SUMMER does not have to be a football-free zone for keen young players – and many of them have been keeping up their skills with Onside Sports Coaching.

Sessions have been held at Furness Academy during the school holidays – with more to come in Barrow and Ulverston – with head coach Gav Butler delighted with their success.

Players who are on a break from their Barrow and District Junior Football League sides have been able to come down and play with both team-mates and new faces, with both boys and girls joining in the fun.

“All the camps that we run at Furness Academy are brilliant,” said Butler. “We have a brilliant following, with a similar group who come back, but always with some new faces.

“It's a good mix of girls and boys, and it's just getting busier and busier all the time, which is good.

“We get quite a lot from our skills sessions and our development centre, but you do get some faces who maybe you haven't come across before, but who are keen footballers. They give it a try and, more often than not, they will come back again and again, tell friends, and it snowballs.

“We've got some who come to every single camp that we have in Barrow, which is really pleasing to see. They bring their friends or team-mates as well.

“We get along with a lot of the grass-roots coaches, so they promote it within their teams as well, to give their kids some extra training over the summer. It's good for us to see the grass-roots kids, because we do have a development centre we can recruit from.”

He added: “In the mornings, they will go through various activities around different techniques, like passing, dribbling, turning, shooting. In the afternoons, it's more around decision-making – can they put the techniques into practice that they have learned in the mornings?”

The Onside Football Academy will run again at Hawcoat Park in the week beginning Monday, August 20, and at the Glaxo sports complex, Ulverston, from Tuesday, August 28.

A multi-sport camp, featuring the likes of tennis, cricket, rounders and athletics, will be held at Dalton St Mary's School, between Monday, August 20 and Friday, August 24.

All camps run between 10am and 3pm, with early drop-offs from 9am available.

For more information, contact Gavin Butler on 01229 583684, or email gav@onsidesportscoaching.co.uk