Player Profile - Emma - 3

Queen Emma’s Player Profile

We had the pleasure of asking Emma some questions in our Player Profile, read Emma’s answer to ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ – what an awesome answer!


Name: Emma
Age: 3 years old
Venues of Little Kickers attended ? Meadowbank Primary
How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? Approx 6 months.
What is your favourite little Kickers game? Airplane - you just stand up and fly around like an airplane!
What do you like best about little kickers? Goal time!!
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Queen Bee.
What’s your favourite healthy food? Carrots or Prawns.
Who is your favourite coach? Coach Rachael.
What do you love? Playing with my friend Sophia.

Your Mum and/or Dad’s perspective on Little Kickers: Little Kickers has been great for Emma. She's learnt how to follow and execute very specific instructions. The exercises are at a level that the kids can understand. The coaches are very patient and enthusiastic.

Player Profile - Daniel Doherty - 4

I have had the pleasure of coaching Daniel Doherty while a Junior Kicker at Takapuna, he has now moved up to Mighty Kickers and continues to thrive at Little Kickers with Coach's Nikki & Lisa.

Here is Daniel’s Player Profile Interview ...



Name: Daniel Doherty
Age: 4
Venues attended around the world: Takapuna (Auckland, New Zealand)
How long have you been coming to Little Kickers? 2 years
What is your favourite Little Kickers game? “the drills that involve scoring goals and the warm up when you run around the cones and jump over the cones marked out.”
What do you like best about little kickers? “Kicking the soccer ball around.”
What do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor
What’s your favourite healthy food? Chicken Nibbles
Who is your favourite coach? Coach Nikki & Lisa (and Yvette when she comes)
What do you love? Mummy, Daddy, Natalie and all my family. Also I love playing games.

Daniel’s Dad says: It is a great activity and has really helped develop Daniel’s co-ordination. He looks forward to soccer every Saturday and the games and activities are lots of fun. The coaches offer good encouragement and Little Kickers has helped his confidence a lot.

Oh how times have changed...

On exiting Bunnings Warehouse I was met by 3 extremely excited Girl Guides who bombarded me (nicely) asking if I would like to buy some biscuits – ‘how could I resist’ – and happily went away with my packet of Original Girl Guide biscuits (chocolate versus original – hard decision but original won this time).

I went home to my darling 2 ½ year old twin boys, gave them a nice big hug and proceeded to make a cup of tea and dig into my first Girl Guide Biscuit for the year – dunked in tea is my preference! On my third or possibly 10th biscuit (I wasn’t counting) I had a read of the packet which stated...

‘...By selling biscuits girls develop skills such as decision-making, customer service, marketing and money management....’ Girl Guides

I was in awe of how times have changed and how exciting times are for women. It’s great to read such a statement which is written by an organisation built on such old foundations and morals. A statement which epitomises women of today, this statement is written to show parents of these girls and all parents that men and women are in fact equal and can strive to be in control of their own lives.

I know this isn’t news to anyone (or I hope it isn’t!), men and women are equal – we all can live independently, have own education, money, jobs... What excites me though is that young girls are being taught this by Girl Guides and in a way the timing in which I came to buy my biscuits is quite ironic.

I am a strong believer that women can do anything. I happened to be in Bunnings buying Post Caps for the picket fence and gate that I had planned and built over the summer months and it happened to be here that Girl Guides are selling biscuits - in an overtly male place (statistics still show this) but with families galore wandering the isles.

When we had the Little Kickers Head Coach come over from the U.K. for initial training he was taken aback by how many girls we had in our classes versus what they have in the U.K. I was so pleased with this, that there are no pretences as to what a girl should participate in versus a boy. They understand the importance of active movement (no matter their sex). Girls enjoy our sessions just as much as the boys and we only see this increasing because sports/ hand eye coordination/ active movement is such a vital role in development of these early years with reading, writing and numerical reasoning.

NZ Football have seen a drop in female players at the age of 8 and over the last few years have put huge emphasis in developing females within the sport which is seeing an improvement already. It is exciting that we at Little Kickers have so many female coaches who are excellent role models to show both boys and girls that it’s a multi-sex sport.

I love New Zealand for being such a young country and able to cut away any pretences of ‘yee oldy’ days. Sport is sport and a child is a child!

Welcome to 2011!

2010 has come to an end, and what a rollercoaster year it was! Sport was at the forefront of entertainment in 2010 with the Football World Cup which the All Whites did amazingly well in – even came away un-defeated!

So what will 2011 bring? The build up to the Rugby World Cup will likely be the key topic of conversation in the sporting world. We’ve now entered the year of the Rabbit, which according to the Chinese Zodiac is the luckiest year, and I’m hopeful it will yield some sporting luck!

A New Year usually comes hand-in-hand with resolutions, and promises to oneself - to improve your life or the lives of those who surround you. Admittedly, you and I both know that a few weeks into the New Year, having promised yourself that you will eat healthily, you will be tucking into your Chinese takeaway. New Year’s resolutions often do not work for one reason or another; however, it shouldn’t take a New Year to prompt you to take steps to improve your lifestyle.

As adults (I use that term loosely!) we are constantly encouraging our children to become better at whatever they do, willing them to have the constant desire to increase their own motivation and to achieve greater things. Yet, we often fall short of it ourselves year after year. At Little Kickers, from session to session we aim to improve many different aspects of children’s lives; our carefully planned sessions include progressions that challenge the children both mentally and physically. The reason why adults’ resolutions never appear to work is because they are usually not enjoyable, or involve people making a great sacrifice. Children, however, improve their skills at our classes successfully because they are enjoying themselves.

When thinking about this, I set myself a New Year’s resolution that would both benefit me and be enjoyable. I have decided to join a social indoor football team, as great as I am with a size 1 Little Kickers kid’s football I feel I should start up or join a social indoor football team to get back into the game.

I would be interested to hear what your New Year’s resolutions are; why not leave a comment and let me know. Best of luck with them!

Here’s to a successful 2011.

Sprechen zie Football?

Bonjour, or should I say Yiassou having just returned from the Greek island of Crete. My girlfriend and I had a lovely time, a much deserved break for us both, a chance to relax in the sun, snorkel and various other activities.

It was about the fourth day into our holiday, and one of the cleaners who smiled so much it could almost be considered a condition, greeted us with a big smile and a loud “kalimera,”! Needless to say Stacey and I looked at each other slightly puzzled as to what “kalimera” meant. We later found out that it meant ‘good morning’, however it took us four days (out of a possible 7) to realise that we didn’t know any Greek. We were in Crete, but knew nothing of their language.

In our defence, upon arrival we could have easily thought we had landed in Birmingham, we were greeted by a long string of midlanders, it felt like the Costa del Coventry. Upon arrival to the airport and getting to the hotel, to being around the pool and on the beach, people would talk to us in English. This worried me slightly, was I that pale that they knew I was English? I had no Harry Potter books on me, and I didn’t drink tea so it couldn’t have been living up to the stereotype, and Stacey refused to allow me to pack my union jack bandana, much to my dismay!!!

We felt rude, we were in someone else’s country and we hadn’t even tried speaking their language. From then on we made a real conscious effort to speak in their language, admittedly for them to answer in English but at least we had tried.

During the same day I discovered a new language. A revelation. A language that we could all speak, no matter what country of origin. I found out that I could speak “Football”! I discovered this whilst walking past the numerous taverns and bars, each showing a different football match as to cater for everyone. I found myself speaking “Football” to so many different people.

Football has become an international language in itself. Adored and loved by so many, everyone has their own opinion on teams, players and managers, and regardless of if you want to hear someone’s opinion, if you speak Football you will receive it! Luckily for me, the island was full of Man Utd supporters, so I felt at home amongst friends. Whether it was just “what a goal” and sticking your thumbs up at them, or just naming players such as Messi and shaking your head in disbelief of his mastery of a football, it became a conversation, somewhat disjointed, but a conversation none the less.

Football brings people together. From all different walks of life, locally and as I found out - internationally. At Little Kickers we have sessions running on the other side of the world. And yes, some of us have slightly different accents, some may even speak another language, but speaking the language of Football has allowed people to share ideas, discuss opinions and bring people closer together. At Little Kickers children learn to love the game in the correct atmosphere, the love for the game so that in 18 years time, when they go off on their first holiday you know they are that little bit safer in the country because they can speak the same language….Football.

Note: If you are a Man Utd fan, do not holiday in Liverpool and expect to speak the same language. Lesson learnt.

Blue September 2010

My father is one of the lucky ones. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and lives to tell the tale. It seems most people have had someone close to them be diagnosed with cancer and it’s definitely not a ‘it won’t happen to me’ scenario as it’s just all too common now.

No longer can you just be a bystander to this diagnosis, if we can all help each other and ourselves with understanding early diagnosis and taking precautionary measures the more lives we can save.

“In New Zealand, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. About 2,500 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year.” (http://www.prostate.org.nz/) ‘Men’ are husbands, fathers and grandfathers who affect even the youngest generation. It is Blue September 2010 (Prostate Cancer Awareness month) and it seems many men have a dislike for acknowledging that something isn’t quite right or if they do acknowledge it they don’t want to act on it. It’s often up to those around them to push them to go to the Doctor and get a check up.

Now you may wonder what this has to do with us at Little Kickers and preschool football?

A study (‘NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study’) carried out over 6 years shows clearly that overweight and obese men are more likely to die from prostate cancer than men of normal weight, though no more likely to actually develop the disease.

Little Kickers is about starting that all important task of introducing daily movement as a lifestyle behaviour and if this can be done through the beautiful game of football (soccer) that they love to play than that’s even better.

The importance of being active comes with it the recognition of keeping healthy and awareness of your body in a positive way (even at their young age). We start off getting children to enjoy being active. We keep our sessions light hearted and fun without putting undue pressure on succeeding at what they are doing. We support your child’s effort whether their ‘big kick’ off the sandcastle (aka coloured marker) was actually a small kick or they missed it completely. It doesn’t matter to us, we’ll get them to keep trying and give them plenty of high fives along the way. Their enjoyment at the sessions is the most important thing.

By introducing the love of sports into their lives we hope to instil the love of healthy living which leads to a healthier lifestyle. This in turn leads to a healthier family environment and generations of healthy families.

If we can start this process at pre-school age we are more likely to succeed.


More information about Prostate Cancer and Blue September:
http://www.prostate.org.nz
http://blueseptember.org.nz/index.php

Hardest job in the world

After having had a few lemonades in my local public house, a friend and I were discussing our professions and our enjoyment of them. We then went off subject trying to list the most difficult jobs in the world, including the British Prime Minister and the next Manchester United manager; we listed the obvious - Firemen, the Police and all the emergency services. Admittedly we did digress somewhat, for example, the most difficult job in the world being selling doors – door to door…‘bing-bong, o you’ve got one, never mind’!!! It then became quite competitive as to who had the more enjoyable job.

I am pleased to say I won hands down! I listed the obvious clichés in it being rewarding and satisfying; however clichés are only in existence because they hold elements of truth and value. I also labelled seeing the development of children as a colossal reason, in addition having an impact on the improvement of health and fitness, and working for a company that holds high moral values.

I love Little Kickers, and I have been a proud employee in various different positions since 2003. It is difficult to call it work, as working with such excellent and passionate colleagues and like minded coaches it makes it fun and worthwhile. And obviously your children are the highlight of my weeks - I have learnt to expect the unexpected when dealing with children, but even that thought does not prepare you for some of the genius comments that children come up with! It’s nice to see my games being put into practice, and children enjoying them and sometimes the Mums and Dads even more so!

I would love to spend more time with the children, (I realise your all shouting easier said than done!) however, we do only get an hour a week with your mini superstars. As some of you may or may not know, we have a Facebook site. On this Facebook site you can find my ‘top secret garden games’ – games and exercises I have created for you and your little ones to enjoy at home. If you are one of the 8 people in the world that doesn’t have Facebook, fear not – we have put them all on the ‘What’s New’ page on this website. Take a look and give them a go! Why not send us a snap of your child playing the games and we will upload them onto our website!

In the mean time, enjoy the rest of the summer, and absorb every ray of sun that the skies are begrudgingly giving us.