How AI Insights Work

After a coach rates a player, InsideFooty uses AI to interpret that data and generate written insights. Coaches see a development summary with focus areas. Parents see a friendly progress update with suggestions for what to practice at home. The AI doesn't watch training or make its own judgements — it reads the coach's ratings and translates them into useful, readable feedback.

The AI looks at the coach's ratings across all four development corners (Technical, Physical, Psychological, Social), plus any sub-skill detail when available. It considers the player's recent trend — are they improving, staying steady, or dipping? — and generates observations based on that data. It also factors in how many sessions have been recorded, so it can be appropriately cautious with limited data.

The insights are only as good as the data behind them. If a coach has only entered one or two sessions, the AI will be cautious and general. With five or more sessions, patterns start to emerge and the insights become more specific and useful. The AI will never fabricate observations — if it only has broad pillar scores (e.g. "Technical: 6"), it won't invent specific sub-skill commentary like "needs to work on receiving on the half-turn". That level of detail only appears when the coach has rated individual sub-skills.

Coaches can rate players in two ways. A Quick Rating gives a single score per corner (e.g. Technical: 7, Physical: 5). A Detailed Rating breaks each corner into individual sub-skills — for example, Technical includes Scanning, Body Orientation, First Touch, Weak Foot Usage, and Passing Range. When the AI has detailed ratings, it can reference specific skills by name. When it only has quick ratings, it stays broad and won't guess at sub-skill detail.

Usually one of two reasons. First, the player may only have quick ratings (pillar-level scores), so the AI deliberately stays broad rather than inventing specifics. Second, the player may only have one or two sessions recorded — with limited data, the AI can't identify trends or patterns yet. The more sessions a coach logs (especially with detailed ratings), the more specific and useful the insights become.

InsideFooty uses four scoring bands: 9–10 is Outstanding, 7–8 is Above Average, 5–6 is Age Appropriate, and 3–4 is Developing. Crucially, 5–6 is a positive score — it means the player is performing where you'd expect for their age group. Parents should not see a 5 or 6 as a concern. The full breakdown is available on the Scoring Guide page.

The overall score is weighted: Psychological counts for 40%, Technical for 30%, Social for 20%, and Physical for just 10%. Physical is deliberately lowest because children develop physically at wildly different rates — a late bloomer who's brilliant at decision-making and communication shouldn't be penalised for being smaller than their teammates.

You control it through your ratings. The AI only works with the data you provide — your pillar scores, sub-skill ratings, and session notes. If you enter detailed ratings with sub-skills, the AI will reference those specific skills. If you enter quick ratings, the AI stays broad. You can't edit the AI output directly, but you can influence it by being more specific in your ratings.

No. The AI interprets your data, not its own observations. It won't say a player is "outstanding at passing" if you've rated their Technical corner as a 4. The insights are a reflection of your assessment, presented in a format that's useful for development planning and parent communication.

Three things make the biggest difference. First, use Detailed Ratings (sub-skills) rather than Quick Ratings when you can — this gives the AI specific skills to reference. Second, rate consistently across sessions so the AI can identify genuine trends rather than noise. Third, log at least five sessions per player — that's the threshold where trend analysis becomes reliable.

The AI can suggest focus areas and practice activities based on the data. These are starting points for your coaching, not prescriptions. You know your players and your training environment better than any AI — use the suggestions as prompts to consider, not instructions to follow.

The practice activities in your child's summary are fun suggestions, not homework. They're designed to be things you can do together at the park or in the garden — like "practise receiving the ball on the move" or "play a passing game with both feet". Don't put pressure on your child to follow them rigidly. If they enjoy it, great. If not, just playing football together is always valuable.

Each summary is personalised to your child's data. If their coach has entered detailed sub-skill ratings, the summary will reference specific skills. If the coach uses quick ratings, the summary stays more general. The amount of sessions recorded also affects how specific the AI can be — more sessions means more data to work with.

Not at all. A score of 5–6 means "Age Appropriate" — your child is performing exactly where you'd expect for their age group. This is a positive result. The scoring system is designed so that most children sit in this range, with room to grow. Trends matter more than any single score — a child who moves from 4 to 5 over a few weeks is showing great progress.

No. The AI reads the coach's ratings and translates them into a written summary. It doesn't watch training, it doesn't have opinions, and it doesn't make independent assessments. Everything in the summary comes from what the coach entered. Think of it as a translator — it takes numbers and turns them into words.