ABOUT THE NAOFA

YOUTH SPORTS ARE WHAT WE LIVEBREATHEDO

GET ACTIVE

Active kids are happy, healthy kids! Introducing sports early on will help kids to learn fitness fundamentals, team-work, leadership and responsibility. We use sports to promote positive mental and physical development in our youth.

MAKE KIDS SMILE

When coaches make sports FUN kids are more likely to stick with them. We don’t believe sports should feel like pressure. We train coaches so they have inside knowledge, and our proven methods, of the best practices for teaching kids.

STAY HEALTHY

The NAofA is on a mission to help motivate kids to have an active, happy, healthy lifestyle. We believe if they start on this path as a child, they will learn valuable life lessons, create good habits and grow to be happy, healthy adults.

GET OFF SCREENS

Children who spent the most time glued to a screen when they are young proved most at risk of developing emotional, psychological and physical health problems by the time they became teenagers. Young children are missing out on key aspects of their brain development when they spend so much time staring at a screen instead of interacting with the outside world.

MAKE FRIENDS

Making friends is one of the most important missions of middle childhood—a social skill that will endure throughout their lives. Youth sports and classes, and playing team sports, are incredible ice-breakers for kids to get to know more kids and be social. Often these friendships turn into life-long friendships.

IMPROVE SKILLS

Not all kids dream of being a professional athlete, and then again some do! Our first and foremost goal is to simply introduce kids to sports. Knowing the fundamentals is important so kids can play and communicate with other kids. They learn what it means to be on a team, how to listen, communicate with peers, and that it is ok to lose as long as you learned something!

Play

About the NAofA

Learn about the NAofA! The NAofA sport programs for kids are specifically designed to help players of all abilities. The goal is to have tons of fun, learn sport-specific skills, and gain confidence on and off the field. We teach children about success, failure, and what it means to be part of a team. Our coaches provide an enthusiastic place for kids to fall in love with their chosen sport.

NAofA Certified Coaches

All programs are led by a highly trained team of NAofA Certified coaches and instructors who are carefully selected to ensure each camper’s safety, skill development & individual enjoyment. We encourage all our campers to play with confidence, enthusiasm and a love for the game.

Teaching Youth Sports the Way They Were Meant to be Taught

It is the mission of the National Academy of Athletics to provide Youth Sports Programs to community children throughout the year. During the school year we work with schools to fulfill their Physical Education requirements mandated by the Department of Education. Instead of kids standing around outside with an English or History teacher, our team steps in to instruct actual Physical Education programs for kids. The NAofA sports programs for kids put the fun back into PE! Teacher also appreciate not having the responsibility of teaching PE and favor the time to work on their lesson plans or grade papers. It’s a true win-win!

During the school year we work with municipalities to also provide NAofA sport programs for kids during breaks, holidays, and for teacher work days. This offers parents the ability to leave their kids with us while they may still need to go to work. It offers kids a great way to get active, stay healthy and have fun during their school breaks. Parents can either find our camps at their local Community Center or right at their school.

Partnering with Municipalities that Need Our Help

Municipalities through out the state of California have partnered with the NAofA to provide the children in their communities with the best sports programs out there! By partnering with the NAofA we offer these cities a solution to provide a local Area Captain, the best coaches, a wide variety of sports to choose from, and an easier way for them to balance their staffing and budgets. During Summers you’ll find NAofA sports programs for kids at over 100 locations.

Youth Leagues value the support the NAofA provides. When we partner with a league, we provide training courses for the volunteer parents, coaches, and referees. Our courses get everyone involved working together. Volunteer parents, whom often have never coached or managed a team before, become much more confident and are much more successful at keeping kids excited about playing. The NAofA will also take over the entire management of a League for schools and municipalities that are in need.

Sports Should be FUN for Kids

NAofA sport programs for kids are designed to provide children with a safe, fun, and educational youth sports experience. We offer a wide variety of programs ranging from our one-day clinics to week-long camps and so many sports from which to choose.

In a short time we have grown from 3 locations to over 100. We continuously receive requests from cities to bring our programs their way and we are doing our best to meet the demand. It is our mission to bring our quality youth sports programs to children across the nation.

Camp Opened

2012- Aaron Locks kicks off his sports camps in 3 cities in Sonoma County and runs 44 programs.

Expansion

2015- Aaron has grown to 37 cities in 3 counties, offering over 250 programs and teaches over 4000 children.

Team Grows

2017- The team grows! Aaron brings on a new Partner responsible for polishing the brand and developing a growth strategy. A new website is designed and an Intranet is developed for online training of new Area Captains, Camp Directors, and our NAofA Certified Coaches Program. NAofA doubles the cities, programs, and participants and expands its program offering to schools.

Covid Pandemic

2020- We thrive during the COVID pandemic! The NAofA team quickly creates PLAY HARD. HAVE FUN. AT HOME. On-Demand Sports Clinics for kids so they can stay active. Schools use our On-Demand and Virtual Sports Programs to give kids physical education during On-Line Learning. Leagues participate in our ZOOM Coaches Retreats to prepare for getting kids back to play safely. We added 28 new Community Partners!

Growth Continues!

2021- The NAofA uses the guidelines created by the CDC and local health organizations to create Covid Safety Protocols to resume live youth sports programs. Our protocols are distributed to California Parks and Recreation. Over 5000 kids participate in Spring sports camps with ZERO incidents. Summer 2021 we are contracted to run a record number of Youth Sports Programs and camps are selling out quickly!

Our Community Partners

The National Academy of Athletics partners with City Municipalities, Youth Leagues and Schools to provide organizations with professional trained Youth Coaches to ensure our Youth are provided with proper Physical Education Instruction.