A review of a young player is meant to help them. Done carelessly it turns into something else: a score, a label, or a league table that a child can read between the lines. This guide is about keeping it the first thing.
Compare a player with themselves
The most important choice is who the review is measured against. A review that compares a child with the others in the team teaches them where they stand in a queue. A review that compares them with their own last review teaches them what they have got better at. Use the second.
That means a review is not a test the player passes. It is a record of where they are, written by you, so that next time you can both see what has moved.
Use the four corners
The FA describes four corners of a player's development: technical and tactical, physical, psychological and social. They are a useful frame because they stop a review from being only about skill. A child who is brave, kind to team-mates and keeps trying is developing in two corners that no stopwatch measures.
For each player, think about each corner in turn. You do not have to write something for all four every time.
One strength, one thing to try, one target
A review that lists ten things helps nobody. A shape that works:
- What is going well. One or two things, specific enough to be true.
- One thing to try next. The single area you want them to work on, in words they would understand.
- A target with a date. Something small and visible by then: "to play the first pass forward with the weaker foot in a small game, by half-term".
At the next review, look at last time's target first. If it has been met, say so, and choose a new one. If it has not, carry it on: it was probably too big.
What not to write
- Scores. A mark out of ten, or a star rating, becomes a ranking the moment two children compare them.
- Comparisons. "Better than the others at", "the weakest in the group". Leave other players out of a player's review altogether.
- Labels. "Lazy", "a natural", "not very good". They describe the child, not the action, and they stay.
- Anything you would not say to the child's face. A review should be something you could read out, in kind words, to the player and their family.
How often
Not after every match. A review at the end of a term, or a half-season, is enough for most teams: long enough for something to have changed, short enough that the target is still fresh. Between reviews, your match notes are the evidence, and you can point to the minutes.
Who sees it
Decide this before you write the first word. A good default is that a review is the coach's own record, and it only leaves your hands if you choose to share it, in a form you choose, such as a short note or a PDF given to the family. A review is not something to leave where other players or parents can see.
If you hold information about children, keep it as your club's data protection policy says, and keep to the minimum you need.
A review you can use
When you have written one, test it: could you read it aloud to the player? Does it say something they could do tomorrow? Does it compare them only with themselves? If so, it is a review. If not, it is probably a ranking, and you can rewrite it.
Nothing Unlucky has a review for each player built on the four corners, written by the coach and never shown to players or parents from the app. See how it works.