What is Soccerstarts?
Soccerstarts is a football coaching programme split into various age groups covering toddlers, pre school kids and primary age children.
Summary of all age groups below
Parent Participation age groups
Walking to 3 years (100% parent participation 1 parent to 1 child)
2.5 years to 3.5 years (100% parent participation 1 parent to 1 child)
3 to 5 years (1st half of class children encouraged to take part on their own, 2nd half of class 100% parent participation 1 parent to 1 child)
Non Parent participation age groups
4 to 6 years
5.5 to 7.5 years
7 to 9 years
Age groups overlap to ensure children are fitted into the age group which best suits their confidence and them as a individual. If for example a child at 5.5 years is ready to move up they will be catered for in the older age group 5.5 to 7.5 years. If a different 5.5 year old isn’t ready to move up at that age then they can continue in the 4 to 6 age group to give them time to develop further within this age group and move up when is the right time for the child.
Please find below a detailed breakdown on each age group below :
Soccerstarts Walking- 3 years.
Session duration: 40 minutes
The first Soccerstarts stage encourages parents to 100% fully participate alongside their child (1 parent to 1 child) which has massive benefits for your child’s skill development as well as for your relationship with your child as these classes are encouraging play and an active lifestyle as well as coaching your child basics of football. These classes use various pieces of equipment and small footballs to help engage your child in the session. The sessions aims are to introduce your child to football related activity and start working on loads of fun practise on football related skills. As well as improving agility, balance co-ordination, footballing and social skills these sessions will help your child’s number’s and language skills as they will be talking to their parent throughout the session and after the session about activities they are partaking in (and hopefully in the days after a fun session). Developing physical movement/ literacy and a love for movement and being physically active is also a large part of these classes in a fun and age appropriate manner. These sessions will also aim to improve your child’s confidence being in an environment with other children.
Soccerstarts 2.5-3.5 years
Session duration: 40 minutes
This class is a bridge between the Walking to 3 and 3 to 5 years classes to support children when they move from toddlers age classes into the 3 to 5 years classes.
The second Soccerstarts stage encourages parents to 100% fully participate alongside their child (1 parent to 1 child) which has massive benefits for your child’s skill development as well as for your relationship with your child as these classes are encouraging play and an active lifestyle as well as coaching your child basics of football. These classes use various pieces of equipment and small footballs to help engage your child in the session. The sessions aims are to introduce your child to football related activity and start working on loads of fun practise on football related skills. As well as improving agility, balance co-ordination, footballing and social skills these sessions will help your child’s number’s and language skills as they will be talking to their parent throughout the session and after the session about activities they are partaking in (and hopefully in the days after a fun session). Developing physical movement/ literacy and a love for movement and being physically active is also a large part of these classes in a fun and age appropriate manner. These sessions will also aim to improve your child’s confidence being in an environment with other children.
3 years- 5 years
(mixture of parent participation activities and activities children encouraged to take part on their own)
Session duration 40 minutes
These classes still involve some parent participation (1 parent to 1 child for 50% of the class). Parents will take part fully with their child for roughly 50% of the class and at other points parents will watch their children proudly from the side lines while children encouraged to take part on their own. Parents will partner with their child during more advanced activities. Parents still an important part of the class and are expected to stay as children will be taking part with them at points during the sessions as well as taking part independently.
These classes start to develop your child’s social skills in a different manner as they are taking part in these football classes at points on their own and some of the content is more advanced as children are now that little bit older and have developed further.
Children may be ready to move into non parent participation classes from 4 years old if they are good listeners for their age and are socially confident within the Soccerstarts 3 to 5 years age group of other structured sports classes they presently attend elsewhere.
However others may prefer to still have fun with their parents at this age so we cater for both style of classes for children aged 4.
If children are new to Soccerstarts and are between 3 and 5 years old we generally recommend they start in the 3 to 5 years group rather than the 4 to 6 group.
Age groups for children at present with no parent participation at present at
4-6 years
5.5- 7.5 years and
7 years to 9 years.
These age groups are non-parent participation and parents are free to watch classes or take a well-deserved break. Parents recommended to stay to watch during the 4-6 years classes as children are still little and love their parents to watch how they are getting on at this stage.
The age groups overlap to provide the ability for confident children to Move up or remain in a age group to further their development as a individual and age group when they are ready not just because they have hit a certain age.
Some children may be ready for example to move up at to the 5.5 to 7.5 age group at 5.5 years old. Others may need time to gain confidence or might be new to football when they join the classes so may need to develop further in the 4 to 6 years age group at the same age.
Classes for the 4-6 years and 5.5- 7.5 years age group are 50 minutes in length.
Classes for the 7-9 years age group are 1 hour in length.
At present we dont run classes for children for children 9 years old plus
Most of our players (when they reach 9) have developed the skills to move into club and/or school football and are keen to do this when they reach 9 years old. Most also then have more local options in terms of club and school football they can pursue if they wish once they reach 9.
If there is demand in the future we may add a 9 to 12 years age group but we are happy when our children tell us they have gained the confidence and skills through our classes to move into school/ club football and this happens at a different age/stage for every/ individual child.
We also have children who move into club or school football at a young age and continue with us as long as they can to gain the ability to develop their skills and confidence even further via our fun activities/ sessions. We have several children at present who presently combine sessions with us with football/other sports at their club’s and/school as well.
Other children move into different sports after their time with Soccerstarts and have their parents have told us our classes have helped them develop a love for sport and physical activity even if they decide not to move into organised football as their main sport.
Sessions for children who are ready to take part without their parents are involve movement and football skills development activities and small sided games of football. All our sessions use a non traditional football (Futsal/ Futebol De Salao ball) over 95% of the time to enhance co-ordination and decision making and problem solving abilities and perfectly suited to indoor football and futsal activities.
FUN is still a vital element of all our sessions where children take part on their own even though they may become more challenging in terms of their content.
Sessions will be set up to encourage loads of touches of the ball for every child in the class as practise makes a skill permanent.
Classes will be structured and fun and repetition of skills an important part of classes but loads of different activities will be used to encourage use of all parts of both feet for control, passing, dribbling and shooting. Ball Mastery and moves to beat players also introduced from 4 years classes onwards.
Developing movement, agility, co-ordination and speed an important part of our classes hidden within fun movement and football activities.
Small sided games (SSG’S) are also used suitable to the age of the group to encourage alot of decision making and repetition of skills activity in a game environment such as dribbling, passing and running with the ball and learning when is the right time to dribble, pass and shoot via practise in a small sided game suitable for the age group. Any small sided games we play aim to give all players lots of touches of the football to enable them to have FUN and LEARN.
First and foremost though any activities Soccerstarts Football Academy delivers as stated above. Any activity we deliver needs to pass the FUN test (ie is it fun/ exciting/ child friendly) so the children love taking part in what we do and are keen to return and develop a love for football, sport and movement in general.
Soccerstarts sessions will use a mix of SFA, Brazilian Soccer School, Socatots and Coerver coach education and also pull from head coach Bryan Robertson’s experience working with children of a wide variety of ages from Walking to 18 years old and what works well for each age group from his experience across more than 20 years coaching a wide range of age groups in different settings and for different organisations.
As children move through the age groups sessions become more advanced in a age appropriate manner with the introduction of more moves to beat players and advanced ball mastery and coaching concepts during sessions and more challenging activities. Again though as stated above the number 1 priority is the children having FUN no matter what age and stage they are at in their footballing journey with us.
contact Soccerstarts today for more details on call – 07544221045 and email [email protected]