10 Reasons Football is a Great Sport for Kids

With the growing success and popularity of the Azkals, football (also known as soccer) is gaining a stronger local fan base and lots of hopefuls trying out in clinics and teams all over the country. If you’re curious about whether this sport is the right thing for your little boy or girl, we had Coach Jong Castaneda, a former player and football coach of the Ateneo Grade School, give us ten reasons why football is a good thing for your child to get into.

1. Football is fun – What could be more fun for a youngster than spend the afternoon running around kicking a ball across a grassy field? It’s as simple and as visceral a pleasure as that, and Coach Jong emphasizes its importance as a draw for children. “Enjoyment is really the key, especially for beginners,” surmises Castaneda. “It’s not about winning. The main goal is about playing the game because, especially for beginners, it’s just about the fun of running around with everyone kicking the ball. You don’t really need to be very good at the start to enjoy football.”

2. It’s a family activity – Based on Coach Jong’s experience, it starts with an older brother who gets into the sport, with the rest of the family eventually getting into it.  “From that one kuya, it extends to cousins and other family members who get interested, then they all play together,” he reveals.  But even non-football players can get into the action. “You don’t have to actually play to have fun,” he admits. “Even mommies, yayas, lolos, lolas and drivers can enjoy themselves by being spectators.”

3. Football is a foundation sport – Other sports aren’t as easy to learn as football, especially for young kids. Basketball can be challenging to newcomers who have trouble with dribbling. Volleyball requires a lot of timing and accuracy. Taekwondo can seem very strict for children who may not be ready for the discipline of martial arts. In comparison, the sheer simplicity of football lends itself to being a good introductory sport that can prepare your child for future sports activities. “You just run around chasing and kicking a ball,” reiterates Castaneda. “With enough practice, your child improves his stamina, coordination and fighting spirit, which are also necessary in other sports.”

4. It helps in values formation – “You learn self discipline on the field and on the pitch,” he continues. “You pick up values such as hard work, doing your best in the game, teamwork and understanding winning and losing games.” The beauty of the sport is that the value formation isn’t blatant or direct. “It comes in slowly,” confides Coach Jong. “It’s a long process that comes in with simple things like training, learning drills and scrimmage. Kids that normally wouldn’t obey mommy to clean up their rooms would follow their coach to do their practice drills and instructions on the field, so eventually, they learn to obey and respect authority figures as well.”

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5. It builds character – Football builds confidence by placing children in situations where they have to learn how to deal with others. “Unlike in school where magkakilala na sila dahil sa mga class sectioning, in football what we do is we put them together by age groups,” he states. “In the team, they’re composed of different kids from different sections and even different schools, so they don’t know each other and they really need to learn how to get along.” Young children also gain tenacity and fortitude. “When kids are tired, they wanna give up and go home. But football gradually conditions them to push their minds and bodies further.” Football also channels pent-up frustration and energy in what one parent described to Castaneda as ‘constructive aggression’. “Football makes for a great outlet and makes you a resilient person mentally and physically,” he says.

6. It promotes a healthy lifestyle – With today’s sedentary virtual lifestyles, anything that can get children to run around for longer than 30 seconds is considered exercise. Football already grants cardiovascular and aerobic exercise but there are benefits that aren’t immediately obvious. “Parents use football to encourage their children to have a good appetite and eat properly,” discloses Coach Jong. “They can also get their kids to sleep early for games and training. Also, when kids are at home, they stay at home playing video games or watching TV. Di na uso ang moro-moro o tumbang preso. Lalo na with families living in condos and subdivisions, so the kid’s play area is limited. With football you get a much bigger venue.”

7. The rules of the game are simple – “It’s not a very complicated sport,” affirms Castaneda. “Just kick the ball into the goal, don’t use your hands. If you cannot score at the end of the time allotted, then it’s a tied game. You have one authority, the referee, who tells you what is right or wrong in the game.”

8. Football is the best outdoor sport – There is a lot of leeway where space is concerned. “In football, even though there are parameters, there are no boundaries - as long as you have a big open field, you can play,” he admits. “It’s an all year round sport, rain or shine. Kids also learn to not be constrained by the classroom or the home. They enjoy seeing frogs or insects, and mud – and you get all that running around a football field.”
 
9. It’s a sport for everybody – Football doesn’t require a lot of money – you don’t need really fancy gear. “In some countries and schools, the kids play barefoot,” muses Coach Jong. “On the field, there are no rich or poor kids, only players. Anyone can pick up the game and there are no height or weight requirements. Now, with basketball, it’s hard to move around when you’re overweight. With football, you can see even kids on the heavy side playing and enjoying it. With the small goals and incentives that the game promotes, you don’t have to be athletic immediately, you just run and play the game.”

What about girls?  “It’s a very popular sport for girls too,” he emphasizes. “There are still more boys than girls in it, but girls are picking up the game now. In the US, the women’s soccer team is more successful than the men’s soccer team.”

10. It is known the world over – “Football is the worlds biggest spectator sport,” validates Castaneda. “Stadiums in Europe and some parts of Asia can seat 50,000-60,000 people and I don’t know of any sport that fills up a whole stadium like that. It’s the whole world that the sport plays. When the world cup is on TV, the whole world stops. It becomes a common topic for conversation, especially in Asia, maski saan. In the US you can talk about basketball, but no matter where you go, you can always mention football and you can make a connection.”

Photo from the Younghusband Football Academy