Jan Player Profile - Max - 6yrs

Child's Name: Max 

Age: 6

Venue/s attended:Sacred Heart, Glendowie  

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 2-3 years

  

Favourite Little Kickers game?  The Football Game!

What do you like best about Little Kickers?  Playing football with my friends

What do you want to be when you grow up? Architect

Favourite healthy food?  Salad

Who is your favourite coach?  Ahmed

What do you love? Mum & Dad

Parent or Carers Perspective on Little Kickers: Max started coming along to little kickers as way to burn off some energy on a winters days but over time has learned to really enjoy the game and developed some good skills.

Little Kickers announce a partnership with Ellerslie AFC

Little Kickers are very pleased to announce our partnership with Ellerslie AFC who continue to offer a strong junior football program. We will be working together to get the same outcome, growing football at grass seeds level and beyond.

Little Kickers are running classes at YMCA Ellerslie, Michaels Ave. next to Ellerslie AFC’s grounds under their club name, for kids from 18 months to 7 years, working alongside Ellerslie’s youth program.

Little Kickers will directly link into the club, graduating to junior football with a defined pathway and skills base. 

Ellerslie Football Club’s website: http://www.ellersliesoccer.org.nz/
Little Kickers NZ’s website: www.littlekickers.co.nz

Oct Player Profile - Lilly Day - 6yrs

Meet the future deliverer of our Grand-kids!

Child’s Name:  Lilly Day

Age: 6

Venue/s attended:  Woodend, Christchurch

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 3 or so months

Favourite Little Kickers game? What's the time Mr Wolf

What do you like best about Little Kickers? Because it is fun!!

What do you want to be when you grow up? Midwife

Favourite healthy food? Apples

Who is your favourite coach? Coach Justin and Emily

What do you love? Babies, horses and football

Parent or Carers Perspective on Little Kickers: 

The low numbers in the class, the positive and very encouraging coaches, the number of different games/ drills each week always different. It has been a really good thing for our shy little girl, she is much more confident and can’t wait each week till Little Kickers thanks to you guys!!

Thank you Jemma for your lovely comments about Little Kickers, we're so glad your beautiful daughter Lilly is finding confidence in our classes.

Sept Player Profile - Joshua - 4yrs

If you're ever in trouble just ask Dr Joshua and he'll make everything better ... 

Child's Name:  Joshua House

Age: 4

 (Joshua & one his favourite Coaches)

Venue/s attended:  Lincoln

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers?  About 4 weeks nowFavourite Little Kickers game?  I love all of them, but my favourite is 'What's the time Mr Wolfy!'What do you like best about Little Kickers?  Apart from the football skills gained, the children are taught to listen to the teacher.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor!Favourite healthy food?  StrawberriesWho is your favourite coach?  Coach Leanne & Coach Gareth
What do you love? Going to the park, swimming and going to 'Clip and Climb'

Parents Perspective on Little Kickers: 

The children are taught the essentials of listening, respecting others, while having fun. Well thought out exercises that the children enjoy and keep them interested. 

Player Profile - Nicholas - 4 years 8 months

Choo Choo!!

We look forward to hearing about all your adventures as a Train Driver and maybe one day you can give all the future budding footballers a ride on your train. 

Child's Name:  Nicholas Henderson

Age: 4 years 8 months

Venue/s attended:  Point View School, Dannemora

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers?  6 months

Favourite Little Kickers game or imagination?   Kicking the ball into the net

What do you like best about Little Kickers?  The colour games

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Train Driver 

Favourite healthy food?  Bananas

Who is your favourite coach?  Coach Ashley and Coach Sonia

What do you love? Mummy and Daddy

Parent or Carers Perspective on Little Kickers: 
Little Kickers is fantastic for helping children with their fine motor skills.  We really enjoy how the activities help with their learning such as counting and colours.

 

Player Profile - Zachery - 3yrs

Zachery has been with us at Stonefields, Auckland for just over a year, he LOVES his goal kicking! 

Child's Name:  Zachery Atiae

Age: 3yrs

Venue/s attended:  Stonefields

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers?  12 months

Favourite Little Kickers game?   Kicking goals

What do you like best about Little Kickers?  Siobhan and Lilli

Favourite healthy food?  Porridge

Who is your favourite coach?  Siobhan

What do you love? Doing big kicks and scoring goals

Parents Perspective on Little Kickers: 

He has really got a lot out of Little Kickers and looks forward to it every week. He is slowly building up his skills and the more he does this the more enjoyable it becomes. The teacher makes a difference and Siobhan does a great job and Zac responds to her really well.

Thank you answering our questions and keep kicking those awesome goals!

Player Profile - Gabriel - 3yrs 11 months

Thank you to the lovely, nearly 4 yr old, Gabriel (with a bit of help from his parents) for answering our questions. 

May you be a safe racing driver when you grow up!

Name: Gabriel Taylor

Age: 3 years & 11 Months 

Venues attended: Takapuna & Northcote Int.

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 2 years

Favourite Little Kickers game?   "the running around one" ( relay race) "and the one where Mat says 'Gabriel on blue and Marco on red' and then you score a goal!"         

  

What do you like best about Little Kickers? Wearing my football kit & fast yellow shoes, and scoring goals.

                                                                    

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A racing driver.

Favourite healthy food?  Carrot & Cucumber.

Who is your favourite coach? Coach Anna & Coach Mat

What do you love? Batman Lego & Pepper Pig  

Parents Perspective on Little Kickers:  We love LK. Apart from being a fun thing to do with Gabriel every Saturday morning, It's been a great way for him to develop his physical strength and balance skills progressively as he grows.

The Little Kickers team would like to wish you a very happy and special 4th Birthday 

North Shore Summer Update

It has been a really busy year on the Shore, we have just opened our Birkenhead Saturday classes so now have sessions running at Takapuna, Mairangi Bay, Devonport, Birkenhead, and Sunnynook each week. 

2014 Dates & Summer Sale: Our summer break this year’s runs from the last sessions on 14 December through to starting up again on the 1 February – we also have a Summer Sale on at the moment for any renewals booked before 14 December (contact Sally on aucklandnorth@littlekickers.co.nz for up to 30% discount on sessions).

In 2014 we will be opening Saturday classes in Albany and Orewa – so plenty of football being played on the North Shore!

Creating Partnerships: Little Kickers are also pleased to announce a partnership with Albany United football club  – Albany have a strong reputation in Junior football (they currently work in conjunction with the Ricky Herbert Academy) and Little Kickers will be running sessions with them at Oteha Valley School in 2014. Our little kickers will directly link into the club, graduating to junior football with a defined pathway and skills base. 

Watch this space as we are also going to be putting together a similar partnership with another local North Shore team in early 2014 for one of our current venues.

With the summer coming some of our Devonport sessions will be held outside – so remember sunnies, hats and suncream with plenty of water to drink.

We will also have some new coaches starting in the new year – Piers is from the UK and used to be a body double for Fernando Torres! alongside some other new faces across the franchise.

Have a great Summer and keep practising!

Sally, Matt & the North shore team

Little Kickers classes are coming to Howick & Manukau!

Little Kickers provides boys and girls from 18 months through to 7 years of age with an early introduction to football (soccer) and is coming to Howick and Manukau in the New Year by young mum Janet Cho.

Janet had always wanted to do something to engage children in the local community, and to run her own business. With two sons, aged 2 years and 4 months, Janet knew that going back to work full-time wasn’t going to work for their family.

“When I first came across Little Kickers I knew it would be perfect for my energetic two year old, then when I learnt of the franchise opportunity I knew it would be perfect for me too!

It enables me to spend more time with the children and I won’t feel like I’m missing out on part of their childhood.  I also noticed that there was little around offering a gentle introduction to little team sports for pre-school kids in the local area."

We have so much demand coming from the area and Janet is just so in-tune with what Little Kickers is all about that we can't wait to get classes started and have a ball with your kids!

Janet is starting classes in Dannemora and Pakuranga in Feb & March 2014 and more due to start throughout the year so enquire today to secure your place.


EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: enrol now and get 50% off registration + 1 free trial class or an additional class onto your enrolment saving over $30.00!

E-mail: manukaueast@littlekickers.co.nz

Phone: (09) 273 3338

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Play not Push - Little Kickers Philosophy 

The Little Kickers pre-school football programme first started over 10 years ago in London, England.  Since then, the programme has grown phenomenally, and now provides over 20,000 enthusiastic young footballers with the chance to let of steam and get fit each week.  There are classes operating in locations as diverse as the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Ecuador and of course NZ each week.   This growth looks set to continue as children from around the world take the opportunity to gain an early introduction to the beautiful game of football. 

The program was developed by early childhood educators in conjunction with top UK FA coaches and works on the basis that children are much more likely to learn if their imaginations are engaged and skills are introduced through fun games, rather than formal drills. The company’s motto “Play not Push” reflects this, and the emphasis that Little Kickers place on providing a fun environment for children to learn in, rather than a competitive one. 

Player Profile - Lucas G - 3 1/2yrs

We have the adorable 'Super Hero Lucas' as our Player Profile from Mt Eden...

Name: Lucas Gibbons

Age: 3 1/2yrs

Venues: Mt Eden

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 2 years

Favourite Little Kickers game?  Scoring goals!

What do you like best about Little Kickers? Playing with the other kids and having a lot of fun

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Super Hero – like Super Man!

Favourite healthy food? Sushi

Who is your favourite coach? Andrew!

What do you love? My Mummy and Daddy and my little sister Pippa

Dad's Perspective on Little Kickers:  It’s great to see Lucas learning skills and coordination in the drills. He really loves it and likes playing with the other kids in his class.

Thank you Lucas (& Dad) for answering our questions, I hope he does grow up to be a Super Hero of some sort!

Player Profile - Zac - 3yrs

Player Profile - Zac- 3yrs 

For our final player profile of the year, we have Zach from our North Shore franchise, an aspiring fireman and doting big brother =)

Name:  Zachary Hyde

Age: 3

Venues of Little Kickers attended: Mairangi Bay & Takapuna

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 1 1/2 years 

What is your favourite little Kickers game? Running races

What do you like best about little kickers? Playing games and my super fast team

What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman

What’s your favourite healthy food? Bananas. I eat one before every soccer time

Who's your favourite coach? Coach George

What do you love? My baby sister coz then Santa will bring me presents

Parent says: Love it, keeps him active and is developing a love for all sports.

Player Profile - Dejaun - 5yrs 

Introducing our player profile this month!

A future sprinter in the making, please welcome Dejaun from one of our Auckland Central East franchise!

Name:  Dejaun Naidoo

Age: 5 

Venues of Little Kickers attended: Meadowbank, Glendowie

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 14 months 

What is your favourite little Kickers game? The jet plane game and learning new tricks

What do you like best about little kickers? Playing a game of soccer at the end in a team

What do you want to be when you grow up? A sprinter like Usain Bolt!

What’s your favourite healthy food? Apples, strawberries and cucumbers

Who is your favourite coach? Coach Raphael

What do you love? Listening to music, dancing and soccer.

Parent says: 

Little Kickers is a great way to develop ball skills in children in an enjoyable way. Children go through drills and learn how to control the ball without even knowing it as they having so much fun. Our son has grown from skill to skill and it is great to now see him developing a team player spirit as well! Dejaun looks forward to his soccer game every week and so do we!

Lenny's Top Secret Garden Game

Hello Little Kickers! 

Lenny dropped by again and look what he left behind! Another top secret Garden Game for you to try at home. 

Get your kicking boots on and give it a go!

Garden Games

Looking for ideas for your children to practice their football skills at home? Have a look at the games below and have fun teaching them to your kids.

A great way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon and to keep fit =)

Car garage

Corner of a corner of the garden. This is the car garage. Get your child/children dribbling around the garden. When you blow the whistle, the children have to quickly dribble their football into the car garage. To make it more interesting, you can time how quickly they get their ball into the car garage or you can try to get their balls from your child.

Race mummy/daddy

This is a very simple race game, all you have to do is race your child/children. 

Make sure your child/children dribbles the ball in and out of the cones and keeps the ball nice and close. 

Hope you have a ball trying out these games!

Player Profile - Aston & Sienna - 6yrs

We have 2 player profiles in one post again this month but this time we have TWINS! Introducing Aston & Sienna...

Name:  Aston and Sienna Pickmere

Age: 6

Venues of Little Kickers attended: Mega Kickers Mt Albert/ Previously Takapuna

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 

2 Terms

What is your favourite little Kickers game? 
Aston: Leap Frog    
Sienna: Crab Game

What do you like best about little kickers? 
Playing games

What do you want to be when you grow up? 
Aston: Scientist  
Sienna: Vet

What’s your favourite healthy food? 
Aston: Pears, Feijoas  

Sienna: Nectarine

Who is your favourite coach? 
Aston: Coach Andrew and Coach Raphael  
Sienna: Coach Raphael 

What do you love? 
Aston: Trashies  
Sienna: Chasing the coaches to put the balls away.

Parent says: 

Really good for honing their skills playing on the quick surface.  The kids confidence has improved and this is reflected when playing games on Saturdays.  They love Mega Kickers and will be back for preseason training early next year.

Player Profile - Stella & Julia - 4 & 2yrs

Player Profile - Stella & Julia - 4 & 2yrs

We have 2 player profiles in one post this month, sisters, Stella & Julia, who attend our sessions at Takapuna.

Name:  Stella & Julia Burns

Age: 4 & 2

Venues of Little Kickers attended: Takapuna

How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 
Stella since she was 2 
Julia since she was 18months (Total 2 yrs for Stella and 1 yr for Julia)

 What is your favourite little Kickers game? 
Stella: Big kicks and being the goalie 
Julia: Big kicks and jumping

What do you like best about little kickers? 
Stella: Seeing my friends and the coaches 
Julia: Wearing my goal shoes!

What do you want to be when you grow up? 
Stella: A mummy 
Julia: A fireman

What’s your favourite healthy food? 
Stella: Spinach lasagne & spaghetti bolognese 
Julia: Porridge

Who is your favourite coach? Stella & Julia: Daddy, Nicky & Lisa

What do you love? 
Stella: Reading books 
Julia: Staying up late

Parent says: 

We love taking the girls to "goal" each Saturday morning. They always enjoy themselves and we have watched them learn not just skills like big kicks and little kicks but also colours, counting, and more importantly, how to follow instructions, listen to teachers, and play well with others.

Football Success Through Inclusion Not Perfection

This week's post is courtesy of one of our Little Kickers coaches from the UK but we've found the content very relevant for us folks here in New Zealand too.

Introducing Coach Dave...


Football Success Through Inclusion Not Perfection

15 years or so ago I became quite keen on the game of golf. My ability was limited to say the least, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing. The scenery, the company, the gentle exercise, the sense of achievement, were all highly appealing. Then again, all these attributes still appeal to me but I haven't picked up a club since the turn of the millennium. Whilst I found that I could hack my way around any course in my unorthodox style, and my putting was as good as any of my peers, I felt a massive pressure to improve.

This pressure came from friends who were better than me. It would appear their beef with my game was my swing, or lack of it. Rather than starting directly above my head, it started from about a 35% angle behind my back leg. I was perfectly happy playing like this – being in my early 20's, any chance of winning the Open had long gone. But they wouldn't let it go. "You've got so much power, you could be awesome if you had a correct swing" was the kind of comment I'd hear on loop. Finally, I gave in and booked a course of lessons with a 'pro'. He was not amused by my style of golf at all. "You can't do that, you must do this, that and the other". I tried, but the higher my swing starting point, the more air shots I made. And that was when I wasn't hacking lumps out the turf. I was hitting everything but the ball.

I persisted for months with what I'd been 'taught'. But gradually lost patience and fell out of love with the game. It wasn't fun any more. It was hard work, frustrating, even embarrassing. When I heard Bubba Watson had surprisingly won the US Masters, one commentator described his style as "Like watching an octopus cut down a tree with a chainsaw". He then went on to remark on how ridiculous Bubba's long arms would look poking out the end of the Green Jacket's sleeves. This seasoned pundit was pretty much saying 'how could such an unorthodox freak win one of golf's biggest prizes?' A man who by his own admission has never taken a single golf lesson! Well he won it pal, and he won it his way.

Who actually wrote the manual for sports which says 'you can't do that and you must do this'? Surely if a technique works and gets results, then it's right. Yes practice is vital to success, as is dedication. but as I heard Howard Wilkinson say recently, "We need to convince players, not tell them". Surely it's basic psychology, 'Don't expect but suggest instead'. Anyone who's ever been nagged at about anything understands this. It's exactly the same with coaching. Present the information in a fun and engaging manner. Don't ram it down their throats.

When Dick Fosbury decided not to do a scissors style high jump in the 1968 Olympics and invented his own 'Fosbury flop' ensuring he won the gold medal and broke the world record in the process, did anyone say 'you can't do that'? Well I'm sure they probably did, but I doubt he cared very much. It's now a technique which has been used ever since and we saw it at London 2012 and I am sure it will continue well into the future. Until someone dares try something different, that is.

So what's this got to do with football and coaching? Everything, I believe. In England we are so obsessed with protocol. What's right, what's wrong, what's 'the done thing'. Until recently, many pro clubs looked at children's parents to see what the child was likely to develop into genetically. Wouldn't be surprised if some still do. Tall Mom and Dad meant little Billy would be big and strong. Little Mom and Dad meant little Billy would stay little and that was no use to them. The logic remains you can turn an athlete into a footballer but you can't turn a footballer into an athlete. Theo Walcott is a good example. At 16 he had a 100 metres time which was borderline Olympic qualification. Wasn't great at football, but hey that's the easy bit to teach isn't it?

Time and again we see comparatively small foreign players who are nothing less than geniuses. Messi, Zola, Juninho, Tevez, Maradona, to name a few. Would these guys have made it in English football? Would the scouts have wanted them? We'll never know. But my guess is we've discarded a wealth of talent at the expense of brawn and power over the years.

11 year ago I was watching West Brom play QPR in a scrappy Championship game. WBA were winning 1-0 and in the 2nd half QPR brought on a young 6"7 bean pole striker called Peter Crouch. The whole stadium rocked with laughter. Myself included, I'm now ashamed to admit. "One Rodney Trotter, there's only one Rodney Trotter" and then "Rodney, Rodney give us a wave” echoed round the Hawthorns.
I, and everyone else in the stadium, had been brought up, conditioned to think people that big were good for one thing only. Basketball. I bumped into the then chief scout at WBA the following week. His name was Richie Barker. Some of the older ones amongst you will recall him as a manager in his own right – I think he was at Wolves and Stoke. Richie was in the winter of his career at this stage. But I'll never forget bringing up the subject of 'That Rodney' and Richie cutting me dead to say "He'll make some player one day, son, you mark my words. He's got it all". I was confused. I liked Richie as a person, and respected his opinion, but surely he was talking rubbish? Well 11 years later Peter Crouch has fetched a combined transfer fee of £47 million, played for England 42 times scoring 22 goals, played 395 pro games scoring 156 goals, oh and he recently scored easily the goal of the season with his sublime technique.

Football fans have selective memories. Doubt many of the 20,000 or so at The Hawthorns that day remember shouting 'Freak' every time he touched the ball now? So Richie was right. But how many Richie Barker's are there in our game at the top level, in junior football and on the terraces? Sadly, very few. Judging a book by it's cover is still the order of the day.

Crouch is probably one of the most gifted footballers English football has produced in recent times. He just doesn't look like he should be.

I believe the way to increase the amount of gifted footballers in our game is to increase the amount of quality football played and coaching received. Skills development centres are becoming far more widespread but are still the poor relation to the league systems. As I've said before, I believe leagues do serve a purpose for some children but there is absolutely no reason why kids can't play in leagues (if they want to and aren't forced by parents) and also attend skills development centres too.

I myself am starting a development centre for year one and two children as my own children have now reached this age and are too old for Little Kickers. My intention is to hold one hour sessions. The first 20 mins or so will concentrate on ball mastery in various situations. Coaching will consist of limited command style, with majority of games having a guided discovery ethos. The rest of the sessions will consist of various small sided games with themes. Smaller numbers the better to encourage higher amount of time on the ball for each player. We'll have a debrief at the end when there'll be a little, relaxed Question and Answer coaching.

We'll have a pool of players of mixed abilities. Sides will be picked and changed, handicapped and swapped. Positions will be changed too. How can an 8 year old truly know they're going to be a goalkeeper for the rest of their lives? They can't. So they'll rotate positions. Learn how to emphasise with team mates, develop a rounded appreciation of all positions. At the end, the children will go home not having won or lost 12-0, but having played football, and, most importantly, lots of it. Hopefully, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves without having (if I'm being kind) nonsense shouted at them. If I'm being honest, sometimes borderline abuse shouted at them.

My philosophy is football coaching should be about inclusion not elitism. I think the English game should work on the basis of 1000 average young children playing in a positive, fun environment is likely to reap greater dividends in the long term than a so called elite group of 20 of whom the majority will fall out of love with the game because of pushy adults and elitist coaching before they become teenagers.

If anyone agrees or disagrees with my philosophy I'd love to hear from you. I'm particularly interested in coaches and parents thoughts regarding the pros and cons of children's leagues in comparison to skills development centres. Why can't they exist happily together? Being diplomatic, perhaps there are lessons they could learn from each other for the greater good?

You can follow Coach Dave @CoachDaveLKFC on twitter. Thank you for reading!