Start with what you already have

Before buying anything, take stock. Most grassroots coaches inherit a kit bag from whoever ran the team before them, and it's usually got more in it than they realise — half-flat balls, a tangle of bibs, a few cones rolling around the bottom. Sort it, count it, and only buy what's actually missing. The goal here isn't a fully-stocked kit room; it's a bag you can carry in one trip that covers 90% of what you'll ever run.

The essentials — under £30 total

If you're starting from nothing, three things get you through almost any session:

  • A set of footballs. Size 3 for U7–U11, size 4 for U12–U13, size 5 for U14 and up (see the FA's Future Fit ball-size mapping). You don't need match-quality balls for training — a 6-pack of decent training balls is plenty, and having several means less time chasing one ball that's gone over a fence.
  • Disc cones, 50-pack. Flat discs, not the tall cones — they're safer (no tripping hazard), stack flat in a bag, and a 50-pack lets you mark out multiple grids at once without constantly moving the same eight cones around.
  • Training bibs, two colours. The single most session-saving purchase you'll make. Splitting into teams takes seconds instead of the usual five minutes of "you're with him, no wait, swap with her."

That's it for the essentials. Everything else is optional, and a lot of it is genuinely not worth your money.

The next tier — once you're running regular sessions

After a few weeks, a couple of things start to earn their place:

  • Pop-up goals (pair). Lightweight, foldable, and they turn any patch of grass into a pitch with two ends. Worth it the moment you're regularly running small-sided games or finishing drills.
  • A pump with extra needles. Balls go flat. Needles get lost or snap. Keep spares in the bag — there's nothing worse than arriving to a session with three balls and only one of them holds air.
  • A spare set of bibs in a third colour. Useful the moment you want to run a three-team rotation or a small tournament format.

Nice to have, not essential

This is where most "essential kit" lists online go wrong — they list things that are genuinely fun to use but that a grassroots session can run perfectly well without:

  • Agility ladders and poles. Good for variety, but a cone zig-zag does the same coordination job for free.
  • Rebound nets. Useful for solo passing practice, but most players already have a wall or a fence at home if they want to do extra.
  • Branded coaching boards. A whiteboard from a pound shop with a marker pen works exactly as well as a £25 tactics board.

If a parent asks what to buy their kid, the honest answer is almost always: boots that fit, shin pads, and a ball. Everything else is for you, not them.

Budget guidance by squad size

As a rough guide for a typical grassroots squad:

  • Small squad (8–10 players): 6 balls, 30 cones, 2 sets of bibs, 1 pair of pop-up goals — comfortably under £80 all in, and most of it lasts several seasons.
  • Larger squad (14+ players) or multiple age groups sharing kit: double up on balls and bibs so two groups can train side by side without waiting for kit to free up.

Buy once, buy decent, and you won't be replacing most of this for two or three seasons. The cones will outlive everything — they're indestructible right up until one goes missing under a hedge, which is also why buying a 50-pack instead of 20 is worth the extra couple of pounds.

What actually matters

None of this kit makes a session good. A coach with three cones and a clear plan beats a coach with a full kit room and no idea what they're doing next. Get the essentials sorted so kit stops being a barrier, then spend your energy on the session itself — that's where the real difference gets made.