http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4MKDM6BgIA

For the Volley Kick go to 4:24

This is my son Ryley only 19 months old. His older bother and sister play soccer for our local club and we bought the size 1 ball for him earlier in the year.

Compared to other videos of toddlers I have seen, he actually kicks the ball rather than run into the ball. He also has the co-ordination to do drop kicks and punts as you you see in the video as well.

I would like any suggestions as to what (and when) I should do next to help develope his skills.

Just keep the ball at his feet. Dont try and teach skills let it come naturally with the ball at the feet. Too young to train in my opinion.

he he, nice

Good to see any kid that age kicking a ball around so confidently and with such obvious enjoyment.

For easy 'home' coaching, try...

[youtube]f4-JZK_ItJg[/youtube]

If you've got an iPhone, there's an app going online in the next few days that has 50-something coaching drills along these lines for about $5-6 the lot.

Edited by Benjamin: 2/8/2010 12:15:11 AM

It's never too young to train. The important thing is for the training to be (a) fun, and (b) based on good technique.

As Con Boutsianis says, "It's not 'practise makes perfect', it's 'perfect practise makes perfect'."

Train is a loose term. I know its never too young but it is no good drilling things into a toddler when all he wants to do is run around and kick a ball. Keep it fun is right.

When I was at Sheffield United they were trying to train 2 years olds how to do fucking Cruyff turns and Maradona spins lol, all they wanted to do was eat the grass on the field. In my opinion ball at the feet is perfect training for a little kid.

You need to see what they do at Socatots to see what can be achieved with toddlers.

http://www.socatots.com/content2/index.php?option=com_search&searchword=tots

And the kids absolutely love it.

I had quick check on this. It seems that they had advertised in Australia for someone to take on the franchise, but dont know if anyone has.

Ben do you know if this is being run in Australia at all?

I friend of mine had his son training with this lot in Melbourne...

http://www.soccertimekids.com.au/

Very similar set up to Socatots, but I don't believe it's affiliated with Peter Clifford.

If you're in Sydney, this lot operate on similar lines...

http://www.soccajoeys.com/

If you're in Queensland, especially anywhere near the Gold Coast, go straight to my mate Boutsi...

http://www.footballfirst.com.au/

Edited by Benjamin: 2/8/2010 01:37:28 PM

That’s pretty amazing. My son is also 19 months and he just does the “run into the ball” thing and then does a goal celebration (runs around in circles until he’s dizzy and then falls down). I was happy enough with that :P

I haven’t seen many kids kicking the ball around other than my own but that drop kick just seems way more advanced coordination than a regular 19 month old.