… Play Soccer in a Club with Grade Schoolers?

What’s it like to play soccer in a club with school children?

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Sports is very important for children in order to train their growing bodies, get them away from the media and out into nature, and make them bond with like-minded kids. In our social media age, there is the danger that children don’t create many real-life friendships anymore, following influencers, YouTubers, and other popular figures online instead and also succumbing to online bullying.

Back in our times (and I’m talking mostly about the 80s) when there were no computers yet in every home, besides TV, there weren’t many things you could do alone in your room. Instead, you went out playing with friends, riding go-karts and bikes in the street, climbing on trees and building tree houses, going to outdoor playgrounds, and having fun in nature. When I was a child, I also loved to go fishing in brooks (and Lyons Cub has discovered this hobby now, too). Turning over rocks to find creepy crawlies awakens the scientific interest in children to discover new forms of life they don’t even know from their books.

According to the PCSFN Science Board, this is what sports can do for children:

• Lower anxiety, depression, and stress
• Build higher self-esteem and confidence
• Reduce the risk of suicide
• Reduce substance abuse and risky
  behaviors
• Increase cognitive performance
• Increase creativity
• Further enjoyment of all forms of
  physical activity
• Improve psychological and emotional
  well-being for individuals with disabilities.

Psychologists state that especially now, in post-Covid times, children need to rebuild their social lives and meet other kids again after two to three years of loneliness due to lockdowns and social distancing, and what better way to achieve this than by playing soccer?

My son gets bored easily; plastic toys only hold his attention for so long. But outside, he can show his true talents and use his overabundant energy. We tried a judo club in the past, but he lacked a partner of his weight and size, so the older kids were always throwing him around, and after getting bruised up many days in a row, we decided that judo was not his thing. Maybe later, when he has a friend who wants to do it together with him. He does excel in his swim club, though.

Since several boys his age he knows from kindergarten go to soccer clubs, he longed to be in one, too. So we bought soccer shoes and a training suit and went for a trial training, which he liked so much he decided to join.

But the most important thing Lyons Cub is learning in his soccer club is team spirit. He is a very competitive child, used to being the best or always wanting to be the best. He needs to learn that passing a ball to a team mate who then shoots the goal counts just as much as shooting the goal by himself. And he also needs to learn that losing belongs to soccer just as much as winning. Here, he is lying in a goal, crying, because the other team in the orange soccer jerseys won 4:0. His trainer had a good talk with him afterwards and cheered him up again.

According to the following source, losing a game requires different skills than winning:

Playing a match is extremely exciting and can increase your adrenaline enormously. Pressure can cause us to make errors and be a by-product of losing, but what is it about winning that makes us learn more? A defensive team usually prepares well and makes sure that they stay close to each other to give the opposition no space. In soccer terms, most people use the expression of Parking the Bus. It is where the defence holds its position and blocks the attacking team’s chances of scoring. They then hope to score on the counterattack or from a set-piece and hold on for dear life.  

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have a team trying to create opportunities where there is no space, so the ball movement must be fast. Players must dribble exceptionally well, fire off shots where possible or deliver quality crosses into the box to try and score. To do this, you must have a diverse range of skills. Breaking down these types of defences requires you to think more, be creative, patient, and disciplined, which means you are doing more, therefore learning many more ways to unlock defences to win. In other words, winning challenges you to do even better. On the other hand, losing gives you the psychological feeling of sadness or anger, but the reality is you did not do enough to win. 

Of course, Lyons Cub doesn’t just train soccer in his club, he also plays soccer with mommy in our spare time. We take our soccer ball along in a bag when hiking, until we make it to a big, empty field or meadow, where we play. Of course, we have to make sure we don’t stumble into a rabbit hole! 😉