The Hills Football Development Little Legends program aims to introduce the youngest’s members of the Hills Football family into the global game and community.
Designed for players from three to five years old, Little Legends is the first steppingstone for these young players with weekly sessions over the course of term providing a starting point in their footballing journey.
“We want them to improve their football skills, but the biggest thing for us is making sure that the players are in an environment that is really exciting for them to be in, and they want to be there every week and it’s fun for them,” Little Legends Coordinator Jaimee Turner said.
The Little Legends program is a part of the wider Hills Football Development system which was a result of the collaboration between Hills Football and the Football NSW League One side Hills United FC. The collaboration, entering its fifth year, is dedicated to nurturing grassroots football in the Hills Area, aiming to enhance the overall participation and quality of the sport with a particular focus on the MiniRoos and Skill Acquisition Phase.
The style of training and activities largely derives from the Hills Football Development philosophy which focuses and specifically aims to grow the individual’s technique, decision-making skills, and love for the game. This approach was designed to move away from more familiar and isolated football drills for ones that are more holistic, fun, innovative, and dynamic.
“Our little legend sessions are divided into sections. We always start with player time. That’s where players come, and we introduce them to one another, and then we’ll generally ask a question based on what the theme of the week is, so, if the theme is colors of the rainbow, then we’ll sit down and we’ll say, alright, tell us your name and tell us your favorite color,” Turner said.
“Then we get into fundamental movement skills. We do a warmup, usually without a ball, to allow preschool age players to be able to develop their fundamental movement skills. They’re running, they’re hopping, they’re skipping, they’re jumping, because we think it’s really important that these players are able to learn how to love sport, movement and physical activity in general, and that they develop those skills before we introduce the ball.”
“Then the foundational football skills is the component of the session where we do have a ball, it’s very, individual but team-based games. We always have each player with their own ball, generally so that they can develop their skills, their ball mastery, and that gets them comfortable with the ball.”
The Little Legends program strives to provide the service to as many different areas within Hills Football. With 10 different member clubs offering the course, it allows players and their families to join and develop connections and friendships within the clubs’ communities and with a variety of different days and timeslots on offer it provides parents flexibility on which course best suits them.
“We have our Tuesday, Thursday and Friday weekday morning sessions in the (Hills Football Head) offices, and we also run one Saturday session in the morning. Our member clubs obviously get to choose when and where they want to deliver,” Turner said.
“Majority do that on a Saturday morning because it’s in line with their in-house under five and six teams. They like to have that at the same time for a bit of cohesion, but Hills Pumas also offer it on a Thursday afternoon.”
Registration for Term 2 courses and the Winter season are now open with the days, times, location and pricing of the sessions all available at littlelegends.hillsfootball.com.au/
The Little Legends Program is also running throughout the Easter Holidays with the program offering one of their fun, interactive and educational courses this coming Monday, the 13th of April from 9:30 am to 10:30 am at Bella Vista Public School. The price of the course is $20 per player. For more information about this Holiday course, head to holiday.hillsfootball.com.au/
