What a year 2022 has been! Our Play Football Academy family has grown quite immensely and our feedback has been extremely positive. With a number of junior and senior players attending our football programs, there have been a vast variety of session designs. From basic fundamental movement skills, technical ball work, SAQ (speed, agility, quickness) to pre season testing for some of our seniors. It has been fantastic! I would like to take this as an opportunity to thank all of our families, parents, children and supporters who have been trusting us with their child's development, or maybe even their own.

As you can observe, the image above is outlining a new training package that we will be offering during the first few months of 2023. Due to popular demand, our sessions have increased to twice a week for our Mini Roos and for our Junior Development players. Any queries or questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact us. Until then, have a safe and blessed New Year. We look forward to seeing you all in 2023!

Kind Regards,

Robert Grasso

It's been a long day, you've just gotten home from work and you have very little physical or mental energy left. You have to start preparing dinner perhaps? Maybe you have to shower one of your young children? Before you even consider those things...you have to think about the work you are yet to complete before tomorrow. As you gather your thoughts and whatever energy you have left to convince yourself that the day is not yet over - it happens...your child begins demanding your attention!

The attention grab could come in many forms. A polite question - "can you play with me". A lack of emotional regulation - random outbursts of excitement, constantly gravitating towards you wherever you go, causing havoc and creating mass destruction for your undivided attention for even a split second...these are all hypothetical by the way.

In that moment, your brain starts firing even more thoughts! How do I go about doing what I need to do for my household, my partner, my work and especially my child? Out comes the interactive device; this could be in the form of a smart phone, tablet or laptop. Peace and quiet at last! You take a sigh of relief as your child is quietly doing their own thing in front of the screen without your supervision, and you return to your focused and steady state; executing whatever task is required of you.

Screen time versus the kids of today. This blog post is not suggesting that all parents are the same, nor is it implying that all children have access to smart devices such as iPad's or smartphones. However, it is an increasing trend that many parents are battling with. From personal experience, a number of students who I have worked with find greater satisfaction in spending time on their electronic devices, rather than being active and moving around outside. Simply put, it's quite disturbing. As we notice more devices being brought to school, implications occurring between students outside of the classroom due to social media being manipulated inappropriately. The question is, where to draw the line? A child craving for attention will always act in unusual ways to get what they want, especially when they're young. If busy parents take that into consideration rather than instantly giving in to the handing over of a tablet or phone as a pacifier, what would the kids of today look like, sound like and act like?

The take home message is simple, without any judgement or criticism being targeted toward the parent(s) who regularly find themselves in a situation as such, and who may be reading this blog post - their is help out there. Strategies, tools and knowledge that you can apply to your child's life to not only limit their screen time, but allow for you to provide them with 'real time' where a greater bond can be created, a memory shared, a skill developed and precious energy expelled through constructive play. Organizations such as the Play Football Academy exist to help try and provide those parents who are struggling for an answer, with the support they may need in getting their child to become more active and independent. Emotional regulation is just one of the many focuses that we seek to teach our students who attend the academy, and it is simple strategies as such which will allow for a positive growth to occur in home and at school.

In my mind, any successful individual has some level of passion for what they do for work. Their passion is what drives them toward success in capacities that are away from a dollar figure. Maybe, their work is emotionally rewarding? Maybe, it’s physically and psychologically rewarding? Perhaps, their mission outweighs everything; the underlying similarity that I have found most successful businesses have.

Personally, my mission is always going to outweigh everything else. My work is emotionally, physically and psychologically rewarding because I have developed a platform where I can showcase my knowledge in children’s education and football development; two of my passions.

You may be wondering; how did I stumble across the idea of developing a football academy?

It’s no secret…I have seen, learnt and done the necessary research to realize that I have entered a competitive market. I’m noticing more soccer academies launching, soccer clubs opening and a new rise in competitive coaches across our state getting involved in extra curricular programs within secondary school settings.

So, what’s missing from them? Are they affordable? What level of coaching or educational background do these people have? What is their mission?

If you can’t answer those questions, you’re sending your child to the wrong club, the wrong coach, the wrong academy.

The Play Football Academy was designed to move away from the objectives and missions that most of my competitors already possess. Unlike others, we aren’t here to promote the development of professional athletes. By all means, we are here to provide a service that may contribute to your child’s playing potential and development toward a goal of playing at a professional level. The mission, however, is to help contribute to the development of good human beings through a sport specific approach. An inclusive approach to the psychological development of a child.

Yes, the service we provide will improve your child’s football skills, whilst improving their health, fine and gross motor skills and fundamental movement patterns. They’ll make new friends, overcome challenges and learn new things whilst having fun. However, this academy seeks to put an emphasis on the development of the young mind.

We are not just concerned about what our students can do with a ball at their feet. We are concerned about what is going on in their minds, and how the skills they have been taught by attending the academy can be transferable across the many contexts that make up a child’s life.