 | By Jewish Care
August 27, 2008 | Share |
A coach who works for Chelsea football club has been running a Strikers' Week Soccercamp at Jewish Care's Redbridge Jewish Community Centre, at Sinclair House in Woodford Bridge Road. Dan Seymour, of the Barkingside-based Kickstart Soccer Services, has been putting youngsters through their paces.
Each day around 30 boys from reception class to school year six have been working to improve goal-scoring techniques during training sessions and competitions. The week was due to culminate with a visit to Chelsea football club on Friday 15 August.
The centre also hosted a General Soccercamp from 28 July to 1 August. This included a tour of Wembley stadium which Mr Seymour described as "the most impressive trip, I would recommend it to anyone."
Commenting on the Strikers' Week, he said: "I've been running football schemes here for the last three years but this has been the best and most enjoyable one so far. The boys have definitely been challenged but they have responded very well and shown a lot of creativity. This week I have been using a programme that I designed myself called the Striker Elite Challenge, which encourages power and accuracy to achieve success.
"The challenges are to do with goals and points to give them a target to win. It's about getting them really motivated. It is hard to judge players' future potential but the talent is quite strong. I've worked with Redbridge for a long time and there are definitely some very competent footballers."
Mr Seymour noted the centre's synthetic grass pitch - now a year old - was lasting very well and was "encouraging good quality play" from the boys. He added: "It is a credit to Redbridge Jewish Care that they are putting so much effort into maintaining it."
The young participants were equally enthusiastic about the week. Chelsea fan David Cohen-Morton, 8, said: "I came to Soccercamp because I enjoy matches," while Tottenham fan Alfie Keene, 5, "enjoyed winning the mini penalty masters' challenge."
