Kanini Dhanak discovered‘SuperKicks’ for her son Aarav – and it has helped spark his love of the beautiful game.
The aim of this innovative new programme, developed by The FA, is to help increase football participation, fun and learning among 5-8-year-olds.
It targets parents and coaches of children of any ability, either new or playing recreationally or as part of a club, just like Aarav.
“He’s only recently got into football, a year or so ago, and he now plays and watches games with his dad and uncle,” said Kanini.
“He tries to practise at home as much as he can and I play with him in the garden. At the moment, he tries to follow who’s playing, how many they score and what moves they have, so he’s just trying to understand better and put it into practise.
“He will ask me if I’ve seen his move or his kick and ask me what I’m going to do next, but he wants to learn and get better and he thinks of himself as a football player.”
She continued: “SuperKicks shows people like me how to do this. It plays activities and records it, and that helps him. It gets him excited to practise at home, so that’s great.
“It tells you things like ‘this is what I want to do and this is how to achieve it’ so I think it’s great.
“It also gives me an understanding so I can help him as well. It educates the parents. If he wants me to play with him; initially, I’d have said no, but now I can look at it and help him.”
SuperKicks has hundreds of football and active challenges. There are also creative brain training challenges based around football such as designing a team kit or writing a story.
All the challenges have been created by FA coaches and all link back to the England DNA foundation phase (ages 5-11), aimed at developing children holistically.
Each activity has easy-to-follow activity guides in video format and step-by-step instructions. There are also tips for parents to help them get involved with their children’s play and learning. Activities can be played by one or two players so parents or siblings can get involved.
So with half-term on the horizon, why not discover SuperKicks to help keep your little ones occupied and active during their week off?
Visit TheFA.com/SuperKicks for more information.
