Reading the Game — Vol. 1
The Developing Winger · Paperback & Kindle
£12.99Buy the Book
A football-education platform for developing wingers (13–17) — and the parents and coaches raising them.
Your player already has the touch. What wins them time is reading the picture before the ball arrives. Volume 1 teaches exactly that — with a real match film in every chapter, not just theory.
Not drills. The mental side: what to notice, where to stand, which decision to make.
Written to the player, and built so parents and coaches can help without a coaching badge.
A real top-level match film that makes the idea impossible to un-see.
Every one ends with takeaways, a coach's practice and a match challenge.
Four things every winger struggles with, turned into decisions they can practise — the work that buys the best players their extra second.
Know what to look for before the ball comes, and let the scan change the body — not just the mind.
Make the first touch solve the next problem, using shape and the defender to buy space.
Stop standing in a zone with a good name. Learn where space actually is, and how to occupy it.
Read the line, not the man. Arrive as the window opens instead of a fraction too early.
Volume 1 is the first product. Everything is being built into one place where a winger — and the adults around them — keep learning the game.
Reading the Game, Volume 1 — 14 chapters on scanning, positioning and decisions.
EXPLORE THE BOOK → AvailableAll 14 match-film studies in one place — watch, then re-watch off the ball.
OPEN THE LIBRARY → AvailableSession plans, the IDER method and how to run the Elite Lens with a group.
FOR COACHES → AvailableHow to support development without knowing football — and why it matters.
FOR PARENTS →The next book in The Developing Winger series. Join the list to hear first.
IN THE LABGuided, chapter-by-chapter learning built on the same framework.
IN THE LABEvery chapter ends with a short film study. It takes the exact problem you just read about and shows it at the top level — but points the camera where the highlights never do: at the players furthest from the ball.
"Find the winger on the far side. Then don't look at the ball again — watch what he does anyway."
Most copies are bought by adults. So it's written to the player — and designed so the people around them can genuinely help.
It assumes your touch is sound. What's holding you back isn't technique — it's knowing what the picture in front of you is asking for.
You don't have to understand the game to use this. Every chapter translates what a coach actually means when he shouts it across the pitch.
Every chapter ends with a practice you can run with a normal group on a normal night — with progressions and load notes.
Two players in one space is one problem for the opposition. Two players in two spaces is two. Everything below is that idea, told fourteen ways.
So nothing is fluff, and you can find your way around a chapter you haven't read yet. This structure is why readers finish it.
A real situation, and no answer yet.
Something commonly said — and what's true.
The same problem at the top level, on film.
The usual mistakes, each with its fix.
Information, Decision, Execution, Reaction.
The lines to keep if you keep nothing else.
Coach-speak translated, for parents.
A session you can run this week.
The first football book my son actually read cover to cover. He talks about "the far side" now — the Elite Lens taught him that, not me.
Every chapter ends with a session I can actually run on a Tuesday. The IDER review has changed how my players talk about their own decisions.
No empty promises about going pro — just clear thinking about what to look for. Rare for a book aimed at this age group.
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A one-page field guide to the four scanning moments, from Chapter 5. Plus the free Chapter 1 sample and first word when Volume 2 lands.
Fourteen chapters, fourteen Elite Lens films, and a framework your winger will use every weekend. Paperback & Kindle.