Prompts for planning a grassroots football session with AI: templates and limits

On 27 January 2026 the AEPD (Spain's data protection agency) published its ten recommendations for protecting privacy when using AI. It asks users not to share with the assistant details such as full name, address, phone number, national ID or images of people, nor sensitive information such as medical data. These are recommendations, not a rule.

On images, the guidance says images showing other people should never be used to generate new content, and stresses that this matters especially where minors are involved. For everything else it suggests describing a fictional case, so that no details that could identify anyone are supplied. For a grassroots session that keeps four things out of the chat:

With minors there is also an age threshold: Organic Law 3/2018 (art. 7) says a minor's data can be processed on the basis of their own consent only when they are over 14; below that, consent comes from whoever holds parental authority or guardianship. Almost the whole range from pre-benjamín to infantil falls below that age (some second-year infantil players turn 14 during the season). The law does not mention AI chats, but data protection applies all the same: where consent is the legal basis, a child that age consents through their parents, not through the coach.

Describe the group, not the children: a session needs to know how many children there are, how old they are and what they can do, not who they are. When someone has to be told apart, write "player A", "goalkeeper 2" or a shirt number without name or club, and an injury that shapes the session goes in as a constraint: "two players on reduced load this week". The British guide for grassroots football coaches from AI101.uk gives the same advice: placeholders such as [PLAYER A] instead of names, and no child's name in match reports.

The AI101.uk guide (May 2026) recommends stating age group, level, equipment, space, players and duration, plus the behaviour you want to see, and asking explicitly for little waiting between exercises. The template below includes those fields and adds the competition format and the constraints. Each bracketed text is replaced with the team's actual details:

The prompt opens with a context line: "Act as an assistant to a grassroots football coach in Spain and propose a training session with these details." Then come the ten fields:

Age group: [pre-benjamín, ages 6-7]
Competition format: [7-a-side, 8-a-side or 11-a-side, whichever the team plays]
Space: [size in metres, surface and whether another team shares it]
Equipment: [balls and their size, cones, bibs by colour, full-size or small goals]
Players and coaches: [number of children, how many are goalkeepers, how many adults]
Duration: [total session minutes]
Objective: [a single idea you want to see on the pitch]
Group level: [what they do well and what they struggle with]
Constraints: [reduced loads without names, nearby match, short explanations, no lines or queues]
Answer format: [table with minute, task, set-up with measurements, rules, an easier version, a harder version and what to observe]

Two fields change with the federation. On the format, in the RFFM (Madrid) alevín plays mostly 7-a-side (there is also an 11-a-side competition for second-year alevín) and in the FFCV (Valencian Community) 8-a-side, as the guide to grassroots football rules by age group sets out. The ball size also varies: the RFFM uses size 3 for pre-benjamín and size 4 for benjamín and alevín, while the FCF (Catalonia) 7-a-side rules set a size-4 ball. Write in the prompt the one your team uses.

The three examples start from a modest club: a quarter or half of a pitch, few balls and plenty of cones. The ball sizes in the examples are the RFFM's (size 4 for alevín, size 5 for infantil) and they change by federation. The measurements in the prompt are those of the training area, not the regulation ones. As a competition reference, in the FCF the 7-a-side pitch is between 50 and 65 m long and between 30 and 45 m wide, with goals 6 m wide inside and 2 m high and a size-4 ball (7-a-side rules, July 2026 edition). The FFCV regulates 8-a-side for alevín, benjamín and pre-benjamín in its own circular (2026/2027 season) and sets 60 minutes for alevín matches (2 x 30) and 50 for benjamín and pre-benjamín (2 x 25).

Example 1: pre-benjamín in small-sided 3 v 3

Age group: pre-benjamín, ages 6-7.
Competition format: 7-a-side.
Space: a quarter of a 7-a-side artificial-turf pitch, about 30 x 20 m, which can be split into two small pitches.
Equipment: 10 balls, 16 cones, 12 bibs in two colours and 4 small goals.
Players and coaches: 12 children, one coach and one assistant.
Duration: 60 minutes.
Objective: every child touches the ball a lot and makes simple decisions in small-sided 3 v 3 play, with no fixed positions.
Group level: they are starting the season, some still lose the ball when dribbling and attention lasts only a few minutes.
Constraints: explanations of two sentences at most, no child waits more than a few seconds, no running without a ball.
Answer format: table with minute, task, set-up with measurements, rules, an easier version, a harder version and what to observe.

The two-sentence explanations follow the guidance in our guide to grassroots football exercises by age group: if a task needs more than two sentences to explain, it is not for this age. Avoiding queues is a constraint of this prompt, in line with AI101.uk's advice to ask for little waiting. With 12 children and two adults, the session allows two 3 v 3 pitches running at the same time.

Example 2: alevín in 7-a-side

Age group: alevín, ages 10-11.
Competition format: 7-a-side.
Space: half of a 7-a-side artificial-turf pitch, about 30 x 35 m, with a 7-a-side goal on one of the short sides.
Equipment: 8 size-4 balls, 20 cones, 12 bibs in three colours, the 7-a-side goal and 2 small goals.
Players and coaches: 12 players, 2 of them goalkeepers, and one coach.
Duration: 75 minutes.
Objective: width and close support when building out from the goalkeeper.
Group level: they handle short passing well but struggle to lift their heads before receiving.
Constraints: two players on a reduced load this week, who take part without maximum efforts; explanations under one minute; no lines or queues.
Answer format: a 10-minute warm-up with a ball, two 15-minute tasks, a 25-minute conditioned game with teams of 6 and 10 minutes of cool-down and talk. Table with minute, task, set-up with measurements, rules, an easier version, a harder version and what to observe.

A single objective stops the assistant from filling the session with loose content. The two players on reduced load show how to shape a session without identifying anyone. To add a warm-up rondo with measurements by number of players, the guide to rondos in grassroots football gives starting spaces. For 8-a-side, change the format and the space, and adjust the duration to the federation's rules.

Example 3: infantil in 11-a-side

Age group: infantil, ages 12-13.
Competition format: 11-a-side.
Space: half of an 11-a-side artificial-turf pitch, shared with another team, with one full-size goal.
Equipment: 6 size-5 balls, 20 cones, 16 bibs in three colours, the full-size goal and 2 small goals.
Players and coaches: 16 players, 2 of them goalkeepers, one coach and one assistant.
Duration: 90 minutes.
Objective: reacting to losing the ball: win it back within the next five seconds or drop back.
Group level: they follow explanations of 30-40 seconds; there are physical development gaps between players of the same age.
Constraints: there is a match on Saturday and the session is on Thursday: moderate load, no long high-intensity sets and no continuous running without a ball.
Answer format: a 15-minute warm-up with a ball, two tasks in a reduced area and a conditioned 8 v 8 game on half a pitch. Table with minute, task, set-up with measurements, rules, an easier version, a harder version and what to observe.

The objective, the reaction to losing the ball, and the 30-40-second explanation come from the same age-group guide. If the infantil team plays the day after the session or has a match close by, that constraint changes the load the AI should return.

The answer is a draft. Before going out to the pitch, run through five points, common errors in what an assistant proposes:

After the first version, the usual approach is to refine with new instructions ("remove task 2", "reduce the space to 20 x 15") rather than using the first draft as it stands.

One underlying criterion helps decide what to keep. The UEFA Grassroots Charter (2023 edition) (section B.6) asks member associations to incorporate small-sided games for children, with "fewer people on a scaled-down pitch with smaller goals", on the understanding that they can enhance both enjoyment and development. A session with small groups and plenty of balls fits that principle; one with a single ball and long lines does not.

There is one boundary no review covers: child protection. AI101.uk says the assistant should not be used for safeguarding decisions and that any concern about a child goes to whoever holds that responsibility at the club or to the federation. No chat answer replaces that step.

The prompts in this article do not depend on a brand: they work with any assistant. According to their official pages, checked on 24 October 2026, Gemini has a free plan with a Google account, Claude has a Free plan and Copilot is free with a Microsoft account. Usage limits and included models change, so check them before relying on one. A simple way to choose is to paste the same template into two of them and compare which answer fits the space and equipment better.

To compare tools built specifically for coaches (video management, session design with diagrams, prices in euros), the guide to AI tools for football coaches lays out the options by budget. And to correct with judgement what any of them returns, the foundation is still training: the requirements for the UEFA C licence are in its guide.