September 2020 – Collaroy Cromer Strikers Fooball Development Program

Benefits of playing Football – Part 7

28/09/2020/in Benefits of Football /by Liam Bonney

Football can also be a preventative measure against antisocial behavior. A lot of times when individuals get themselves into trouble it is usually through the teenage years where the search for identity and to “fit in” is strongest. It’s something that I definitely went through in my teenage years.

I had what I would call a weird circumstance where I was one thing in school and then a completely different person outside of it. In school I was very shy, unconfident and afraid to say the wrong thing and would go as far to say I felt like I was walking around on eggshells. I sort of attribute this to the school I went to I went to a school where academics came first, and sport was a very distant second. I mean that’s what you want when you enroll your kid in school, for them to come out hopefully smarter than they went in. The sports that the school did endorse though were rugby and basketball. Now, for those of you who do not know me I am 5’4 on a good day … as a 23 year old. Imagine what I was like as an 9 year old!!! So, those were not really an option for me plus my sports were cricket and football. So in terms of being able to relate to people in school and have something to talk about besides school, I didn’t have much.

Now I think this could have 100% become a problem if it wasn’t for who I was outside of school. Outside of school I was confident, talkative and comfortable. That’s because most of the time I was outside of school I was playing sport and not to toot my own horn but I was usually good at it too. Its also a different circumstance when you are at a game or at training for sport. Everyone has school so you can talk about that, then there is the sport that you are actually playing. That you know people are interested in because … if they weren’t then why were they there? So, you can talk about your favorite teams, players, the national team and so on. In all honesty I think that the outside of school me was definitely the realer version of myself and is who I am today.

The point to all of this though is that if I was not playing sport and the only interaction I had was the one I had at school then things could have gone down a different road. I think that a lot of the time teenagers compromise who they are in order to try and fit in. I know some people will cringe at this because its cringy and cliché but that’s why teenagers try things in an attempt to be cool or popular that they do not fully understand. Teachers may convince some people to stop but it is the ignorance of youth that when shown the potential consequences of there actions teens often say “Yeh, but that won’t be me”. Then they try something once, either they like it or they keep doing it because they like what people think of them when they do it. But because they do not understand the nature of the things they are trying they then become addicted to both the thing itself and the attention it brings with it.

I was literally having a kick around the other day at an oval across the road from a school. A group of kids came over and were what I thought just hanging out by the club house about 10 meters from where I was kicking the ball in the goal. I thought nothing of it the kids looked about 14 but were definitely in school clothes. Two teachers then came thundering around the corner catching the group off guard. All I could really here was “Can’t you kids go one day without smoking?” and “is that the cigarette under your foot, that’s pathetic”. 14 years old and from the sounds of it repeat offenders at getting caught smoking, 14!

Now, I do understand that not all football players are smoke, drug and alcohol free and that not all drug users do not play football. But football and sport in general does provide another way for individuals especially at that age to find a place to fit in and another path to go on.

Benefits of playing Football – Part 6

21/09/2020/in Benefits of Football /by Liam Bonney

As mentioned in the previous post the increase in concentration that football provides to individuals especially at a young age carries over to their school environment too. Students who play football are generally speaking less aggressive and experience fewer behavioral problems. One of the reasons for this is that football provides an outlet for kids to expend their seemingly endless amounts of energy. Without a release for these kids they may start play fights as a way to expend this energy, if left unchecked this may lead to aggression. Football provides a perfect activity for kids to do, its physical, outdoors and a contact sport.

With less aggression and increased levels of concentration kids enrolled in football also experience less behavioral problems. Seems obvious, although it is important to note that not all behavioral problems are related to fighting. Not willing to work with others, overreacting when losing or failing at something and selfishness are all behavioral problems that can arise in childhood. Football addresses all of these and in some cases I will go into deeper detail on them in the upcoming post but here is just a little summary. Football is a team sport and in order to have sustained success you need to able to work together as a team.

In football eventually kids are going to lose, or not accomplish something straight away, that’s the way it is. But, what I try to install in the kids that I coach is that failing is just an opportunity to learn something. Similarly the more you fail or the more you lose, although not desirable does mean that you get used to it and understand that failing a 3^rd grade math test just like losing an U8 soccer game is not that important.

Selfishness tends to be stamped out by a combination of the two above. If a player is selfish for example a player is simply “hogging” the ball and not passing it to anyone else. Everyone else on the team will undoubtedly get frustrated and start complaining to “the hog” about him not passing the ball. This may trigger “the hog” to pass the ball more often or it may make the coach aware and they may wish to ask the player “why they are not passing the ball and then suggest that in some situations it may be good to pass the ball to someone in a better position. “the hog” will also likely continued to get tackled, leading to the player failing repeatedly. This could lead to frustration as a result of losing the ball and in some circumstances the game and this is where the coach needs to step in with the same points as above. However if the player is successfully dribbling through entire teams and scoring 3+ goals a game then the coach has the difficult task of trying to challenge that player further by setting them individual based tasks or playing them out of position, not that they should have positions before 12 anyway.

Benefits of playing Football – Part 5

14/09/2020/in Benefits of Football /by Liam Bonney

One of the first mental benefits of football is the ability it must develop an individual’s concentration skills. Concentration is important for anyone and the earlier someone can develop an understanding of not just what concentration is but also why they need it the better.

So how does football achieve this? Firstly, in the development an individual’s skills in order to play the game and then the playing of the game itself. In order to play football, you need certain skills, first touch, striking the ball, running with the ball are the basics. In order to learn these, you need to be able to focus on how to do them. This might take the form of someone watching a YouTube video, or more likely at a young age someone learning from a coach. If the individual is not concentrating, then they are likely to not understand how to perform the action. Therefore in order to learn new skills players must learn to concentration. Furthermore, the players we see on TV seem to perform actions as second nature and for them it is. But, that’s not how it starts out. You must first become focused and concentrate on doing the move slowly and correctly before attempting to make it difficult by doing it faster or under pressure.

Secondly the game of football requires concentration to play. To be able to focus on the ball, teammates, opposition and where the goals are, takes a lot of concentration. Its one of the main reasons that the game is adjusted to shorter lengths at the younger ages. It is simply too much to ask of young minds to be able to concentrate for the same amount of time as adults. But if a player continues to play for a couple of seasons then they will develop a greater ability to concentrate for longer periods of time. This has a carry over affect into an individual’s life outside of football as well creating better concentration in the classroom or at work.

Benefits of playing Football – Part 4

07/09/2020/in Benefits of Football /by Liam Bonney

Football requires coordination in order to play the game and is a great way to develop someone’s coordination especially at a young age. Football also requires the use of both fine and gross motor skills in order to play the game successfully.

An individual undertaking football will learn both hand-eye coordination and foot-eye coordination. You are not allowed to use your hands in football apart from one position, goalkeeper. In Australia there are no goalkeepers until players reach the under 8 age group. Once they reach this age teams can place a goalkeeper in the goals. It is my belief that players should all be given a chance to play goalkeeper through the ages of 8 – 12 or at least until they play on a full size field. Learning to play goalkeeper means that you have to use your hands to stop the ball by either parrying it or catching it. At the younger age’s players are also encouraged to roll or throw the ball out when distributing. The repetition of this as well as throw ins develops an individual’s ability to properly control a ball when receiving it and when releasing it.

Outfield players also need hand eye coordination, although for a very different reason. The use of a hand by an outfield player results in a free kick or penalty to the opposing team. It is therefore essential to be able to keep your hands away as much as humanly possible especially when controlling the ball and blocking a shot.

Foot to eye coordination is the predominant type of coordination used in football. The ability to know where your foot is in relation to what your eyes see in order to execute something with the ball. For example a shot at goal. Foot eye coordination is hard to learn, the feet are less dexterous than the hands and the legs are a lot stronger than the arms making it a difficult ability to learn. Just look at any person regardless of their age starting out at in football.

However, over time and with the right coaching players can learn to do incredibly complex physical movements with their feet. Just look at the most ridiculous moves pulled off by football freestylers. Although these are not overly practical in the game of football they demonstrate a high amount of fine motor skills and foot-eye coordination in order to pull off.

In game foot -eye coordination culminates in the amazing and dazzling over head kicks and scissor kicks we see players execute. The ability to judge the flight of the ball and coordinate what is almost a half backflip all whilst being able to kick the ball down and toward the goal shows how just how much football can develop an individuals coordination.

This has benefits outside of football as well. People who are more coordinated are less likely to hurt themselves when doing activities. Such as playing with the kids. Being more coordinated means there is less chance of you falling or tripping over, or even if you do be able to recover your balance and avoid injury. The same goes for kids, although everyone starts out a little clumsy, kids who are more coordinated are less likely to get hurt playing with their friends then someone who is more uncoordinated.