Johan Cryuff insisted that despite joining Ajax at a relatively young age, he learned to play football on the streets. This made me ask this simple question: As a Grassroots coach why are you doing anything except putting on a game to aid development? The very best players the world has seen all seem to agree, playing the game from a young age is what taught them the most. Even as Grassroots coaches we tend to agree and lament the fact that kids just don't play the game enough anymore. This begs another very simple, logical question. If we believe that playing (normally in small sided games) is so important to a players development why aren't we allowing them to do just that? I can ask that question differently: What evidence do you have as a coach that shows that your shooting drill, your Rondo, your whole part whole session accelerates the learning experience faster than playing a game does? Think