It is well known that being indulged in sports is a very healthy activity for kids, as it helps them grow their physical and mental abilities. Sporting activities in the growing age directly contribute to developing a team spirit, a coping mechanism, and a positive outlook towards life and football is a great sport for all of these. However, some people opine that kids as small as toddlers should not be exposed to field sports like football as it could be unsafe for them. For that matter, we have toddler football classes specially designed considering their age and abilities.
Benefits Of Football For Toddlers
If you’re still not sure whether your toddler should play football or not, consider these advantages that he’ll be getting by learning this amazing sport that draws huge fandom and respect all across the globe.
- Health Benefits: By playing football, kids start to build agility, hand-eye coordination, strength, speed and a great cardiovascular system in their body. Besides, sporting improves mental health largely and that could have lasting effects.
- Developing Values: Football is such a beautiful sport that it teaches a lot apart from making a goal. It teaches the value of camaraderie, discipline, and work ethics through its playing manner.
- Cross-training: Kids start developing their likes and dislike very fast. Just by a few attending toddler football classes, they may identify this sport as their lifetime pursuit, and thus it will provide for a great cross-training for them while they are not at kindergartens or schools.
How To Make Your Toddler Learn Football
Sometimes it takes specially designed methods and approaches to let kids learn things which might not naturally come to them. Likewise, the first step in teaching a toddler to play football is letting her become familiar with the ball. Trainers at toddler football classes question them repeatedly “what do we use in football” and kids answer “feet”.
Next, they should be allowed to become confident with the ball. For this, you ask her to keep the ball under one foot and then do it with the other one. Subsequently, you gently roll it forwards and backwards by supporting the kid’s foot on it. It lets her know that she can control the ball and that too without hands.
Progressing gently, you can start showing the different paths the foot can follow to stop and control the ball. You roll the ball towards her and let her control the ball. Followed by this comes the fun part, where you teach your kid to kick the ball properly. Teach her to kick with the top of the foot with the laces part and not let her get stuck at kicking by the toe-end.
After having her equipped with these basics, you can continue gradually teaching them dribbling, some trickery and advanced football skills. It takes a lot of patience and time, but eventually, the joy the kid will find in the sport is worth all of it.