Player Challenge Cards

Can be purchased for £5 by clicking here.

Player challenge cards are a great way to make your practice games or your competitive matches more fun, and provide a deeper learning and engagement from the players. The samples you will see below are colourful, easy to read, and will appeal very much to football playing children.

How does it work? That's up to you, really. Let's have a look with some pictures.

This is the set of cards for the Barcelona men's team. There are eight players of differing positions, with always one keeper. Each player has a unique challenge, many of which are applicable to many positions. You can dish them out to the players yourself, or maybe let the players choose. Perhaps you can do it by position, or you can show everyone all the cards, and see who can complete the most challenges in any given game.

We have picked sixteen men's teams and sixteen women's teams. They all have the correct colours and badges, and are up to date as of the beginning of March 2021. Some challenges are easier than others, with some being objective and others being subjective. Some involve counting, whereas others may involve self-reflection. Another great idea may be to perhaps track who can complete the most challenges throughout an entire season, with a spreadsheet keeping track of each player's achievements.

It's not just clubs that are available. There are also cards for different training topics at 5v5, 7v7, 9v9, and 11v11 formats. The example from above is for 5v5 kids who have are being challenged on their passing and shooting. This is a great way to link training to games. If we're not careful, training and matches can be treated like their own separate entities, or even different sports altogether. The way I see it is that the practice is the revision and the game is the test, but they are both important components in the learning process. 

Results and league positions are poor metrics to measure growth and development. Players grow at different rates, with some appearing to stagnate and fall behind, and others turning into superstars overnight. 

Because of this non-linear path of development, with many false indicators that can distract us from what true development looks like, it is best to re-frame success into different ways. If your team wins the game 6-0, is that because you played really well, or because the other team is just bad? Does this mean your team is better? What if all your goals were scored by the same player, who was born at the start of the year, and is almost a foot taller than their peers? Compartmentalise the success into smaller chunks. First and foremost, your metrics should be observing engagement and measuring participation. Are they showing up and taking part? Are they coming back for more? Are they excited to be at football? Will they be registering with you next year?

After that, what else can we look at to measure their growth? Don't even dare look at the league tables. Where you finish in the league depends on a whole bunch of other teams. Instead, try to observe if they are understanding the game, and showing a wider range of skills. These cards do a great job of providing these different metrics. We may have lost the game, but each one of my players performed the skills in the match that we worked on in training. Focus only on that which is within your control. Wins and league positions are not within your control, but whether your players can recognise which pass to make or when to perform a dragback, that is within your control, and naturally, improving those aspects will eventually lead to more wins.

Above is a picture of all the women's cards. All sixteen female and all sixteen male teams will have the same challenges. Boys and girls can obviously use other genders as inspiration and role models. A good footballer is a good footballer regardless of gender, and a lot can be learned from observing them. Still, due to persistent discrimination, even in 2021, we feel it is important to have equal representation of male and female players within our cards. There are some male and female teams which are duplicates, for example Man City and PSG, which have both a men's and women's team included. There are also a handful of clubs which are only available in male or only available in female, such as the NWSL clubs. Below, you can see our cards for both the men's and women's teams of Club America.

As if that wasn't enough, we've chucked in twenty-four coaches at the end. 

So that's 8x16 players = 128 unique challenges.
Plus 8x3 = 24 coach challenges.
Plus 3x8 = 24 5v5 challenges.
Plus 4x8 = 32 7v7 challenges.
Plus 5x8 = 40 9v9 challenges.
Plus 6x8 = 48 11v11 challenges

In total, that makes 296 challenges. You get all that, plus a hidden bonus at the end, for £5. For £10 you can have the template to make your own cards, by changing teams or adding your own players. That works out as £0.02 per card. If you'd like to buy or to know more, just get in contact. We'll be happy to talk to you.