around participation, inclusion and personal development before competition and performance. A sheet that only sorts players goes against that principle; one that shapes next week's session meets it.

Say three sessions a week and 16 or 18 children: there is no time for long test batteries. It works better to observe one or two aspects per session, following Aprende Entrenando, and keep the physical tests for a single session. A note for readers outside Spain: Spanish grassroots football groups players by age band, from prebenjamín (under-8) and benjamín (under-10) up to alevín (under-12), infantil (under-14), cadete (under-16) and juvenil (under-19).

We chose five because they fit on one page and each one shows up in an ordinary training session:

For technique we prefer observing to timing. The Loughborough Soccer Passing Test separates levels in players aged 14 to 17 (40.3 s for elite against 66.6 s for non-elite), but its reliability in non-elite players is low to moderate (r = 0.47, against 0.96 in elite). In a grassroots squad, a timed pass tells you less than ten minutes of small-sided play and a notebook.

Salinero and colleagues (2013) assessed footballers aged 10 to 17 and report the conclusion of Mercé and colleagues (2004): non-specific physical tests, although necessary, are not enough, and football-specific tests are needed. Hence a mix of two generic tests and one with the ball.

If the group is aged 10 to 13, the modified Barrow test (a cone course with turns, a 5-metre slalom and backward running, without a ball) showed an ICC of 0.94 in a sample of 51 Basque footballers of those ages. It is an alternative to the 10 x 5 m run if you have time to set up the course.

On frequency, Evaluación Deportiva suggests 2 or 3 assessments a year in younger categories (a 'perhaps' in the source), with simple field tests and minimal equipment, and warns against extreme protocols in immature bodies. The high-priority ALPHA-Fitness battery takes about two hours with 20 children; three tests bring that load down to part of one session.

The sheet fits on one page and is filled in with observed behaviours. The manual from the La Rioja Football Federation and the University of La Rioja sums it up in one sentence: nobody "is", they only "behave". If the box says "lazy", there is nothing to work on; if it says "stops moving in defensive transitions", there is a goal for next week.

Header: name, date of birth (with the birth quarter), positions tried and one line with what the player said in the initial interview. Futbol Sesion suggests a short interview with each player before starting: what they expect from the season, what worries them and what motivates them.

The Christmas column is left blank on purpose: the second review is compared with the first, not with the teammate next to them. If your club already works with match data, cross-check it against the sheet; our overview of how football clubs measure data helps you decide what deserves recording and what does not.

September's physical results depend partly on the month of birth. Among 990 Galician players from benjamín (under-10) to juvenil (under-19) (a study by Corredoira reported by Alto Rendimiento, seasons 2007-08 to 2011-12), 301 were born in the first quarter (30.4%) and 190 in the fourth (19.2%). Peña-González and colleagues (2025), in a ten-year study of 1,120 players from U12 to U16 at five Spanish academies, found 37.4% in the first quarter against 16.2% in the fourth, and at the highest competitive level 46.6% against 8.2%.

Práxedes and colleagues (2019) and Gutiérrez Díaz del Campo and colleagues (2010) point the same way: the more a club selects, the earlier it discriminates by date of birth.

That is why the sheet carries the birth quarter in the header. Peña-González and colleagues (2025) recommend that coach education insist on assessing by individual maturation and not only by chronological age. A short jump in September from a December-born player can say more about their maturation calendar than about their potential. The decision to move a player to another age group has its own analysis in moving a player up or down an age group in grassroots football.

We suggest three moments: a first snapshot between weeks 3 and 4, a review at Christmas and another at the end of the season. This fits the 2 or 3 assessments a year that Evaluación Deportiva suggests for younger categories. Between reviews the physical tests are not repeated; you keep observing the other indicators in sessions.

Week 4 makes sense because of the calendar. In the standard five-microcycle pre-season described by Futbol Sesion, week 3 corrects what is going wrong and week 4 develops the game model: there is already shared content against which to see what each child does. How it fits with the rest of the season is explained in planning the season by microcycles in grassroots football.

At the Christmas review you repeat the same three physical tests, with the same surface, footwear and time of day, and compare them with the September results. The week 4 goal is marked as achieved, in progress or changed, and the next one is written. If a child drops from 11 to 10.5 seconds in the 10 x 5 m run, they have improved, whatever the rest of the group records.

The sheet is a coach's tool and is not handed out. What goes from it to the player and family is behaviours and a goal. The reason comes from the book by Lapresa and colleagues: when a child is labelled in the group, they tend to play the role they have been labelled with.

With the player, two or three minutes one to one after week 4: what they do well, what we will work on and how we will see it. Aprende Entrenando also suggests players assess themselves; comparing their view with ours opens the conversation better than a verdict. An example sentence: "in 4 v 4 games you offer yourself a lot; the goal for these weeks is to look before receiving".

With the family, SM Academia recommends not speaking to the coach in the heat of the moment after a match or training session, asking for an appointment instead, and asking about attitude to corrections and mistakes rather than about minutes. It works for us as a rule: the conversation is scheduled, lasts ten minutes and starts from two or three observed behaviours. Playing-time criteria are handled separately, as we explain in squad selection and playing time: winning or developing.

Maestre and colleagues (2018) brought together nine coaches, twelve players aged 14 to 18, eight parents and three psychologists, and point out that an excellent grassroots coach counts more as an educator than as a technician, with confidence, empathetic listening and positive communication. The sheet supports that listening because it makes you look at each child once, with a method, before forming an opinion of them.