With the support of the Kids' Committees of each prefectural football association (FA), JFA has been organising “Traveling guidance" courses around the country. In the "travelling guidance" course, travelling guidance staffs from each prefectural FA go to kindergartens, nursery schools, and primary schools to offer a variety of programmes for children to enjoy football. This is an initiative to give nursery staff and teachers, who may not have much experience or knowledge of football, the opportunity to join a team of experienced football coaches and give the children time to exercise with the ball. Here we will introduce the traveling guidance activities that were recently conducted.

Wed. 5 October, Harakita Kindergarten (Fukuoka, Fukuoka)

67 children from the five year old class enjoyed the football class held at Harakita Kindergarten in Sawara Ward, Fukuoka, where balls and goals were donated this year.

Under wonderful weather, the children enthusiastically enjoyed running and kicking the ball around. The main coaching staff, coach SANO Yuki, is a graduate of this kindergarten and has mentioned that he was looking forward to this day of travelling guidance. Four TOYOTA employees also participated as staff, who were very supportive in creating a fun time for the children.

Coaches' Comments

SANO Yuki (FA Traveling Guidance Staff)
The children of all three classes showed great energy, and even those who never played football seemed to enjoy chasing the ball around. Everyone tried hard to score a goal and defend the goal in the final game. Thanks to the presence of TOYOTA employees, we were able to conduct the course smoothly.

HANAOKA Tadashi, Coach (TOYOTA Coaching Staff)
It was the first time for me to take part in the course myself and seeing the happy faces of the children made it very enjoyable for us too. We hope to take part in many more of these courses in the future.

Teachers' Comments

・The children arrived in the morning looking forward to playing football, and told us after the course, “It was so much fun, I want to do it again!” Although this was our first time holding this course, everyone had a great time thanks to the kind coaches. We are scheduled to hold a football tournament and the children are very enthused about it. Thank you for organising this wonderful event for these children.

・We could hear the cheerful voices of the children from the class that took part in the activity ahead of us, and we could sense that they were enjoying themselves. While we were waiting for our turn, the children kept telling us, "I can't wait!" Once the course started, the children showed great enthusiasm and seemed to have a great time. After it was over, some of them were so disappointed about losing the game, which showed how much they were engaged in the activities.

・Everyone was looking forward for this event from the day before. Many of the children were playing football for the first time, but they all seemed to have a great time today. When a goal was scored, children watching from outside were seen celebrating as well as the team that scored. The children were very motivated to win the next football game, so we will try to make this an event they look forward to in the future.