Squirts Information
Phase 1 - Squirts Program:
Age Group:
- 3 to 5 year old boys and girls.
Program Purpose:
- Establish a base level of both footballing and athletic ability, through a weekly enjoyable entry level circuit program, to provide future players to with fundamental skills and co-ordination required to participate in small sided football from the age of 5 onwards.
Reason for the Program:
- The Squirts Program was established in 2010 as a result of Taringa Rovers identification of the significant variation in basic athletic, co-ordination and footballing ability of players entering small sided football at the age of 5. The program seeks to allow young children the opportunity to develop the fundamental athletic, co-ordination and footballing skills in a fun non-competitive environment in order to be better placed to enjoy small sided football from the age of 5.
- The original program design was developed by former Taringa Rovers Premier League Coach, Joe Fenech and is now administered by Taringa Rovers Junior Technical Director, Kelvin Wheeler an AFC 'B' licence qualified coach and run by Senior Players who have obtained at a minimum a junior level coaching qualification.
Program Structure:
- The full Squirts Program is a 20 week program run on Saturday morning throughout the regular football season from Mid-March until the End of August excluding school holidays and public holiday weekends (where possible).
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The Squirts Program is run as a one hour program on a Saturday Morning
as a series of circuit stations (usually 6 – 8 circuits) with groups of between 6 to 10 children. Each group of children has a supervisor (usually a youth/senior men’s or women’s players) and the whole program is led by one of Taringa Rovers qualified coach. - The range of drills/activities at each circuit is varied weekly to maintain variety and to build base level skills. The drills an activities focus on running, balance, co-ordination, passing technique, ball control, shooting technique, passing accuracy, dribbling and a small game.
Program Future Now and Beyond:
- The Squirts Program has proved a very successful program in terms of both participation numbers and football development for local young children.
- The Squirts Program formed the basis for our participation as part of the Ironside State School ‘Physical Activity Project’, where the focus was to encourage children who have not previously participated in Football to gain and experience of the game, whilst learning basic football skills.
Oct 2015
