Although more and more parents accept that good quality teaching and coaching can give their child a great start in life, there is still some resistance to paying for football coaching. Parents will tend to conjure up a nostalgic world of kids playing in parks or streets with no adult supervision, just jumpers for goalposts, hours of fun, and a happy, weary walk home at dusk. This is the World I grew up in through the sixties and seventies, and it’s exactly how we learned to play the game. And it worked; looking back , those post war years from 1950 to 1980 witnessed the last period where the United Kingdom consistently produced skilled, creative players that were a match for any others across the globe. Not just the famous greats like Matthews, Charles, Moore, Best, Greaves and Charlton, but a whole host of technically talented players; Law, Bell, Johnstone, Dalglish,Hoddle,not forgetting artistic mavericks like Worthington and Currie.

Premier Soccer Academy

However, nostalgists rarely notice that the past is a foreign country; we did things different there. These days the streets are full of cars, and parks are more likely to be home to dog walkers and joggers than groups of children. Football as a child’s pastime has been overtaken by Television, Video Games, Mobile Phones, and the Internet. For the hard working parent, time poor, and concerned for their child’s safety, it’s not easy to promote a healthy lifestyle, and to steer children away from a sedentary lifestyle. This is where First Steps Soccer, a premier soccer academy in Bristol , can help.

If you wanted your child to learn to play the piano, you would probably choose focussed instruction, rather than expecting them to bang around on the notes for hours a day, in the hope they would pick up the techniques required. First Steps Soccer recognises this, and in our work with 2 to 9 year olds we employ a syllabus which concentrates on a weekly lesson teaching a series of technical progressions, which are supported with skills books, stickers, and coaching videos, to enable children to master these steps at home with Mum or Dad.

We believe this is a new way of teaching football, which takes into account a changing world. However, once a child starts to enjoy the classes, improves their skills, and receives recognition of their achievements through praise, stickers, and medals, the sheer and simple fact that soccer is a great game to play, starts to exert its own force. Children becoming more co-ordinated and physically confident. They become more popular, and have a more active peer group. They are physically fitter, and less likely to have a poor body image. They are socially skilled, start to understand concepts such as team work, and understand that failure is just another step towards success.

Our biggest hope at F S S, is that learning the game with us is the start of a life long love of football. We want the children that train with us to still be playing football in their twenties and thirties, and then handing this love of the game down to their children. Along the way we know our methods will also produce professional footballers. We have large numbers of our students on contracts with professional clubs, and we look forward to seeing our first graduates make their professional debuts.

Finally, we never forget at First Steps Soccer, that the most important ingredient in a child’s sporting success, is the support and love of a parent. We consider Mums and Dads to be our assistant coaches, and will always look to have both the child and the parents interests, at the heart of all we do.

We offer two free trial sessions to any child that wants to see if they will enjoy learning to play the F S S way.