FA Skills Day

The FA Skills Day's

1. Under 8's Sunday April 20th
2. Under 10's Sunday April 27th

The FA Skills days are being run to introduce the children and coaches of Hindley Juniors to the revolutionary new coaching being developed by the FA. This is a great opportunity for all the children regardless of ability.

On the Day will be choosing 4 from the 7 Skills Games below

1. Drbbling & Turning
2. Shooting
3. Running and Passing
4. Dribbling and Passing
5. Keepy Uppy
6. Chipping Target
7. 1 touch 1 bounce

All these skills and much more can be found at the FA Skills Website
FA Skills

FA Skills Coaches

The FA have recruited and trained 66 skills coaches who are specialists in youth coaching. Three of these coaches will be attending Hindley Juniors FA Skills Days

We have great news that 3 of Trevor Brookings FA Skills Coaches Specialists will be attending our FA Skills Tests - They will be setting up training station alongside our Skills Station's and displaying the very latest in skills coaching techniques.

This will be a great experience for both the Kids and Hindley Juniors Coaches. Your kids will get a chance to be coached by the best and the our coaches will have the chance to see how the best do it and hopefully pick up some great tips for the future

Hindley Fire Station

Hindley's Fire Engine will also be attending the day. Children will be allowed to look around the pump and maybe even squirt a bit of water - The Fire Fighters will also be giving a presentation in the club house. I have seen these presentations (done some also) and they are very good. Your kids will learn what to do in case of a fire in the home, what to expect if they ever have to dial 999 and learn how to spot dangers around the home.

Some useful Fire Service Links here

• Hindley Fire Station
• About the Fire Service in Wigan Borough
• Get Smoke Alarms Fitted in your home Free of Charge
• Hazards in the Home
• Greater Manchester Fire Service

Constable Cub

Hello Kids
Constable Cub will be coming to see you all on Sunday 20th April at Hindley Juniors

FA Skills Day Sponsors

MHA Integrated Electronic Services Ltd

A leading designer and supplier of electronic products and a specialist supplier of printed circuit boards.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Hindley Juniors are looking for partners and sponsors and this day will provide an excellent chance to sponsor a great cause and get you some much deserved publicity

1. Website Link
2. Press Publicity from the Day
3. Mention on Club video of the day which will be a main feature of this website
4. Hundreds of grateful children

Sponsor a Skills Station

email Paul here...

You Could Make a Difference in Your Community

We are always crying out for new equipment e.g. bibs, cones and footballs etc...

Trevor Brooking: Concentrate on grassroots

Trevor Brooking: Concentrate on grassroots

By Jim White

Take a stroll down to your local park today, and you will immediately see what is wrong with English football. In the games being played there, you will see why an Italian is managing the England national team, why fewer than 30 per cent of the players starting in Premier League games this weekend are English, why Goal of the Month is dominated by Portuguese, Spaniards and Brazilians.
What you will see is lots of adults standing on the touchline of a small football pitch shouting at their eight-year-old children. One of the adults may be dressed in a tracksuit, with initials embroidered on his chest. He will be shouting the loudest, most often the instruction "get stuck in" occasionally varied with "just clear it"


Have fun: Trevor Brooking wants under-eights to enjoy the game
At some point there may be a confrontation between several of the parents, following a disputed goal. If, for instance, you are watching a game in Devon things might conclude, as they recently did, with one of the watching fathers becoming so irate that he marched off, only to return at the wheel of his 4?x?4 - which he proceeded to park in the middle of the pitch, refusing to move until the referee changed his decision. What you are unlikely to see is any of the small children concerned having much in the way of fun.
You may wonder why a bunch of youngsters being shouted at as they kick a ball around has anything to do with, for instance, England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008. Sir Trevor Brooking, the Football Association's technical director, is convinced the two are inextricably linked. "There is no question if the grassroots are not generating the enthusiasts, the fans, the referees, the administrators and above all the players, then the top end is going to suffer," he says. "And for me, it all begins in that crucial five-to-11 age band."
Brooking believes the country's skills deficit is largely a function of how we coach small children. The prevailing conditions are amateurish, haphazard and ill-qualified, and everything is conducted in an atmosphere that is over-wrought and suffocating. That, he says, must change. "From our research, it is clear that the pressure from the sideline is the number one problem, followed by the lack of respect for referees, it was taking the fun out of it.
"Just saying: 'look you've got to behave better on the touchline' isn't going to work. We have to find a way to embarrass the individuals who are jeopardising our game.
"We have to invest some money into pushing the message out there. We have to give the right-minded people in kids' football the back-up that when there is a loud-mouth, they have our support to challenge them." To that end, a pilot scheme is being rolled out this weekend in five regions which will involve the roping off of playing pitches (to keep parents at least two yards back from the touchline) and a system borrowed from rugby, whereby only the captain is allowed to talk to a referee. If the scheme works, these two initiatives will be enforced from next season. But, more fundamentally, Brooking knows it is a matter of education. Particularly for coaches.
"You could say the FA were at fault here, because in years gone by we have just qualified people to coach everyone, from 10-year-olds or 40-year-olds," he admits. "But the sensitivity to youngsters is different. We are going to offer courses which are age-specific, so if you as a dad are running your lad's under-eights, you can come along and learn how to do that. The principal thing is, it must be enjoyable. We're calling the programme the FUNdamentals."
We have never concentrated resources on the entry level of the game. This, Brooking believes, is partly a structural issue. "The professional clubs don't get involved until kids reach nine," he says. "So if you are a good coach, and you want a job, you're not going to be working at that level. The trouble is, resources in the professional game are directed exclusively at the short-term. It's hard to say to a club board, 'look, give us the money for a grassroots coach for five-year-olds' when they might be relegated this year. So we realised we just had to fill that gap."
The first move was to recruit 66 coaches, working in 12 regions, whose job is simply to engage with junior players. Brooking would like to see coaches like these available across the country. Perhaps they could be based in the new specialist sports academies, maybe attached to professional clubs. The idea is they would offer coaching and support to grassroots organisations, constantly preaching the mantra of enjoyment. The message is: stop shouting, and let the children have fun.
"If you can take a lad at six who is not very good and, through coaching, enable him by the time he is 11 to be OK, he will stay in the game," Brooking says "At the moment, we're losing too many because we're battering them, teaching them the wrong way between five and 11."
The right way, he believes, is the one espoused at the Manchester United Academy. This involves lots of ball-work and small-sided games, with emphasis on skills development not short-term league position. "The Man United philosophy is let them discover it for themselves," he says. "The old vision of the coach shouting do this, do that, has gone there. Kids don't do informal kick-arounds any more. Parents prefer their children to be in a structured environment. The trouble is, as long as you have a structure in place, the adult feels they have to get involved to justify their presence. What they have realised at United is that the best coaching for youngsters is about standing back."
For Brooking, what goes on in your local park and what happens at United's academy should be joined at the hip.
"You have to start it at the grassroots, if you get better coaches at the start, then the academies will be taking on better-prepared youngsters, who will become better trainees, get into the first team on merit and then on to England. I'd like to see the professional clubs recognise this and become far more involved in their community, coaching."
Besides, he says, getting it right at the start has much wider implications than simply creating a production line of talent. "The sad fact is, physical co-ordination levels in this country are falling all the time. Over half of youngsters emerging from primary school at 11 are physically illiterate. They are struggling to enjoy any physical activity. It is that serious. We have a huge responsibility.