The Cinnaminson Soccer Club began its annual spring season clinics on Sunday that will run for seven sessions. The popularity of the clinics, which feature professional soccer trainers, has forced the club to move the sessions to Cinnaminson Middle School from Memorial Park.
Rick Hymanson, the Director of Player Development for the Cinnaminson Soccer Club, spoke with Cinn City Sports this morning about the spring clinics.
“We have a number of programs that are available,” Hymanson said. “We hold clinics in the fall and the spring where any of our players who are not on a travel team from ages 3-12, it gives them an opportunity to play in town and receive instruction from professional trainers. They learn the basics of the game. We want to get them on the field, get them active and build a love of the game.”
The clinics are held only on Sundays in the spring and the players are split into two sessions; 3:30-4:45 (younger players) and 5:00-6:15 (older players).
“For the little kids, 5/6 and under, the focus is on keeping it fun and building their confidence,” Hymanson said. “A lot of the sessions we build focus on getting them as many touches on the soccer ball as possible.”
“When possible, we try to incorporate different themes or characters they can relate to. There are different things where we might relate a specific game around a movie, such as Toy Story.”
Hymanson also explained one of his favorite games that the younger players get to experience during the early session.
“One of my favorite games that we do is a policeman game with the younger kids. You try to relate it to where their parents are driving down the street and they see a policeman pointing a certain way. What do your parents do? They have to drive that way. We do the same thing with our soccer training. The trainer is the policeman, the players are ‘drivers’ with their ball and the players have to look up at the ‘policeman,’ who tells them which way to go and they have to follow those rules.”
“A kid has a ball at their feet every time and they have to pick their head up to find out which way the policeman is pointing. The policeman isn’t shouting where to go, he’s only pointing. They have to make sure they dribble the soccer ball with their head up.”
Hymanson is pleased with the enhancements the club has made recently, which have translated to a stronger skillset for players as they advance up the ranks.
“We made a bunch of enhancements the last two years, which are really paying off,” Hymanson said. “We have record turnout this year. Our older soccer teams are now benefiting because the kids are coming up with more of those basic skills than they would’ve had before.”
With the different age groups, the club is able to have the players take part in different types of drills and scrimmages.
“The older kids love to play a scrimmage at the end of each session,” Hymanson said. “We have eight different groups at each session. We have eight professional trainers who each lead a group at each session. At the end of the session groups will play scrimmages against each other. It builds up the competition and the older kids love that aspect.”
For the younger players, Hymanson described a game involving celebrations after a player scores a goal that goes over well with the players, coaches and family members in attendance.
“Every kid scores goals multiple times and then we work with them on fun celebrations like professional soccer players do after they score a goal. So, picture a three or four year old dribbling up to a goal, they’ll kick it in, everyone will go crazy and then they’ll start flying like a professional soccer player does after they score. Some kids will do the airplane. Other kids will do a sprinkler motion. Some kids will slide head-first on the ground. They then get to tell everyone about it; their parents, grandparents, kids at school.”
Hymanson outlined the goals he has as Director of Player Development with the Cinnaminson Soccer Club to end our discussion.
“I have two main goals. One is to build every kid’s love of the game. I want every kid to be happy and excited and love to come each week and then after the sessions continue to play at home. The second goal I have is to help build confidence. Confidence within a team is something we really strive to build.”
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