Take the stress out of coaching
Deliver better coaching sessions, with less effort with MatchPlay Cards
They help keep players engaged and learning through fun, game-based challenges that feel like real sport. Encourage decision-making and cultivate players who can problem solve and communicate with confidence.
Hey Coach! This is what you've been looking for...
Find Your Match
Finally get every player switched on
Add a simple challenge and watch your team's energy lift instantly. Changing up elements of the training keeps sessions competitive and fun without extra planning.
Watch players solve it themselves
Create sessions where players discover answers instead of being told. They build confidence in their decision making, think faster and learn independently.
Turn mistakes into learning wins
Use real game moments to help players adapt, experiment and grow their understanding while they play fun and engaging activities.
Unlock player potential with MatchPlay Cards
MEET OUR CARDS FOR COACHES
Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards
Built for Head Coaches, Coach Developers, Heads of PE, and Academy Leads, these cards help you facilitate workshops, support staff growth, and create better coaching conversations by design and not luck.
How to use this deck
Head Coaches & Coach Developers use these MatchPlay cards to:
- Facilitate high-impact coaching workshops
- Structure mentor conversations with purpose
- Support ongoing CPD, not one-off sessions
- Create a shared coaching language across programmes
- Develop coaches who can think on the run
Why these cards are different?
These aren’t activities to do they are challenges that shape how coaches think and act.
- Designed to facilitate coach development workshops
- Ideal for in-house CPD, mentoring conversations, and staff meetings
- Supports games-based, player-centred, and inquiry-driven coaching
- Encourages coaches to notice more, say less, and design better environments
Whether you’re working with early-career coaches or experienced practitioners, the cards meet coaches where they are and stretch them forward.
Why you'll love this deck
They're our best deck of challenge cards yet and we made them to solve a simple problem: too many coaches and teachers are expected to deliver great sessions without the time, support, or confidence to do so.
The expertly designed and trusted challenges turn coaching principles and frameworks into practical, game-ready prompts that help coaches engage players, adapt sessions live, and reflect with purpose, raising the quality of coaching without adding complexity.
Trusted by coaches worldwide
We know you'll love MatchPlay cards because...
No more late-night planning
We all know the feeling… scrambling to plan a lesson late at night or hoping the drills you’ve picked actually land with the group in front of you. MatchPlay Cards take that pressure off. One flip gives you a ready-to-run game constraint, challenge or idea you can use straight away.
Keep players hooked
Players drop out when sessions feel boring, confusing or overly instructional. Coaches drop out when the load feels too heavy. MatchPlay Cards boost engagement for players and reduce stress for teachers — helping clubs keep more people involved for longer.
Challenge every skill level
Players arrive with different skills, motivations and understanding. Keeping everyone engaged at the same time is tough.Add MatchPlay Cards to provide flexible, levelled challenges that allow coaches to adapt activities to every player without designing separate drills.
Build real game awareness
Repetitive drills lose players fast and telling players what to do doesn’t build game intelligence. Using MatchPlay Cards you can create fun, game-based learning environments that put decision-making and creativity at the centre.
Our MatchPlay Cards are perfect for:
- Volunteers, part-time coaches at community clubs, school teams or grassroots organisations
- Coaches managing mixed-ability / mixed-age squads
- Clubs with limited resources, minimal admin support or volunteer-run governance
- Anyone who values inclusion, participation, enjoyment and wants to make sport accessible for all
See How West Ham FC use our MatchPlay Cards
"They have been really interesting for us because as a tool they provide a real stimulus for players. A normal game isn't a normal game with MatchPlay Cards, suddenly you add the cards and they are being challenged in different ways, whether that be individual or team challenge.
Sometimes we give a player a MatchPlay Card© for a block period of time to explore that challenge. The job of the coach is to create a problems and MatchPlay Cards© enable you to do that.”
- Ross Brooks, Foundation Phase Lead
MatchPlay Cards
Turn sessions into purposeful play. MatchPlay Cards help coaches and teachers run game-based activities with clear intent. Each challenge card promotes decision-making, communication and engagement — so players learn as they play, and you spend less time planning.
1
Pick them
Choose the perfect MatchPlay Card to suit your session theme or player focus.
2
Add them
Add team and player challenges into your game or practice to spark thinking and engagement.
3
Play them
Let the game flow and watch players learn, adapt, and have fun through play.
Build your perfect coaching pack
Save 10% when you buy 2 or more sets of Matchplay Cards!
BUNDLE AND SAVE 10%
Your bundle
Maximise Your MatchPlay Cards
Year's worth of games with MatchPlay Cards©️ E-BOOK
The MatchPlay Cards® Ebook is the essential companion for coaches and teachers who want to design better games, engage every player, and coach the game – not the drill.
Built from real-world experience across schools, grassroots sport, academies, and talent pathways, this practical ebook shows you exactly how to use MatchPlay Cards® to create high-engagement, games-based learning environments that develop smarter, more confident players.
Whether you're teaching football, hockey, netball, rugby, or deliver PE, this ebook gives you ready-to-use game ideas, session structures, and challenges that transfer directly to game play.
Engage players with choice and challenge
Play over 100 different team and player challenges to develop your players decision making, problem solving and communication.
MatchPlay Cards solve these needs by offering game-based, constraint-led challenges that improve tactical understanding, technical execution under pressure, and player ownership. All without adding extra planning time.
The Coaches Corner
Our top tips for playing more games and maximising your sessions.
