ONE of the country’s most successful football academies, BN Academy has introduced a kicking kids programme. BY OUR STAFF
According to the founder, who is the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association chairman Beki Nyoni, the programme is aimed at giving kids a feel of the game at a tender age.
“We are going to enroll kids from the age of three to six years. The kids will work with professional coaches who would guide them in their kicking practices. What will be happening is that each kid would be given his soccer ball and for the entire time that we will be training, the kid would be kicking around, but the kicking has to be controlled,” Nyoni said.
Nyoni reckons that this has been the secret behind South Africa’s success in junior football.
“I have seen this work in South Africa. Kids are enrolled at football academies at the tender age of three where they are introduced to the ball through this kicking. They concentrate on kicking until they get to seven, when they graduate to another level where they would start to be taught football skills. I think this is going to help us as a nation a lot. We need to identify the talent and start nurturing it while the kids are still young,” Nyoni concluded.
