Club Ethos

 

“Our committed aim at Downley Dynamos is to help every young player to become the best footballer that they can be.”

We follow the FA's ‘football for all’ ethos here at Downley Dynamos and we pride ourselves on providing a safe and fun environment for children of all footballing abilities to enjoy the ‘beautiful game’. Junior Football is all about having fun, enjoying regular exercise, building self-confidence and developing basic skills and technique. We believe that everyone can benefit from playing the game and making new friends, regardless of age, gender, nationality, race, ethnic origin, religion, ability or disability.

“We recognise that some players will achieve more in footballing terms than others and we fully embrace these talented players, encouraging them to excel within a culture of inclusion.”

 

During training sessions we try to ensure that every player has as many touches of the ball as possible and most importantly, we want the children to be having fun! Sessions are well structured, with a healthy mix of training drills and small sided matches and players are coached to feel comfortable with the ball at their feet in all positions.

On match-days, our aim is to be as fair as possible with approximately equal game-time for all players and regularly rotated subs where permissible. Many of our age groups have upwards of 30 players training on Saturday mornings and it therefore difficult to try to rotate all of these players in the small-sided games played at junior level. Instead, we deal with this by creating ‘buddy’ teams with other local clubs or, if there is enough additional help from parents and coaches, creating a second team so that everyone who wants to play in matches can do so.

“Enjoyment of the game and long-term player development are the two main goals. The key to achieving this is an acceptance by all coaches, parents and players that at a young age, winning every game of football is not the most important thing.”

As the players progress through into the older age groups, the fixtures naturally become more competitive however our ‘football for all’ ethos still stands. Each team will usually have a core of players running through the spine whilst other players are rotated in the other positions at the manager’s discretion. Again, where numbers allow we will create a second team at each age level so that everyone who wants to play in matches can do so, at least from time to time.