Never too early to kick the ball

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Adding one more feature to football coaching in the state, Universal Soccer School in Kozhikode will venture out into something other football academies have not done so far. The school is all set to start a long-term coaching camp for children as young as six and seven.

“We have been preparing to start the coaching camp for the past eight months. The selection for the camp will commence in April. We wouldlike to take about 22 players as part of the programme. The long-term camp will last eight to nine years,” said C.M. Deepak, coach at the soccer school.

“We have been investing a lot in the past months. We have bought several books and CDs about coaching Under-7 players and given it to the coaches. Coaching for the seven-year-olds will be a totally new affair and there are lots of differences from the usual methods,” says Deepak.

“We had plans to start training for five-year-old children but this requires more facilities such as an indoor stadium. We have consulted several European agencies through online and received tips to start the coaching camp,” he said.

The importance of starting football at this age, he says, is that we would be able to mould the attitude of players to the game.

“In football, attitude on ground is as important as techniques and other skills. Only by giving training at an early age we will be able to transform the players into good players with the right kind of attitude,” he said.

However, he says the venture will not be an easy one. “Until now, none of the coaches had experience in training children. There must be a psychological approach. Also, the training session must be interesting; not like the usual kind that concentrates more on physical training. After all, we have to spur their passion to the game,” he said.

“Our current long-term camp for under-15 is going to complete and we thought about doing something different,” he said.

“The coaching will be very hard and we expect a bigger reward. The camp will be conducted free of cost. Since, it’s a long- term camp, and we cannot gamble on the players, we will be able to take players who have an instinct for the game. For that, there will be several selection trials, and only through a thorough screening will we select them,” he said.