Before you start your toddler doing any activity, you want to know where it is safe. Here, we will be answering the question – Is football safe for toddlers? And telling you everything that you, the parent, needs to know.
Football is considered a contact sport so it is not surprising that some parents have trepidations about it and find themselves wondering “is football safe for toddlers?”
There are many benefits to playing football for your toddler and although it is a contact sport, with the right football classes, your toddler will not be making any contact with other children
Within this article, we will answer the question – Is football safe for toddlers? – and we will look at all the benefits that football will offer your toddler.
Is Football Safe For Toddlers?
Let us dive straight in and answer the question – Is football safe for toddlers?
The short answer is yes. But that yes comes with some caveats and, within this section, we will be guiding you through those caverts.
You Need To Pick The Right Football Class
One of the most important ways in which you will help to keep football a safe activity for your toddler is to pick the right football class.
You need to pick a class that is age appropriate for your toddler. As all children can develop and grow quicker or slower than other children, it is also important that you look for a football class that takes an individual approach with each child.
You will also want to look for football classes that start out by focusing on the child developing their football skills on their own, with you and the coach guiding and helping them. Younger toddlers – aged 1 to 2 – should not be doing anything physical with other children. They should begin working with the other children as they get older, aged 3 to 5 years old.
Use The Right Equipment
When at their football classes, your toddler will be working and using equipment that is safe for them at their age. If you want to practice with them outside of class, you should make sure you are using the right equipment so they remain safe.
This will include using a smaller football. A size 1 football is the size recommended for under 5s. If you are wanting to do some of the drills that your toddler does in the class, again, you should look for similar equipment that will be safe. Within our Socatots shop, we have a home equipment set so you know your toddler will be using the right equipment and will be safe doing the drills and exercises.
Listen To Your Toddler
One of the best ways to make sure your toddler is safe whilst playing football or learning football skills is to listen to them. If they find something hard, listen to them so you and their coach can help them with the areas they need extra help. If they feel overwhelmed by something, listen to them and help them to feel better whilst acknowledging how they are feeling.
It is also really important to listen to them if they tell you they don’t like or are no longer enjoying attending football classes. Football classes should be fun and engaging for your children and, if they aren’t enjoying it anymore, it is time to stop.
The Benefits Of Football For Toddlers
So, we have established that football is safe for toddlers but you must make sure to pick the right football class, use the right equipment and listen to your toddler. Now, we will be looking at the benefits of football for toddlers.
Helps To Develop Motor Skills
We are going to start with a big one – football classes will help your toddler to develop their motor skills. Motor skills are really important as they help your child with basic movements. You will see it very early on in your child’s life as they learn to sit up, hold their head steady, crawl, walk and coordinate whole body movements.
Your child can join our football classes as early as 6 months old and we will help them to develop these early motor skills. As they grow up and move up the classes, they will learn balance and coordination, along with football skills.
Helps To Develop Cognitive Skills
Football classes will also help your child develop their cognitive skills. Cognitive skills are the skills that enable children to think, pay attention, process information and remember things.
Your child will learn how to do all of these skills within our classes, along with developing their communication skills.
Increases Confidence
Taking part in football classes for toddlers will help to increase your child’s confidence because we take an individual approach to all our coaching and you will be there with them during every one of their football classes.
We will help each and every one of your child’s wins but, if there is an area that is finding challenging, we will help them to overcome these challenges.
Plus, learning football skills (along with all the other skills) and overcoming challenges will show them that they can achieve their goals.
Helps Them To Make Friends
By coming to football classes, your child will be around children who are the same or a similar age. They will get to know children through attending our classes and, as they get older, they will begin working in pairs and small groups.
Being around children their own age is a great way to make friends in itself but, with our toddler football, they will also be learning social skills which will help them in our classes, in school and throughout their life.
Teaches Them About Teamwork
Along with helping them with social skills and making friends, attending football classes will also teach them teamwork and cooperation.
With our football classes, as your child gets older and moves up the classes, they will begin working in pairs and in small groups with other children, whilst staying completely safe. This will help your child to learn how to be patient and how to cooperate with the other children.
Is Football Safe for Toddlers? What Parents Should Know
So, we think that we can safely say that football is safe for toddlers. There are some things that, as the parents, you must do such as making sure to pick a football class that is appropriate for your toddler and the age they are. If you plan on practicing football with them at home, you should make sure to have the right equipment so your toddler stays safe and you should make sure to listen to your toddler during their football classes.
Football holds many benefits to toddlers but it is just important to keep them safe by choosing the right class, with professional coaches who understand every child is different.
We hope you have found this article helpful. If you would like to know more about our football classes, please click here to head to our website.