Football is an excellent sport for toddlers. If you are planning on taking your child to a football class, you may be wondering how to best prepare them. Here, we will take you through how to prepare your toddler for their first football session.
Football is a really great way to get your child interested in sports and physical activity. This is really important as taking part in a sport will help your child in their physical development, their cognitive development and them to make friends.
Taking part in football will also help them to develop a love of physical activity which is really important as it can help them to stay active as adults. This will help them to lead healthy, happy lives.
Within this article, we will look at how to prepare your toddler for their first football session.
How To Prepare Your Toddler For Their First Football Session
There are some ways to get your toddler ready for their first football session. Within this section, we will look at some of the ways you can prepare them.
Buy Them A Football
One of the best ways to help your toddler prepare for their first football session, consider getting them a small football. A size 1 ball, available in the Socatots online shop, is ideal for children under 5 and can help gauge their interest in the sport. Getting them used to handling a ball early on is a great first step.
Once they have their own football at home, you might find yourself surprised by how quickly they begin playing with it.
Get All The Family Involved
Psychologists have always known children learn by copying and modelling their behaviour on the adults around them. It is part of the child development process and it is even more prevalent with their parents and older siblings.
If your child sees you kicking a football around or having fun having a mini football match in the back garden, they will want to join in and copy you.
Make sure you give lots of praise at every opportunity. Receiving praise and seeing their family having fun with them will help them to associate football as a positive experience.
Don’t Keep Score
When you are having a game in the garden with all the family, remember to not keep score. When your child is a toddler, it is important to just keep it fun and to, of course, clap or cheer a goal but to not make keeping score the main aim of the game.
Positive reinforcement is the key here, and the more often you demonstrate it, the better it will be for your toddler’s confidence.
Watch Some Football With Them
Once you have established that your child does indeed enjoy football, a great next step would be to watch some football with them
If you can, take them to a live game. This doesn’t have to be a huge Premier League game, a local football team playing in your local park will be the perfect. They will get to see what happens in an actual match and football is very fun to watch live.
Watching a football match on television is also a great way to introduce them to football as a whole. Sit down and watch a game on television with them, explaining what is going on and answering any questions they might have.
This will feed their interest and help to get them excited for their first football session.
Have Fun!
When it comes to preparing your toddler for their first football session, it is really important that you keep it fun. Don’t make football feel like something your toddler has to do. If they start losing interest, move on to the next activity.
The easiest way to ensure a toddler is having fun is to encourage improvisation. Keep the rules to a minimum, and let your child take control of what’s happening. You might end up playing something that barely resembles football. But as long as your toddler is kicking the ball and, most importantly, having fun, then it will be good for them.
Why You Should Choose Our Football Classes At Socatots
There are many social benefits that come from attending a football class but you need to make sure to choose the right class. Within this section, we will take you through why you should choose our football classes for your toddler.
Football Training That Suits Every Child
All of our football classes are designed to be appropriate for each age group. Each of our classes is a different length, starting at 30 minutes for the younger children, aged 6 months to 1 year old, and reaching 45 minutes for the older children, aged 3 to 5 years old.
As your child gets older, different activities will be introduced to cater to their expanding skills, such as introducing working with their peers in pairs and small groups.
With all our football classes, we take an individual approach with each child, catering to each child’s specific needs. We want every child to feel confident in all areas so we will take time to help them overcome any parts that they are finding more challenging, as well as helping them to celebrate all their successes.
Expert Coaching For Each Child
Your child will receive expert coaching from our coaches. Every one of our coaches is:
- DBS qualified
- UKCFDS qualified
- First-aid trained
- Fully insured
Your child will be learning from professional coaches so your child will always be in good hands.
You Will Play Be A Part Of Your Child’s Success
Throughout your child’s football training, you will play an imperative part in their successes.
Having the parents play an active role is important because it will help to increase your child’s confidence and self-esteem, whilst strengthening the emotional bond that you share with each other.
How To Prepare Your Child For Their First Football Session
If you have decided to bring your child to their first football session, there are some very simple ways that you can prepare them. One of the best ways that you can prepare them is to buy them a football. You will want to buy them a small one – Size 1 – which are ideal for young children. This will help them to get used to a football and help you to see if they are truly interested in football.
Next, it would be a really good idea to get all the family involved as children learn by copying and modelling their behaviour on the adults around them. If they see you kicking the football and having fun, they will want to join in. It is really important that whilst having a little game with the family that you keep it fun and don’t keep score. Reward effort and a goal with a cheer, a clap or a big group hug but don’t make it all about the score.
It is a really good idea to watch some football with them. This could be going to see a local football match or it could just be on the television. Either way, it is a great way to introduce them to the game and to help them get excited at the prospect of playing football themselves.
And finally, remember to have fun! That is what kid’s football is all about.
We hope you have found our article helpful. If you would like to know more about our football sessions, please click here.