Playing football indoors vs playing football outdoors: Why both sides of the sport have their benefits
Playing football indoors or playing football outdoors – which is better? At We Make Footballers, we make use of both indoor and outdoor facilities to deliver weekly football training sessions to children aged between 4 and 12 across England.
Each type of football comes with its own benefits and some are even contradictory to each other. Playing indoors for example means football can take place all year round regardless of the weather – but at the same time, children also need to play in challenging conditions to develop mental resilience and an understanding of how they might need to adapt their game to circumstances. You only get that when playing outdoors.
To help you better understand why We Make Footballers believe in a hybrid mix of indoor and outdoor football training, we are going to look at five benefits on player development from these two different types of football.
Five Benefits of Playing Football Indoors
The many benefits of playing football indoors go far beyond the obvious starting point of avoiding the great English weather. Indoor football involves playing in smaller spaces, making it a great way to improve technical ability in areas such as close control, decision making and looking after the ball.
1. Indoor sports can take place all year round
Nobody needs any introduction to the great British weather. In autumn and winter (and spring and summer too if we are being honest), Mother Nature often throws as much rain as she can at England, leaving grass football pitches waterlogged and unplayable.
Rain of course is not the only problem. The cold can freeze pitches and snow and hail present their own problems. Grassroots football played outdoors is left at the mercy of the weather.
Playing inside removes all that disruption and ensures that football training can continue no matter how much rain, wind or snow is going on outside. Being able to practise and learn on a weekly basis is central to children developing as football players. Indoor football means no interruption to their education.
A lot of parents prefer indoor play too, for the simple reason that their kids cannot get muddy when they are playing the beautiful game indoors. A football kit not needing to go through the washing machine three times to try and get the mud out is good news for everyone.
2. Tight spaces in indoors football develop technical ability
Football played indoors will normally take place on smaller pitches and in confined spaces. This can lead to significant improvements in the technical ability of a football player.
With less room in which to operate, an excellent first touch and good control of the football are vital as opponents close down space quicker. Playing football indoors requires greater protection of the football, helping players to understand the value of using the body to shield the ball from the other team.
The lack of space means that turns and tricks are needed to get away from opponents. If you can master a Cruyff Turn to escape a sticky situation when caught between a player on the other team and the wall of the indoor court, then producing such a skill when playing in the vast space offered by outdoors football suddenly becomes much easier.
English football is seeing just how big the benefits of young kids playing football in confined spaces can be. Although not played indoors, cage football takes place in similar tight areas and helps develop excellent technical abilities in a similar way to indoor football.
Some of the most exciting young talents in the country credit cage football with giving them the skills that make them players of such potential. Eberechi Eze and Bright Osay-Samuel both played cage football on the streets of London before bursting onto the scene at Queens Park Rangers, securing moves to Crystal Palace and Fenerbahçe respectively.
Jadon Sancho went from the cages to full England internationals via Borussia Dortmund. Wilfried Zaha honed his skills and going back even further, the great David Rocastle grew up playing in confined spaces before illuminating the sport in the 1980s.
If that is not a list of talent to highlight the difference that the unique challenges posed by playing indoor football can make to a player’s ability, then what is?
3. Indoors football requires quicker decision making
Because of the lack of space, indoor football is played at a much faster pace than outdoor football. Not only is that good for developing technical ability, but it also helps to quicken a football player’s decision making.
With less time on the ball, decisions over whether to pass, dribble or shoot have to be made almost instantly. The decision making process is one of those aspects of football that improves the more you practise it.
When playing football indoors, a player has more decisions to make and less time in which to do it. The result? A lot more practice.
This trains and strengthens the mind to work at a faster pace and transmit the signals needed to produce a certain piece of skill to muscles more quickly. And the quicker that the brain can decide the best course of action in any given scenario, the more effective the player becomes.
4. Faster game speed leads to more touches and repetitions
Practice makes permanent is one of the core principles of We Make Footballers, with repetitions central to that. The more that a child practises a skill, the more natural it comes to them - to the point they can carry out an action without even thinking about it.
Indoor football is an excellent vehicle when it comes to getting repetitions into children in game situations. The walls around the pitch mean the ball spends less time out of play. There are normally less players on the pitch, leading to increased touches for those who are. And the faster game speed means players see a lot more of the ball.
By playing indoor football, children spend more time on the ball and that gives them greater opportunities to repeat what they have learnt in their training session. They get to play more passes, take more shots and score more goals. It speeds up the mastery of tricks and skills through repetition.
5. Increased fitness levels from indoor football
Anyone who has played indoor football will tell you that it requires a much higher fitness level than playing outdoors. Part of that is down to the pace of the game – the smaller pitch means it is non-stop with no time for breathers whilst the ball is up the other end or out of play.
But it is also due to the environment that indoor football is played in. Being inside, it is naturally a hotter environment and there is less air. The body has to work harder to take in oxygen and move it around the bloodstream, leading to increased fitness levels.
Long distance runners often take part in altitude training, whereby they run in places high above sea level where there is less oxygen to improve the ability of their body to pump it to their muscles. This leads to significantly increased fitness levels. Indoor football can have a similar impact, leading to a fitter and healthier player.
The benefits of playing football outdoors
There is a reason that 11 v 11 on an outdoor pitch remains the most popular form of football to watch. And whilst there are several parts of the game which can benefit from the challenges of playing indoor football, the only way to develop areas such as positional awareness and accuracy over longer distances is by playing in the space provided by outdoor football.
1. More time on the ball and the opportunity to run as space opens up
Whilst the faster pace of indoor football helps improve areas such as close control and decision making, it is not reflective of what a child will find when they step into game situations.
For that reason, they need to play outdoor football to mix the improved technical ability driven by indoor football with the realities of time on the ball and space that is present in outdoor football.
One of the biggest differences between indoor and outdoor football is the opportunity to run with the ball. The confined space of indoor football means players rarely get the chance to dribble for more than a couple of yards before they are closed down.
On an outdoor pitch, there is much more space to gallop into. The best players make the most of the room there is to work with, be that through increased touches via more time on the ball or drawing in opponents to create space for a teammate. The only way to develop those areas is by playing outdoor football.
2. Outdoor play improves accuracy over longer distances
Likewise, the need to play longer passes or shoot from distance is almost non-existent when playing indoor football. And yet in outdoor football, they are useful skills that the best all-round players will have mastered.
The chance to work on and master a Jordan Nobbs defence splitting 30-yard pass, a David Beckham switch of play from right flank to left or a Lauren Hemp shot from distance do not occur in indoor football.
Playing outdoor football with the greater space afforded and the larger pitch size encourages better accuracy over longer distances. Indoor football is all about the short game; outdoor football mixes the short with the long.
3. Outdoor football develops positional awareness 
Arguably the biggest difference between indoor and outdoor football is positionally. A small-sided game indoors is frenetic and fluid.
Whilst a player might have a position to occupy indoors, the pitch size and the speed with which the ball moves from one end to the other means that a defender often spends as much time in midfield as they do at the back. There is no such thing as wingers or full backs, either.
Compare that to outdoor football, which requires every player to have a clearly defined role. A team can only be successful if everyone involves understands the requirements of their position and sticks to the job at hand.
A child cannot begin to master the art of being a left back like Lucy Bronze or a holding midfielder like Jordan Henderson unless they play outdoors football.
Positional and tactical awareness is developed in match situations whilst playing outdoors, where discipline is required to fulfil one role rather than having the room and freedom to charge around an indoor court with wantonness.
4. The benefits of fresh air
In a day and age where children and spending more and more time indoors stuck in front of screens, playing outdoor sport is one of the few ways in which parents can get them out of the house, into the great outdoors and enjoying fresh air.
If their football training takes place purely inside however, you lose that benefit. Yes, we highlighted the increased fitness that can come from playing indoors, but breathing in fresh air is also vital for the health of children – especially those who do spend a little too much time watching television or playing computer games.
5. Playing football in bad weather builds mental resilience
Playing football in the wind and the rain can be a pretty ghastly experience. And yet doses of it here and there help to build mental resilience which can serve a child well both on the football pitch and in wider life.
Throwing the towel in or not wanting to play football because of a bit of a drizzle enables a child to think that it is acceptable to give up whenever conditions are not going exactly the way they want it to. And that is not a good mentality to develop.
In contrast, children who are willing to put the effort in and battle against the elements to succeed will become more resilient. It helps them understand that hard work can overcome challenges and that life and football will not always go the way they want it.
It comes down to that age-old footballing phrase which sadly has disappeared since Stoke City were relegated from the Premier League: “Yeah, but could they do it on a Tuesday night in Stoke?”
Normally directed at a technically great passing team like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, the question was designed to suggest that tika-taka would not be able to adapt to the challenges posed by a January evening in the Potteries.
Playing football in bad weather teaches players that sometimes they have to adapt their game to cope with conditions. The English climate means it is not always plain sailing when you find yourself playing in a monsoon or a hurricane.
The best teams and players in the world have the mental resilience to perform no matter what the weather; be it swirling wind, pouring rain or even at the Bet365 Stadium against Stoke. That comes from wanting to play football no matter the conditions; a mindset which only outdoor football can teach.
Final thoughts on outdoor vs indoor football
As we can see there are many benefits to both indoor and outdoor football. Allowing young footballers to experience a mixture of both can ensure that they’re properly prepared for any football opportunity that comes up. A short summary of the benefits of both can be quickly read through below:
The benefits of playing indoor football
The benefits of indoor football include being able to play year-round regardless of weather, playing in tighter spaces improves technical abilities and reaction time. A smaller pitch additionally leads to more repetitions and ultimately an increased fitness level.
The benefits of playing outdoor football
Outdoor football is typically played on larger fields, allowing for more time on the ball and the opportunity to run, increased accuracy over long distances and increased positional awareness. As well as the benefits of playing in the fresh air and experience playing in difficult weather.
We Make Footballers and a mix of indoor and outdoor football
Ultimately, the requirements of indoor football lend to a heavier focus on certain areas of the game than outdoor football – and vice versa.
Close control and speed of thought undoubtedly benefit from confined spaces and the frenetic pace of playing indoor football, whereas players can only develop a positional sense and the ability to play a long-range game through outdoor football.
It is for this reason that We Make Footballers believe a mixture of both indoor and outdoor football develops the most rounded football players. Children who can combine an excellent first touch brought about from the speed of playing indoors with the mental resilience and knowledge to cope with whatever the weather is doing have a far greater chance of fulfilling their potential, compared to a child who is restricted to simply training either indoors or outdoors.
To find out more about We Make Footballers and how we can help your child flourish, book a first free session at your local football training academy.
