For journalists, coach educators and researchers

Headline finding

The youngest players get the most isolated practice work. Mini-soccer coaches (U6-U9) ask AI for 76.1% technical practices. Only 14.5% are small-sided games — the format kids actually learn from.

Based on 42,131 questions from 4,915 coaches inside FootballGPT, who together generated 10,184 animated practices.

Other publishable findings

• Technical-practice bias falls with age. Mini (U6-U9): 76.1%. Adult (U19+): 50.1%. Tactical content scales correctly with age (1% Mini → 22.5% Adult).
• Game-based learning sits under 7% at every age band. Across all categorised animated practices, only a small minority are small-sided games or game-related practice.
• More than one in four "football coaching" queries comes from a Football Manager video-game player. Coach mode: 56.3%. FM mode: 35%.
• Monday is peak grassroots planning night, not Sunday. Animated-practice generation peaks on Monday and Tuesday evenings; Monday is the busiest day overall, with the hottest hour at 8pm UTC.

Reuse and attribution

Charts and findings may be reproduced provided the source is cited as "FootballGPT Grassroots Coaching Data" with a link to footballgpt.co/data.

For interviews, additional cuts of the data, or pre-publication comment, contact [email protected].