Through these uncertain times, we at Netley Royals realise that our club members will be missing their weekly footballing activities. Not only that, we also realise that many of our younger members are likely to be confined to their own homes for the immediate future due to social distancing measures, which can be both boring and frustrating. As such, we are planning to run weekly footballing challenges that are open to all of our club members to participate in, should they want to.

The idea is simple, we will provide weekly footballing challenges via our website and social media channels with simple instructions for the week. Those who choose to participate in the weekly challenge can and we will award small prizes for the individual weekly winners. Due to the age span across our members, we will split our age groups into their two respective sections; Junior and Mini.

The Junior teams will be as follows:

Under 15’s
Under 13 Boys
Under 13 Girls
Under 12’s
Year 5/6 Girls

The Mini teams will be as follows:

Under 10’s
Under 8 Blues
Under 8 Whites
Academy

Furthermore, we will also start a club ‘league table’ whereby each club member that chooses to enter can win points for their own team. At the end of the stay at home challenge (however long it may be), we will award another prize for the overall winning team.

Each Monday we will set a new stay at home challenge and we will ask entrants to let us know how they get on by the Sunday. This is supposed to be fun and provide some enjoyment and exercise for our club members, whilst the social distancing measures are in place and we are unable to offer our usual footballing activities.

Week 1 – The keepy up challenge

We thought we would ‘kick off’ with a simple enough stay at home challenge….the keepy up challenge. Keepy up skills are all about juggling the ball in the air with any body part except the hands or arms and is a great way to practise ball control. How many keepy ups can you do? We are not just looking for who can do the most, but also how you can improve over the course of the week.

For example, why not attempt some keepy ups on Monday, record how many you can do, practice all week and then see how many you can do by Sunday? If you are able to record this and send it back to us then even better.

If you are already a keepy up superstar, why not challenge yourself further by using different parts of your body such as both feet, your thighs, or even your head.

If you have access to an outdoor space such as a garden then show us or tell us how many keepy ups you can do outside with a ball. If not, then you could always try the toilet roll keepy up stay at home challenge indoors (after checking with your parents or guardians first). A lot of professional footballers have already been taking part in the indoors toilet roll keepy stay at home up challenge over the last week or so (they are obviously missing football as much as us)!

Key Coaching Tips

1. Be patient. Start with one keepy up, dropping it from your hands to your thigh (or foot) and back to your hands again. Once you can do this over and over, try progressing on to two, three, four, etc bounces before catching the ball with your hands again.
2. If you are starting out with keepy ups, try starting using your thighs as this provides a larger surface to control the ball then most other body parts. Try to make the ball hit the flat surface of your thigh, not your knee.
3. Remember to watch the ball and try to predict where the ball is going to go.
4. If you are comfortable doing keepy ups with your thighs, move onto your feet. Start with your stronger foot and use the laces of your foot to make contact with the ball, with your toes pointed slightly up so that the ball bounces upwards. If your toes are pointed forwards, then the ball is likely to move forwards away from you. Again, once you can do this over and over, try progressing on to two, three, four, etc bounces on your stronger foot before catching the ball with your hands again.
5. Once you are comfortable using your thighs and your stronger foot, you can then try using your other foot should you want to. You can even try alternating between your thighs and both of your feet, or use one thigh or foot at a time. Being able to use more body parts with give you more options to get a pattern going, and will also give you much better overall ball control.
6. Always be aware of your posture and balance (standing position). Keep an upright posture, with a your standing leg slightly bent and your arms either at the sides or out to the sides. This will help you to keep balance and more importantly keep the ball in play. However you also need to find the motion that works better for you. Why not try practising a few different ways and then keep with whatever feels better for you.
7. Remember that you will not become an expert overnight. Keepy ups requires lots of practice and techniques to master.

How to let us know how you got on

At the start of the week, have a go and see many how many keepy ups you can do, even if that means none. Then, end of the week, ask a parent or guardian to either watch you, or even better record you (if you are able to), perform your keepy ups.

Then ask your parent to let us know via email here. You can also make a comment share your score with club members, in the comments section, below this Club website article.

Remember, even if you could manage no keepy ups at all at the start of the week, and by the end of the week you can do one then you have improved and more importantly have hopefully had fun whilst exercising and trying too.

Current League Table

Here the the current Netley Royals Stay at Home Challenge league table. Can you help to get your team to the top?