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Kicking a ball is a pastime as old as time.
Boys and girls all over the world love to play it after school, at a club on the weekend, or simply in their backyard. Football is a game that children really enjoy and get them excited about. It's much more than just having fun and coming home with scraped knees and dirty clothes. It's actually a fabulous sport that encourages children to adopt a healthy lifestyle and is sure to keep them fit.
The positive effects of football on the physical level
Sports offer a multitude of physical benefits. The most obvious benefit is that all types of physical exercise help increase children's levels of physical well-being. Maintaining cardiovascular health provides an excellent foundation for good physical condition. This applies to both sports participation and staying fit in general. However, there are many physical benefits specifically associated with football.
Endurance
Anyone who has ever completed an hour-long workout, or an intense 30-minute workout, will agree that it's a long session of activity. A full soccer match lasts 90 minutes, divided into two 45-minute halves, with a rest period in the middle. So, you need to be moving for a long time. Soccer requires endurance in many forms, from slower running up and down the field to running with the ball. It also involves quick turns and sprints more similar to a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout. A soccer match definitely requires a good level of endurance. As such, the more kids play soccer, the more their endurance increases. A 90-minute match will still be a good workout for even the fittest child!
Coordination
Soccer is a fast-paced sport with quick changes from one position to another. Focusing on the ball and where your teammates are, as well as defending the space around you, requires a certain level of coordination. The more children work on this skill, the better it becomes, and the more they can use these skills in other sports and other areas of their lives. Coordination also develops self-awareness, as it trains children to know who is around them and react quickly to unexpected situations.
Improved reactions
Depending on the position your child plays, they will likely accelerate to react to something happening elsewhere on the field, especially if they are the one running toward the goal with the ball. They may stop abruptly, turn at the last minute, or even have to slow down and start running backward. These repeated accelerations and sprints are a great way to develop and improve reaction times.
Muscle and bone strengthening
When we play soccer, we use every muscle in our body, from our feet to our heads. The more children play, the more they develop the muscles in their feet from kicking the ball, the muscles in their legs from running, and the muscles in their heads, arms, and backs to support these movements. The system that supports these muscles, the skeleton, is also fully engaged, leading to stronger, healthier bones. If your child is in goal, they may dive to prevent the opposing team from scoring. If they're the one trying to score, they might jump to head the ball. What's certain is that children are getting a total-body workout unlike any other.
The positive effect of football on the mental level
What you may not have considered, or perhaps take for granted, are the many mental health benefits of football. Children may, of course, see it purely as a game, but as adults, we can become aware of its broader impact.
Teamwork and communication
Football is a team sport. You simply can't play it without learning how to communicate with others. There's no point in just kicking the ball around and hoping a teammate catches it. You need to communicate physically and verbally with players on different parts of the field so they know what's going on. You need to be willing to observe others and communicate with them about where you are and what you're going to do next. This brings us to our next point.
Strategy and planning
You need to know where your teammates are on the pitch and where they are likely to run next to position yourself correctly. The overall objective is obviously to score goals, and more importantly, to score more goals than the other team in order to win the match. As with many things in life, there is sometimes an element of luck. But the best football teams didn't get to where they are today through luck alone. They did this by planning their movements on the pitch before they even entered the pitch, analyzing their opponents' strengths and weaknesses, and thinking about their own weaknesses and how they can improve them. To the uninitiated, it might seem like it's just a matter of kicking a ball around, but becoming a good footballer requires a lot of strategy and planning.
Strive to achieve a goal
We play to win; it's natural. Becoming a soccer player starts with knowing how to take a simple shot, run in the right direction, and use a few basic skills. As with any goal, working towards it teaches us focus, discipline, patience, and even how to overcome disappointment. These valuable life lessons apply not only to soccer, but to every stage of our adult lives. What better way to teach children patience and accept that things aren't always easy than to let them learn these lessons through an activity they enjoy. This will have a much greater impact than telling them that life isn't always easy.
The benefits of exercise on overall mental health
Physical activity has been proven to improve mood and is a great way to increase our levels of endorphins, the so-called "feel-good hormones." Being happy also means lowering our stress levels, which can again be achieved through regular physical activity. Happy, less stressed children are also more likely to sleep better. Their minds will be calmer, and their bodies will be able to recover from the day's events.
So, the next time your kids come home with muddy shoes and smelly soccer gear, remember the physical and mental benefits of soccer. And know that even though it means extra laundry, soccer is an extremely beneficial sport for these growing individuals!