Winter season wraps up, the boots go in the cupboard, and by February half of what your four, five or six year old learned over winter has quietly disappeared. If you're after summer soccer on the Northern Beaches that keeps your U6 or U7 player moving, smiling and improving through the warmer months, KIKOFF runs exactly that at our Bennett Street, Curl Curl centre — and it's built specifically for this age group, not a scaled-down version of an adult program.
This guide covers what our U6 and U7 summer soccer program actually looks like, why summer is the right time to play, and everything you need to know before you register — from session structure through to what to pack in the bag on a Saturday morning.
For a lot of Northern Beaches families, summer soccer isn't really a decision about football at all — it's a decision about how to spend a Saturday morning. An hour of structured, outdoor, social activity for a four to seven year old beats a screen, and it beats a morning with nothing planned and a bored kid by 9am. The football is genuinely good for development, but the bigger win for most parents is simply that their child has somewhere fun and safe to be, run by people who know what they're doing with this age group.
Most Northern Beaches winter clubs run April through August. That leaves a long stretch — spring into summer — where a lot of kids simply stop touching a ball. At four to seven years old, that's a big chunk of a season spent not practising the fundamental movement skills — running, changing direction, kicking, first touch — that this age group is still building. Coaches see it every year: kids come back to winter trials having lost confidence they had in July. Summer soccer closes that gap instead of letting it open.
Holiday camps are single intensive weeks — great for a school break, but they don't build a habit. A summer term, like KIKOFF's, runs weekly across the season, so your child gets the same coach, the same small group of teammates, and steady, compounding improvement rather than one big burst of activity. Many Northern Beaches families do both: a camp during the January break, then weekly summer soccer either side of it. The two formats complement each other rather than compete — camp gives an intensive week of coaching, while the weekly term gives the repetition that actually cements new skills.
There's also a social benefit that's easy to underrate at this age. A weekly term means your child sees the same group of kids every Saturday for the whole season, which for four, five and six year olds is often the first time they've built a small, consistent friend group outside their preschool or school class. Parents notice this too — waiting on the sideline with the same group of families week after week tends to turn into its own little community.
Everything is built around small-sided play — think 3v3 and 4v4 — because more players on a big pitch means most four and five year olds spend the session watching, not playing. Smaller games mean more touches, more decisions, and more fun per minute, which lines up with the Football Australia MiniRoos approach parents on the Northern Beaches already know from winter club.
Each session follows a simple, predictable rhythm: a fun movement-based warm-up, a short skills block on things like ball mastery and first touch, then small-sided match play where kids apply what they've just practised. Predictability matters at this age — kids know what's coming, which means less anxiety and more participation, especially for first-timers.
Our Curl Curl centre runs on synthetic, all-weather pitches, so a summer storm doesn't mean a cancelled session and a refund email. Sessions go ahead as scheduled in all but genuinely unsafe conditions, which matters when you've built a Saturday morning around it.
Age groups in junior football are based on the age your child turns during that calendar year, not their age on the day. So U6 means your child turns six at some point this year — they might still be four or five when the season starts. U7 follows the same rule. If you're unsure which group fits, our coaches at Curl Curl are happy to advise before you register — as a rough guide, U6 suits a first-timer or a child moving out of come-and-try soccer, while U7 suits a child who's had a season or two of structured play.
It's worth noting that age grouping is a guide, not a strict rule, particularly at this level. If your child is physically or socially a little ahead or behind their age group, our coaches will happily talk through whether U6 or U7 is the better starting point — the goal is always the group where your child will be challenged appropriately without being overwhelmed or under-stimulated.
Families from Dee Why, Freshwater, Manly and Narrabeen make the drive to Curl Curl for the same reasons: qualified, patient coaches who genuinely enjoy this age group, a pitch that's always playable, and a program that doesn't take itself too seriously. That's the whole idea behind "football without the pressure" — kids should leave every session wanting to come back next week.
The feedback we hear most often from parents isn't really about football skill at all — it's about confidence. Kids who were shy about joining group activities at the start of the season are, by the end of it, the ones organising their own mini-games before the whistle blows. That shift, more than any particular drill, is usually what keeps families coming back term after term.
Summer term sessions run weekly at our Bennett Street, Curl Curl centre, with morning slots designed around young kids' energy levels. Spots for U6 and U7 are limited to keep group sizes small, so it's worth registering ahead of the season rather than waiting for a spare Saturday. Register for summer soccer at KIKOFF Northern Beaches to lock in your child's place, or browse our broader Northern Beaches coaching programs if you're after an older age group.
Shin pads, a water bottle, sun-safe clothing and hat, and boots or enclosed sports shoes suitable for synthetic turf. We recommend sunscreen applied before arrival, especially for the earlier weeks of the term.
Beginners are very welcome. A large share of our U6 group each summer has never played a structured game before — coaches group and pace sessions so first-timers and returning winter-club players are both challenged appropriately.
Sessions go ahead as normal on our all-weather synthetic pitches at Curl Curl. We'll only postpone in the case of genuinely unsafe conditions, such as lightning, and families are notified directly through the KIKOFF Football app if that happens.
Most parents stay and watch from the sideline, and we welcome that — it's a low-pressure environment for both kids and parents. There's no obligation to help run the session; our coaches, all holding a Working With Children Check, take care of that.
Summer doesn't have to be a break from football — for U6 and U7 kids on the Northern Beaches, it can be the season where the real progress happens. Small groups, qualified coaches, a pitch that's always ready, and a program built around keeping four to seven year olds moving and smiling. Register for summer soccer at KIKOFF Northern Beaches and get your child on the pitch this season.