My 9-year-old, like most kids his age, is football obsessed. He plays for a club, plays in the garden, watches video on his tablet and knows more stats than you could ever imagine. But he is also a 9-year-old with a tablet, who likes nothing more to laze about, meaning screentime can, occasionally, be a struggle to control. He might be obsessed with the best football boots you can buy, but I was after something different to get him more active.
So I was really interested to get him try out the FPRO app, which claims to be able to provide pro-quality football training through an app. My son, with my assistance, tried out the FPRO Pro Bundle, which comes with FPRO Training Program as well as some really cool kit, including Ball Mastery Mat 2.0, Elite Soccer Ball 2.0 and Grip socks.
Setting up through the app was really simple, as I had thought that the mat had to be plugged into a device, but actually the app can simply be uploaded onto a mobile phone or tablet. It can be cast easily through a smart TV web browser, so really easy to get it up and running.
Now you do need a little bit of space to set up, and space wider than the mat so that you can move about, but what I really liked is that the mat can travel with you, kitchen, bedroom, lounge or even patio in a garden (in good dry weather). Indeed if you dont have space at home you could take this to the local park.
The trickiest part was selecting which program to start him off on as there are three different programs to choose from: Gamified Experience (7 years old and under), Skills and Footwoork (8-12), Mastering the Ball (13-16). He is 9 so we started on the Skills and Footwork, but he found it a little tricky at first, so we dropped him to the gamified experience, which he really enjoyed and has allowed him to progress back to his age range.
The idea is very simple that the mat, which has useful numbers and arrows is used as a map and the player uses the ball to travel to each section in a certain way. So for the gamified experience, there is a bit where you have to collect diamonds, you use a prescribed part of your foot to dribble the ball to each area to get the diamonds. This is a great way of practising without really realising you are. The experience of collecting the diamonds with, for example, the outside of your foot will then be lent on when your child steps up to the more advanced levels.
One thing the product doesn’t provide is any feedback and any fault coaching. So it is handy for a parent to be close by to give feedback and to help if a child is struggling or not quite doing what is being asked.
The more you train the more levels you unlock and rewards you can earn, which makes it really fun and rewarding and makes kids want to go back to it every day.
In a world where screentime is becoming more of an issue, and families try to get their kids more active the FPRO app and its Pro Kit is a really fun way to help get them off the sofa and moving about, while enjoying the sport they love.
