This season has seen the launch of our ‘Excellence Club’ for boys & girls playing in both the U7 & U8 age groups. Our Excellence Club involves training & matches giving the children a chance to experience quality coaching and to express their skills in a game situation.
These sessions are ‘invite only’ and we currently have 12 children attending on a Friday evening, ranging from 5 – 8 years old. Our ultimate goal is to help the players improve their footballing skills, and help them to become confident when in a game situation. We encourage the children to make their own decisions, which helps with their knowledge & game understanding. There is no pressure on the players; we just want to make sure they have fun whilst improving their skills.
We played our first game on Friday 16th November against Water Eaton Blues, this was the first opportunity some of the children have had to play in a ‘real’ game. We won the game 10-1 with goals from George (5), Freddie (2), Harry, Eoin & Lewis. However, despite the score line the most pleasing aspect was the performance from the players. During training we have been focusing on keeping possession & that is something they did very well during the game. Obviously it’s nice for the children to experience that ‘winning feeling’ on their first game, but ultimately as a coach it is the performance and development of the children which is the most important.
We have our next game on Friday 30th November against Two Mile Ash kick off at 5:45pm. Over the last couple of sessions we have been working on ‘creating space’ when we are in possession, so that’s what we will be looking for from the children during the game. The main thing is that the children go out there try their best & play with a big smile on their face, because remember you have to enjoy it!
Since our club started on October 5th 2012, every child has improved in different ways, whether it’s with the ball at their feet or when they are defending. We are looking forward to helping them to improve further and who knows….we could have some future stars on the horizon!
