Club making football fun for tots   
By Louise Cordell, Future Fitness magazine, August 2009

A PRE-SCHOOL football club is getting kids as young as 18 months excited about sport and activity. Little Kickers aims to give children their first taste of football in a fun environment while helping them keep healthy and fight obesity.

The company was started in 2002 by Christine Stanschus who was concerned about the shortage of energetic activities around for her two year old son. She said: “I initially set up some classes for my son and his friends as they were all football mad, but there wasn’t anything that catered for their age group. It became so popular that I decided to turn it into a business and within a year we were running 35 classes a week. Soon after that we started getting contacted by people who wanted to set up their own sessions further afield, so we decided to franchise the concept.”

The clubs provide approved football training with kids divided into three groups: from 18 months to two years, from two to five year olds and from five to seven year olds. The children start out with fun games that include specific exercises for body control, balance and coordination, as well as learning to strike stationary and moving footballs.

As they move through the classes they progress to dribbling and striking, overall team play and improving dexterity, particularly in the legs and feet through ball-balancing games. Christine added: “When we first started the classes it was clear that the traditional football coaching model wouldn’t fit, as the kids were too young to get much out of it. Instead we knew we needed an early learning slant that was focused on football.

“So we brought in a nursery leader to work alongside the coaches and they worked on incorporating learning involving colours, numbers and teamwork as well as the football based skills and exercises.”

The clubs have a retention rate of over 80 per cent and the majority of those that leave before they turn eight only do so because they are moving out of the area. The aim is to get kids engaged in sports for life and one of the first young boys to join up has now gone on to play at Chelsea’s Football Academy

Christine added: “We also always aim to team up with local clubs, so when our kids get too old they have somewhere to go where they can keep playing and improving. I think school provision for things like this depends on the area, so it is important that there are extras like us that give as many children as possible access to activity.”

Over the next year the franchise will be expanding internationally with new clubs in Canada joining those already open in Australia, Ireland and South Africa.

The company has also developed a rugby programme for two to five year olds which is due to launch in September. It will be focusing on the more specific skills needed for the game, like running backwards and hand-eye coordination, and is already receiving an enthusiastic response from parents.

 

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