Soccajoeys
Northern Beaches
This is one of those activities that you encourage everyone you know with young kids to do.
And the owners of Soccajoeys Northern Beaches don’t even know that I’m writing this review – they will be reading it for the first time along with everyone else.
Soccajoeys Northern Beaches is one of my three top activities. Ask me any day of the week and I can rattle off the three best activities / sports that my kids have done.
Both my kids did the Soccajoeys Northern Beaches programmer and I can honestly say it is brilliant. It’s not just the program, it’s the coach who runs it who makes it amazing!
As I said with the other activity in my top three, I wish we had found it sooner so that my kids could have done it for longer.
If your kids are between the ages of 3 and 5 and you’re looking to get them into a sports activity. You have to look into this!!!
Soccajoeys
Soccajoeys is not just about soccer – yes there is a soccer ball involved but it’s more about basic physical development. There is running and jumping and stretching and kicking. But there is also learning to listen to a coach, learning your colours and shapes and learning to not give up.
What makes Soccajoeys so great
It all starts with the coach…
Let me just say at the start, Coach Anthony who runs Soccajoeys Northern Beaches is amazing with kids. He has that fine balance between being disciplined with them but kind and caring. He expects them to listen but he understands that sometimes everyone may just need a cuddle or a toilet break.
Both my kids, even my daughter who isn’t that interested in soccer loved going to her weekly soccajoeys lesson.
The classes are well managed
The classes are generally small, especially the week day classes. When my daughter was in the mini’s she was one of four or five in the class. Even if you’re in a bigger class you will find that there are enough resources and the coaches are still on the ball. Each child was given individual attention and looked after. I personally saw each child improve their physical ability within 1 term of soccajoeys.
The mini’s age groups are small so that everyone is a similar age.
In the mini’s your child has to be between the age of 2.5 and 3 years of age.
This is not really something you think about until your child is the youngest in the class and is being run over by other children. Or, conversely, your child is the oldest in the class and bored out of his mind.
Each age group is small so that most children are at the same level of physical ability. At this age it is not about skills but rather about simple physical and developmental milestones.
Your child can grow with the same coach
What’s great is that your child can start at 3 and be in one age group and grow into the other age groups but still be taught by the same team. It’s really great for continuity and for your child feeling safe and secure with who is looking after them.
All classes are indoors
Forget panicking about your child not being able to attend their activity because of the rain or the cold. All the classes are indoors at the Dee Why PCYC which has some great big spaces for running around.
The programme
There are three programmes provided by Soccajoeys Northern Beaches: minis for the 2.5 to 3 year olds, pre-school for 3 to 5 year olds and junior for 6 to 8 year olds.
I’m just going to talk to the Minis Programme for now.
The Minis Programme
According to the website (and you can see what I meant when I talked about learning more than just soccer skills):
When your little ones learn to play soccer, we see them engage in simple problem-solving activities that assist in building valuable skills for life. This is a non-competitive toddler soccer program designed for children to learn key physical and social skills at an early age while having fun.
In the mini’s classes the kids are encouraged to start each session by stretching and getting into listening mode with the coach. They are then given some easy exercises that involve running around.
They are then given the chance to move through an obstacle which ends in kicking the ball into the net.
At the end of the session a soccer ball is placed in the middle with various mini goal nets set up around and the kids get to experience a “soccer game”. It’s not really a match, there are no teams and the only objective is to get the ball into one of the nets. Each person gets to score a goal but it does take a while with most of the time spent with the little ones trying to change the direction of the ball.
Logistics
What to wear
You don’t need to go out and buy a uniform. A soccer shirt (and water bottle) is included in the fees.
All the venues are in doors so the kids can just wear normal running shoes – not boots.
Days and Times
There is currently pre-school programs on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, starting between 9 and 10am. There are two programmes on a Friday and a Saturday.
The mini’s program is on a friday morning with a 9:15 start.
And the junior programme is currently on a Saturday morning at 10:30.
The above days and times could change so you can check out the full timetable from the website here.
Location, Address and Parking
Soccajoeys Northern Beaches is held at Dee Why PCYC. The PCYC is that big new age building located near the library. It’s on the corner of Civic Drive, Kingsway and Fisher Road.
The proper address for PCYC is Civic Drive, Dee Why, 2099.
Thankfully there is council parking right underneath the building.
