The Quick Read
The headlines say 3v3 at U7 is the big Future Fit story. Grassroots coaches are telling us something else entirely.
Key Intelligence
30-Second Summary
Most Future Fit coverage explains what is changing. Our data shows where coaches are focusing their attention - and that tells a different story. Since early June, grassroots coaches have downloaded tactico's free Future Fit resources more than 1,000 times. The most requested guides are not U7, where the brand new 3v3 format has drawn the headlines, but Under 11 and Under 13: the two age groups where Future Fit removes the most players and the most space. The biggest coaching anxiety is not where most people think it is.
The Signal
Every download leaves behind a small piece of behavioural data. Viewed individually it means very little. Viewed collectively it reveals where thousands of grassroots coaches are investing their preparation time.
Since early June, coaches have downloaded tactico's free Future Fit resources more than 1,000 times. Over the past six months we have quietly built what has become one of the UK's largest independent collections of Future Fit coaching resources: more than 30 downloadable guides and templates spanning 14 age groups, from U6 to Senior. Every guide is maintained against the latest FA guidance and designed to answer the practical questions coaches actually ask, from player numbers and pitch dimensions to ball sizes, match lengths and printable templates.
Coaches now reach those resources from over 100 different search terms. Together, that traffic offers an unusually clear picture of what grassroots football is actually worrying about ahead of the new season.
And the picture is not the one the headlines have painted.
While national coverage has focused almost entirely on Future Fit's introduction of 3v3 football at U7 - the brand new entry point to organised football - our download data suggests coaches are concentrating somewhere very different.
Across thousands of visits to our resources library, two guides stand well above the rest: Under 11 (7v7) and Under 13 (9v9).
The Pattern
At first glance, that is an odd pair to top the list. U7 is the flagship change. You would expect U7 coaches to be the most anxious group in the country.
Once you look at what is actually changing for U11 and U13, it makes complete sense.
Under Future Fit, U11 drops from 9v9 down to 7v7. U13 drops from 11v11 down to 9v9. These are not new coaches learning a format from scratch, the way a U7 coach is. These are coaches who spent last season building a team around a bigger pitch, more players and a more spread-out shape - and who now have to unlearn most of it in a matter of weeks. Smaller pitch. Fewer players. Different spacing, different roles, different everything about how a game flows in front of them.
U7 is a blank page. U11 and U13 are a rewrite.
A blank page is daunting. A rewrite is harder. The coaches changing formats, not starting from scratch, are the ones preparing earliest - and the data shows they know exactly why.
Nobody's worried about U7 - it's new to everyone, so nobody's got the wrong instincts to unlearn. It's U11 and U13 where coaches have real work to do, because last year's team shape just stopped being true.
What coaches are actually searching for
The way coaches arrive at these resources is as revealing as which ones they take.
They are not searching for Future Fit explained. They are not looking for another opinion piece on what the reforms mean for the English game. Group the queries together and three very practical needs emerge.
1. They want the rulebook, and they want it now.
By some distance the biggest driver of traffic - and rising almost daily - is a cluster of searches for the rules themselves:
new FA rules for grassroots football 26/27 · new FA rules for grass roots football 26 27 · …free PDF
Not "what is changing." Not "why is it changing." Just: give me the actual document, and please let it be free. That is not the language of someone browsing with interest. That is a volunteer with a session on Thursday and an hour to sort it out after work.
The volume of these searches continues to increase as the new season approaches, suggesting many volunteer coaches are still turning to search engines for practical guidance.
2. They want specifications, not philosophy.
The second cluster is pure detail - the numbers you cannot run a session without:
future fit ball sizes · 9-a-side football pitch size · 9v9 pitch dimensions · u15 football match length · u11 football team size
Ball size. Pitch size. Match length. Squad size. None of it is glamorous, and all of it has to be right before anyone kicks a ball.
3. They want to know if what they knew is still true.
This is the group that says the most. Alongside queries like u11 football rules 26 27 and u9 football rules sits one search that stopped us in our tracks:
is u13 11v11
Read that as a sentence rather than a search term. It is probably being typed at 10:14pm on a Tuesday by a volunteer coach who suddenly is not sure whether everything they have planned for next season is still right.
That is a coach who has spent years knowing the answer, discovering they are no longer certain of it. Doubt, typed into a search bar, at whatever hour of the evening the doubt arrived.
That single query captures the whole picture better than any statistic we have. The pressure in grassroots football right now is not falling on people learning something new. It is falling on people who suddenly cannot trust what they already knew.
Volunteer coaches rarely need another perspective. They need the right information quickly, because tonight's session is only a few hours away.
It is one of the reasons we have invested in building the resource library in the first place: not to add another opinion to the pile, but to put the answers in one place — from a Future Fit Club Briefing to the Future Fit FAQs and a full set of age group templates.
Why trust this analysis?
This analysis is based on:
Combined, these provide one of the earliest available indicators of what grassroots coaches are preparing for ahead of the 2026/27 season.
The Practice
Here is how to use the time you have left, whichever side of the divide your team sits on.
1. Audit format change before you touch a training plan
Before you plan a single session, establish exactly what has changed for each of your teams. If you are coaching U11 or U13, do not assume last season's shape carries over with minor tweaks. It does not. Start from the new pitch size and player count, not from what you did in May.
2. Treat U11 and U13 as a rebuild, not an update
A drop from 9v9 to 7v7, or 11v11 to 9v9, changes spacing, passing lanes and defensive shape completely. Players who understood their old role will need to relearn it in a smaller space. Budget proper time for this. It is closer to pre-season with a new team than a refresher with an existing one.
3. Use early friendlies as format rehearsals
The temptation across August is to treat friendlies as a chance to see who is sharp. This year, treat the first two or three as format rehearsals instead - low-stakes games where the shape matters more than the scoreline. Test the new structure, adjust, test again, before anything is at stake.
4. Get everything in one place before you start
Coaches do not struggle because the rules are difficult. They struggle because the information is fragmented. One PDF explains pitch sizes. Another covers ball sizes. A third handles formats. By the time a volunteer has pieced it all together, they have spent their evening searching instead of planning training.
Coaches don't struggle because the rules are difficult. They struggle because the information is fragmented.
That is exactly why our age group templates pull everything - formats, pitch and ball sizes, match lengths, laws and development focus - into a single document per age group: an easy reference for coaches, and one you can share directly with players and their guardians. Whatever source you use, get the full picture for your age group in one place before you begin.
5. Sort pitch, ball size and kit logistics now
Smaller formats mean smaller pitches and, for several age groups, different ball sizes this season. Confirm what your club and venue can actually provide well before the first session. This is exactly the detail that causes chaos in week one when it is left until week one.
6. Tell parents the "why", not just the "what"
Parents of U11 and U13 players will notice the smaller pitch and fewer players immediately. A short, early explanation of why the format has changed - and what it is designed to improve - heads off a whole season of "why isn't my child playing 11-a-side yet" conversations before they start. Our age group guides are written in plain language for exactly this, with clear explanations that make sense to club coaches, guardians and players alike - so you are not translating the framework from scratch.
The Principle
Grassroots football has always rewarded coaches who prepare early. Future Fit has made that advantage bigger than usual, because this is not a season where everyone starts from the same place. Some age groups are learning something new. Others are unlearning something that used to work. Only one of those looks urgent from the outside.
The download data this summer tells a quietly encouraging story. A real segment of grassroots coaches are choosing to get ahead of that difference rather than let it become a September problem. They are not waiting for a club briefing to land in their inbox. They are searching, downloading and working it out for themselves, weeks before a ball is kicked.
That instinct - preparing before you are asked to, thinking it through before it becomes urgent - is the same one that separates teams who show up sharp from teams still finding their shape three matches in. It usually happens invisibly, in a kitchen at 9pm with a laptop open and a training session to plan.
This summer, for once, it left a trace.
Your Move This Week
Pull up your team's age group guide and compare every change against last season - format, player count, pitch dimensions, ball size, match length. Whether you are coaching U7 or U18, having all of it in one place removes the guesswork before pre-season even begins.
If you coach U11 or U13, go one step further: sketch how your team's shape actually needs to change, not just what the rules now say. Twenty minutes this week saves a confused first month in September.
The Bottom Line
Some coaches are learning a format for the first time.
Others are unlearning one that used to work.
Both need preparation. Only one looks urgent.
The coaches downloading guides in July, weeks before anyone asked them to, are already writing their season.
The rest will catch up in September. A few sessions behind. Working it out as they go.
tactico. The game, uncompromised.
👉 Get the free age group templates
Sources & Context
1. Primary: tactico resources analytics - Future Fit template downloads and age group guide traffic, six-week period (June to July 2026)
2. Primary: tactico search query data - top-performing terms driving traffic to the age group templates library
3. Supporting: England Football - Future Fit hub
4. Supporting: tactico - Football Age Group Templates
5. Supporting: tactico - Future Fit: How Youth Football Will Change From 2026
First published: 14 July 2026