Keep It Fun!

Last week my son, Remy, came along to his first Tots Football Fun session.

At 15 months old he is by far the youngest at any of my sessions and possibly across the FFF network.

I think it’s safe to say he didn’t have a clue that it was a football session! He didn’t know that it’s a structured environment with the aim to improve his fundamental movements and social skills.

All he cared about was grabbing a ball and throwing it. He was beaming ear to ear every time a ball rolled by or bounced off him.

He explored the inflatable pitch, the hurdles, the cones & the giant footballs. He then noticed Daddy's speaker which lights up and he was mesmerised by that for a few minutes.

Remy was very observant and began copying the other children by putting the ball in the goal or when it was tidy up time he followed the other children by putting the balls away. The power of peer learning was evident!

He celebrated each goal by clapping himself after he threw the ball into the goal. Never once did he kick the ball intentionally trying to score.

I was buzzing at the end of the session. Remy’s first experience of football was a happy one. It also included zero kicking and zero football if I’m being brutally honest.

But it was FUN! The fact it was fun for him means that he’ll be happy to return. It means that over time he will pick up basic football skills and who knows where that will take him.

He felt happy and safe to explore the environment around him which is what we want our children to do! We want to engage their minds and give them the freedom to find out what’s going on around them.

As coaches, practitioners and as parents, we need to make sure that whatever our children do, whether it’s sport, arts and crafts, reading, music or just exploring, it must be fun otherwise the basic love for the activity will never materialise.

Keep it fun!