Welcome to Waimakariri United Football Club's Skill Centre Programme.

The Skill Centre is an accredited programme with qualified coaches, specifically designed for player development. It will be held at Kendall Park on the Turf, and will run for 8 weeks in Term 4. There are two sessions available:

U8-U10 - 4-5pm Tuesdays 

U11-U13 - 5:15 - 6:15pm  Fridays

PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE CHANGES FROM TERM 3!


Football Skills Centre:

The Skill Acquisition Phase is important in a player’s development as Players are well balanced, coordinated and adaptive to learning football skills. This is the ‘Golden Age’ of learning. In no other phase of life will motor learning happen faster. Therefore the Skill Acquisition Phase is the optimal time to focus on developing football skills that relate to the game.

Programme Principles:

1. Training that looks like the game.

  • - Involve all four moments (Attacking, Defending and transitions)
  • - Scenarios that players will face in the game
  • - Challenging, non-isolated and exciting practices
  • - Incorporate interference to ensure game realism
  • - Involve the PDE Chain of Learning; (P) PERCEIVING the        problem, (D) making a DECISION based on options identified, and (E) EXECUTE the decision made

2. Lots of time on the ball

  • - Opportunities for players to develop their game related skills and master the ball
  • - Opportunities for players to develop skills that relate to playing with team mates
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3. An enjoyable learning environment

  • - Practices that are enjoyable, stimulating and interesting for players
  • - Coaches that encourage players to focus on skill development instead of immediate outcomes (e.g winning)
  • - Players take part in “Task Based” exercises where mistakes are embraced as key learning opportunities

4. Players are fully engaged in training 

  • - Practices that maximise the opportunity of physical and mental development
  • -Players are involved as soon as they arrive at the session. 

5. Effective Feedback for players

  • - Understanding that players will have accelerations and decelerations in their development
  • - Coaches providing informed feedback that is relevant to the task being performed and the overall objective of the practice
  • - Players are instilled with a “Growth Mindset”
  • - Coaches providing feedback based upon player effort, rather than the outcome only

Please ensure you have completed a separate registration form for each child you are enrolling in the Skill Centre programme. You will receive an automatic confirmation email once you have succesfully registered.