Diary Of A Footytot

A friend's little boy has been invited to train at a premier league soccer school; he's five. 

He was scouted at a Footytotzs class. Within seconds of hearing this news, I was on the phone booking my son James on the course whilst planning a lavish retirement in Italy.

Footytotzs is an educational programme delivering structured early play for kids aged two to five. Developed by Charles Orr, a member of the one of the UK's top North West Premier League Football academies and Shirley Booth, a creative writer, the sessions have been carefully designed to not only provide physical activity for children but also to be educational.

About the course:

The Footytotz programme supports and promotes children's development around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). EYFS is a comprehensive statutory framework that sets the standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to five.  The courses at Footytotzs are based around topics and stories that children learn during this time.

The Dairy:

Over the coming weeks, James, the lively three year old, will be following the course and I'll be keeping a diary of events as he kicks, leaps, lunges, twists, runs and hopefully scores some goals on his path to learning essential football skills. Let's kick off...

Week 1:

The class we're visiting is in Didsbury and Jamie's our instructor. Jamie has the childrens’ TV presenter effect, instantly captivating the youngster. Even though James is at his first class, he seems relaxed and is eager to get started.

Each carefully planned class works around a theme, which is different each week; today's is the Harvest. 

The kids are told to sit in a circle where they are asked which foot is left and right and a blue and red sticker is put onto the relevant foot. This is then followed by the warm up which involves some very active bean interpretations, broad bean (arms out), tall bean (tip toes and stretch up), jumping bean (jump), you get the idea...They love it. Once they are adequately warmed up, the training begins.

The Training Games

Drop and stop

The kids hold the ball over their heads, drop it to the floor and roll their left foot over the ball, from front to back.  This is then repeated with the right foot.

Harvest the crops

The children are put into a team and each team is told to stand beside one of four cones which are placed in each corner of the room.  In the centre is a pit of coloured shapes.  Each child is told to run and collect the corresponding coloured shape for their cone, one by one.

Make a stew

Each colour represents a vegetable ie Orange – Carrot etc.
Different coloured hoops are placed in the corner of the room  The children, still in their teams, are told to make a stew. Jamie shouts out the vegetable and each child from each team, dribbles the ball over to the circle, collects the correct coloured veg and dribbles the ball back to their hoop placing the object inside.

The allotment

Jamie sets up an assault course.  All the children sit on a mat at one end of the room.  Two kids complete the course at a time starting by running around a hoop, ducking under an arch and finishing by kicking a ball into the net and scoring.  

The first day was great fun and James loved his session. Jamie’s enthusiasm is contagious. He has boundless energy, like the chewing gum in Ferguson's mouth, he never stops moving. One part of the many benefits kids get from this course is the development of their concentration skills, something that’s essential for school and beyond.

I'm impressed with anyone who can keep a gang of toddlers entertained and under control, forget the football that’s an art in itself. 

Roll on next week...

For more information about the training programmes and classes visit www.footytotz.co.uk.