The policy and activities of each Prefectural Football Association are introduced for the following 13 themes: “Senior”, “Class 1”, “Class 2”, “Class 3”, “Class 4”, “Kids”, “Women”, “Futsal”, “Beach Soccer”, “Referees Committee”, “Facilities Committee (Environment Project)”,  “Technical Committee” and "Disability Football". Please check out the local and regional activities in Japan.

This article is the first in a series of four that introduce the kid’s activities.

*The contributed article below is also posted in the September 2015 issue of JFA News in the “Regional News” section.

Akita Football Association’s activities for kids

TAKAHASHI Jun, Director of Kids Committee
Activities for kids overcoming class/category

“Kids project” in Akita prefecture was started in 2004 and we have held activities each year since then. Currently, we visit places to teach football to kids almost everyday, as well as holding some events such as “Kid’s Festival” and others related with the JFA Elite Programme throughout the prefecture.

We also work on getting cooperation to support these activities by working closely with an early childhood education college to promote its students participation in the teaching visit and Kid’s Festival.

We also hold “Kids Leader Training” every year for improving the students’ skills in teaching football to children. For the Kids Festival, any official matches for kids, and JFA Elite Programme related activities, Class 2 players provide support in a variety of ways such as organising staff, referees, and coaches.

We expect them to enjoy the opposite side of the experience; when they were younger, they used to be taught by some older people and now they are expected to feel the joy of being a part of this kid’s activities as supporting staff.

Another distinctive activity we do is promoting planting pots of turf in kid’s facilities for improving the environment for children to play in, utilising “JFA Green Project.” We have worked for planting turf at any kid’s facilities and university grounds for years, and this year we worked particularly on 2 nursery grounds that we visited to teach football at. 

On the planting day, staff members of our association, teachers and children planted the turf pots and we asked the local TV station to broadcast this activity. According to the teachers, children became more gentle towards plants and insects after this experience and they look after the turf with care. 

For the Player Development Project, we work on strengthening coaching to be coherent and enhancing the networking amongst coaches. We have made presentations to report our activities and current situation for Youth Committee and Technical Committee, in order to promote understanding and support of many coaches of different classes. At the “Akita Football Conference” last year, even more people who worked for or have an interest in football had opportunities to know about our Kid’s Project. 

In July of this year, we held the “Grassroots Festival” to convert our passion into practice. Many instructors not only from kids category but also from other categories joined in this event. We had a very productive time there, in part thanks to the JFA instructors for supporting our rehearsal held one day before the event.

This event enhanced communication amongst instructors and that made them have more interest in working together. In the future, we want to improve the football environment more by overcoming class/category differences for children.