Here at Baby Ballers, a football franchise, we know how important it is for your kids to learn the key football skills from a young age and learning the basic football skills will give them a great foundation to improve upon as they grow. Read on for what we believe are the key football skills to introduce to your child.

1. It All Starts With Kicking

Kicking a ball comes naturally to most children. If you give your child a ball and pop them on the grass, you can be sure that at some point they’ll kick it. Without goals or the need to hit a target, all that is left is how fun it is to kick a ball. If you teach them this, then this will stick in their head and the memory will be jogged each time they go to kick it.

2. Dribbling

Dribbling the ball involves moving it whilst maintaining control of its pace and direction with control and concentration. The closer you keep the ball to your feet, the less chance there is of another player taking it from you. A great way to practice this is to dribble around cones. Dribbling is a combination of various skills, including:

• Balance
• Quick changes of direction
• Quick reactions
• Touch and control
  Concentration
• Awareness of the other players and people around you
  
  So, teaching your kids this from the get-go is a great first skill to learn.

3. Learn the basic rules of football

We’re not saying that your kid has to start learning each and every rule, but knowing the basic ones is essential to learning how to play football. A great way of them getting to grips with the rules as they get a bit older is to take them to a match, this is a great way to help them visualize the game and be able to understand why certain rules are in place. Here at Baby Ballers football franchise, we start kids off from a very young age, so just learning that the aim of the game is to kick the ball into the goal and to not use your hands is a great place to start.

4. Shooting

A perfect shot is a gateway to mastering a perfect goal. Shooting is a great skill for your child to master early on to become a pro at the game. There are many different ways to shoot the ball in football. You can shoot with the instep, with the inside of the foot, the outside and even the toe. Once your child has mastered the basics you can teach them to drive the ball hard, make it curve in or out or chip it.

5. Turns

Once your kid has learnt the basics, turning is a great next skill to try. When dribbling the ball, turning is a key skill to master. Turning with the ball will help your child to learn about timing, awareness of surroundings, protecting the ball from other players and coming from different directions. As we mentioned, this is a skill to work on once the other basics have been mastered, but it’s the next step for your child to learn to play football.

Here at Baby Ballers we always start off by teaching your child basic football skills at some level, no matter what their ability is. If you decide to own a football franchise or become a coach then this means that you can implement these techniques into your kids weekly practice and then bring those practices home