Frequently
asked questions
Football Centres
The team at Essex Professional Coaching intend to make your child's experience at our weekly football centres a memorable one.
We aim to make the process as straightforward as possible for parents, providing you with all the necessary details and information you might need in regard to our sessions.
However, we understand that you may have additional queries and if we have missed something then we'll be happy to answer your question. Contact us at admin@epcoaching.co.uk and a member of the team will be happy to help.
Our weekly football centre sessions are for both boys and girls of all abilities aged from 4 – 12 who want to play football, develop their skills, and make new friends in a fun and encouraging environment. Our aim is to foster a love for playing football and taking part in physical activity in each individual that we come into contact with, providing an environment for individuals to flourish and progress.
Our football centres take place at multiple venues across Essex. All of our sessions are run outside, on high quality astroturf pitches during term time, in line with the Essex County Council’s school calendar.
Our venues are as follows:
Colchester South - Philip Morant School & College, CO3 4QS
Colchester North - Colchester Sports Park, CO4 5YX
Clacton - Tendring Education Centre, CO16 8BEHalstead - Halstead Leisure Centre, CO9 2HR
Our football training sessions run on week day evenings during term time, in line with the Essex County Council’s school calendar.
We ask parents to ensure that when sending their child to an EPC football centre session they provide a drink (in a refillable bottle), shinpads, and high factor sun cream across the hot summer months.
All attendee’s will be given the option to purchase a bespoke EPC Nike training kit to play in at our centres, or alternatively they can wear clothing suitable to play football in of their choice. As all sessions take place on an outdoor 3g surface, players should wear appropriate footwear to play football in and clothing that is warm and waterproof for the colder months.
Registration for all football centre sessions will be conducted by each head coach, using our online platform, on the pitch at each Essex Professional Coaching venue. We ask players to head straight onto the astroturf pitch upon arrival at the venue, ensuring they have their drink to hand, along with the necessary kit and equipment to play in so they can maximise their playing time each week. All players must be picked up at pitch arrival gate by their parents and no child will be allowed to leave either individually or with another adult without prior parental consent.
At all EPC weekly football centres, new players have the option to come along and take part by booking a free taster session. This gives them an opportunity to meet our coaches and the players in the group and take part in a session before deciding if the centre is right for them. All parents need to do is sign up via our website for the relevant day and venue and click the BOOK TRIAL box before attending on the selected evening. After the trial our team will be in touch for your feedback and to see if you would like to attend on a regular basis.
If your child has a medical condition (eg diabetes, serious allergies, epilepsy etc) that we need to be aware of, it is essential that you tell us at the booking stage and prior to your child attending their first session with us. At registration you must inform a member of staff about any medication that may be required so that our team can take care of your child accordingly.
Please respect our programme timing. If you are likely to be delayed arriving at one of our football centres or after the pick up time please let our football centre manager know in order to avoid unnecessary concern.
Yes, all of our centre venues are fully insured and include public liability and professional indemnity. Each venue has had a thorough risk assessment conducted and been deemed suitable for our activity to take place in a safe manner.
For siblings booking onto our football centre’s we offer a 5% discount – simply book both children together on the relevant sessions and the discount will be applied automatically when you complete your booking.
Children with additional needs and disabilities are welcomed at our football centre sessions after consultation between parents and staff to ensure that all needs can be met within the staff ratios that we provide. Parents should discuss any particular needs of their child with our team at the time of booking so that are team can support your child as best as possible during each session.
All Essex Professional Coaching football centre sessions begin with ball mastery tasks to encourage and develop players feel for the ball at their feet or tag games that help players to develop their fundamental movement skills. Each session progresses into a coached activity based around stopping, creating or scoring goals before the players are split into teams to finish in fun small, sided matches with their peers.
We do not currently play matches against other teams, but each individual training session allows for a minimum of 30 minutes game play for each training group to take part in. Also three times across the year during the school holidays we host our ‘Football Centre Festivals’ whereby all the children that attend our various football centres have the opportunity to attend a night of small sided games. If your child has an interest in joining a grassroots club or taking part in competitive football, then speak to our football centre manager who will be able to pass on further details.
Upon arrival you should report to the main astroturf pitch entrance where your child will be welcomed by our team. They will introduce your child to the relevant EPC coach who will be leading the session along with the other players in the group so they can start to feel at ease and make friends, before taking part in arrival activities set out for the children to get them playing football immediately.
We split the children into year group based coaching groups across all our football centre sessions, with no more than two year groups combined e.g. Year R & Year 1 together. This ensures that the children get an opportunity to play with boys and girls of a similar age with multiple opportunities to practise and to develop their skills in a safe and fun environment.
There is no requirement for parents to stay and watch their child play when attending our football centre sessions. For parents that are leaving the venue, we ask you to arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the end of the session in time for pick up and to be contactable during the hour in the case of an emergency.
On the last session of each school half term we run a tournament night whereby players are split into teams immediately upon arrival and play matches for the duration of the session. The tournament winners get the opportunity to win medals and lift the EPC cup in our awards ceremony at the end during our presentation where we also celebrate and reward our ‘Players of the term’ in each respective group.
At EPC we don’t let the rain, cold or heat stop play! All of our football centre sessions take place outside throughout the year, therefore we encourage parents to ensure they have prepared their child adequately to play in the different conditions that we experience throughout the year. If there is a danger to life such as in extreme wind conditions or in the event of lightening strikes we will take the decision to cancel sessions with as much notice as possible, communicating this to all involved.
All accidents (eg bumps, grazes and stings) will be dealt with by First Aid trained staff and our staff are trained to record all instances on our internal accident reporting platform. At dismissal one of our centre coaches will inform you of the accident and we will require you to sign the Accident Report Form to ensure that you are informed of any incident that has occurred. If there has been a serious incident or your child has fallen ill, you will be contacted by telephone as soon as possible.
At our football centres we aim to encourage and reward positive behaviour and deal with inappropriate behaviour firmly and fairly. We will endeavour to deal with any minor behaviour problems as they arise, however, in serious cases and with persistent poor behaviour we will contact you directly.
During the school holiday periods our weekly football centres take a break as we run an extensive holiday camp programme consisting of both football and activity clubs. Find out more here
Our football centre manager Aaron Runnacles can be contacted between the hours of 9am – 5pm or during football centre session hours by emailing aaron.runnacles@epcoaching.co.uk or calling 01206 670237
We strive to offer the best possible coaching experience for all players that we come into contact with and we value all feedback highly. If you would like to get in touch with us to discuss a complaint or give feedback in confidence you can contact us at admin@epcoaching.co.uk
At EPC we understand players develop at different stages regardless of age, therefore our coaches are trained to support the development of players on an individual basis.
For players finding the level too easy we offer two solutions: either we offer players the option to train up with an older age group to enable them to be suitably challenged, or progress players into our invitation only academy programme which is the next step on our football development pathway for those displaying with talent and ability.
We often work with players at our centres that are just starting their football journeys and from time to time can find it difficult playing with more children who have played the game for longer depending on their own stage of development.
In these cases, our coaches support players by offering encouragement and individual support during sessions or give the player a chance to train with a younger group to help them build their confidence.If for whatever reason your child cannot or does not want to attend the football centre sessions, you must notify us by emailing admin@epcoaching.co.uk so that we can cancel your booking and subscription. Failure to do so may result in you being charged for sessions that your child hasn’t attended.
In certain circumstances parents will be contacted. This includes:
* Serious injury such as a broken or suspicion of a broken bone;
* If your child is unable to participate due to serious illness or a toilet accident;
* If your child is seriously upset about being at our Centres
* Bang to head that may result in concussion;
* Any situation resulting in a hospital visit;
* Serious behaviour problem