Over the years I’ve built up 18 one-page cheatsheets and cribsheets on different coaching topics, and I’m still adding to them. They started as notes I made for myself, things I kept forgetting or wanted to get right consistently, and turned into resources other coaches wanted too.
Why One Page, Not A Manual
The whole point of a cheatsheet is that it isn’t a plan. When I put together the pre-season one, I described it as “a compass, not a plan. Use it to lead with intention when everything else feels loud.” That’s the job of every one of these sheets. Not to replace your thinking, but to give you a fixed point to check against when a session, or a season, gets noisy.
A few examples from the actual set: a 9v9 Formations cheatsheet for clubs transitioning up from smaller-sided football. A defensive principles one-pager covering 1v1 through 4v4, so you’ve got the coaching points for every phase of defending on a single sheet rather than trying to remember them under pressure. A UEFA C Licence cheatsheet I built while working through my own qualification, and shared for feedback before finishing it. An 8-exercise ball mastery sheet, built around one simple setup that gets younger players hundreds of touches without needing much space or equipment.
What Coaches Have Actually Said About Them
Nicolas, one of our FCA members, messaged after a run of the cheatsheets went up: “Thank you for all these Kevin - really useful series.” Ross has said he’s used the ball mastery section specifically to prep for demonstrations at training, which is exactly the use case they’re built for, not a reference you read once, but something you actually open before a session.
How I’d Suggest Using Them
Don’t try to build ten of these before you’ve used one. Pick the situation that trips you up most often, a formation you’re not confident explaining, defensive shape at a specific age group, whatever it is, and build or grab a single sheet for that. Use it a few times. Notice what’s missing. Then move to the next gap.
That’s genuinely how mine came about. Eighteen sheets, not from planning a set of eighteen, but from noticing eighteen separate moments where I wished I had something written down already.
All of them are available through my Gumroad store, and a number are shared free inside the Football Coaching Academy alongside the courses they connect to, formations, technique, and the full pre-season planning material.