When a child is aged 3-7 a good club/coach will not only look to enhance their footballing core skills but their neural and physical development.
I have seen many coaches use different shapes, colours and textures such as bean bags, sponge balls and tennis balls whilst working with toddlers. They can also add mathematical education, social skills, hand-eye coordination and much more in their sessions based on fun games.
Encouraging a child to have a ball all the time from a young age is now the new thing the FA are looking to implement. I know a lot of parents take their children aged 6-10 to ‘good passing teams’ at grassroots level. **** that, give them a ball each and let them learn how to dribble, using both and every part of their feet. You’ll find the majority of ‘talented up and coming coaches’ (all who have that **** Essex slick haircut, care more about that tracksuit they won’t get dirty in and the gob of a bloke who runs a stall in London) have the same ‘philosophy’ as one another – play it out from the back. Not actually realising philosophy isn’t how a team plays but how its players and coaches conduct themselves.
Luckily Saints do have some very talented coaches in their Foundation and Academy but just as anywhere else they do have a fair few of say coaches mentioned above, as do my club unfortunately.