Kick off Football
ABOUT US
Football is one of the prioritized sports disciplines in Kerala based on the performance at National and
international level. In Kerala, much importance is not given to the under 12 category in football. For performance
enhancement, training at grass root level with inter club competitions and inter district tournaments has to be
promoted. Many developed countries start talent hunt for children below 10 years of age and train them very
professionally through organized and systematic training strategies. The grass root training programme aims to
bring up talented children from suburban, rural, tribal and other less tapped areas by catching them young.
The DSYA (Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs) has collaborated with experienced organizations in
this field who have proved their mettle for at least 10 years and have established training centres all over
Kerala and gained experience in selection, training, and operation of these training centres.
In each district, minimum one training centre will be set up, and 25 Students will be selected and trained by
experienced coaches. The selection process is elaborate and will be done in two phases. In the first
phase Students born between 01.01.2007 and 31.12.2008 (both the dates inclusive) are registered for
selection. Three tests viz. zigzag, 2 vs 2, and speed test(see the video gallery) are conducted for all the registered candidates
and the best 50 are selected for preparatory camp. In case of tie between two candidates obtaining same
total score, their speed test will be the deciding factor, and the faster player will get priority. In case of
further tie in the speed test, the taller player will be given preference.
After 4 days' preparatory camp of one hour each, 25 will be finally selected out of the 50 candidates, for the KickOff training program. There will be two
additional tests as Kicking Back and Shooting. In case of ties the same logic as in the preliminary
selection applies here as well.
The registration and selection procedures are computerised to keep transparency and efficiency of the
process. Each centre will have an administrator who will in turn report to the Super Administrator in the
Head Quarters.
The attendance and performance of the players will be monitored via computerised procedures.