Football in Early Childhood, Achievements as Processes or Goals?

Duwi Kurnianto Pambudi

, Wawan S. Suherman

, Sulistiyono

Sport Science Faculty, Yogyakarta State University, Colombo Street No1, Special Region of Yogyakarta

Sport Science Department, Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Football, Children in Early Childhood, Coach, Training Process

Abstract: Early childhood is the phase when children progress into adolescence and adulthood. In early childhood

phase, children have to find cheerful feeling and happiness in playing football. Therefore, they keep loving

football without any boredom in practicing and children should have the appropriate training program which

based on their ages. Parents and the coach should lower their ego to accomplish achievements in the golden

age of football. Thus, at childhood age, achievement should be considered as a process to progress and to

reach the next stage in acquiring achievements at adolescence or adulthood period. Hence, it is not the

period to achieve purposes in early childhood.

1 INTRODUCTION

Principally, playing a game is part of the children’s

world. In this case, football is one of the sports

games. Thus, playing football has to be surrounded

with enjoyable atmosphere, but the structured and

measured methods need to be considered. Therefore,

the highest achievement in the golden age of football

can be achieved.

According to Smith and Pellegrini (2008),

playing is self-interest activities conducted in fun

ways which is not oriented to final outcomes, but to

be more flexible, active, and positive. It means that

playing is not the kind of activity done to satisfy

others but it is done merely because of the players’

willingness.

In regard to football, children in early childhood

(in the age of 6-9 years old) should be happy when

they are playing football. Therefore, this sport

becomes one of the media in education and learning

besides the lesson in formal school. The factor that

supports children's success in loving football is the

role of people around them, like the parents, the

coach, and their friends. Those elements have to

work together in accordance with their respective

roles.

Early childhood is the proper age for physical

and emotional growth of a child. Children in this

age, in the golden age, also have significant

development of skills, like in playing, learning new

things, increasing curiosity, imitating whatever they

see. Therefore, at this age, children are more active

(Rahman, 2009). According to Syaodih (2008), all

these development aspects in children should be

considered by the educators in optimizing their

potentials. If these development aspects are

underdeveloped, the future of the children will be

affected. Thus, the children’s development in the

next period will be hampered and the children will

also find difficulties in facing their future lives.

The intellectual aspect of growth starts with the

development skill in observing, finding correlation

and solving simple problem. Then, this development

grows into comprehension and more complicated

problem solving. This aspect grows rapidly when

children start to enter elementary school (in the age

of 6-7 years). It will develop constantly during the

learning period and reach the highest stage in high

school period (in the age of 16-17 years old). The

development of social aspects starts in childhood era

(in the age of 3-5 years old). Children love to play

with their peers. This friendship continues and

occurs rather fast during the school era (in the age of

11-12 years old) and grows rapidly during the

adolescence period. Social development in

childhood occurs through the relationship between

friends in any forms of game (Syaodih, 2008).

The purpose of football game which is to gain

victory should not be mixed with the goal of football

in early childhood that does not concern about

victory. The football match in early childhood

indeed prioritizes more on the learning process.

424

Pambudi, D., Suherman, W. and , S.

Football in Early Childhood, Achievements as Processes or Goals?.

DOI: 10.5220/0009788004240429

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 424-429

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

However, football in early childhood still principally

looks for victories (PSSI, 2017).

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 Early Childhood Development

Children in early childhood are those who still in the

development process. At this age, every aspect of

child’s development undergoes rapid progress

(Saputra, 2017). Some development aspects of

children in early childhood were related ion

intellectual, psychomotor, social-emotional,

language, moral, and religious aspects. In individual

development, common development principles are

as follows (1) development lasts a lifetime and

encompasses every aspect. Development does not

only relate to certain aspects but includes every

aspect. The course of individual's development is

rhythmic and the rhythm of the development of each

child is not always typical, (2) every child has

different tempo and quality of development because

they have distinctive nature of growth, (3)

development is relatively dynamic, following certain

patterns. The development of a domain precedes by

other domains, (4) development occurs gradually,

little by little, (5) development occurs from general

abilities into more specific skills, following the

differentiation and integration processes. The

differentiation or disintegration into smaller things

and the process of integration occur in the

development. In this integration, some small/special

skills merge into a skill or proficiency, (6) normally,

the development of individuals follows every phase.

However, due to specific factors, certain phase is

passed rapidly so it looks like this phase has been

skipped while other phases are passed slowly. Due

to that matter, the development seems hampered, (7)

to certain limits, the development of an aspect can

be accelerated or hampered. The development is

influenced by the innate and environmental factors,

(8) the development of certain aspects correlates or

parallels with other aspects. The development of

social skill emerges along with language skill,

motoric skill emerges along with observation skill

and etc.

2.2 The Method of Football Practice in

Indonesia

The method of practice and training is the approach

used in delivering football ideas to the players being

trained. This approach considers the effectiveness of

message delivery as well as the demand in football

learning on each age group, while practicing phase is

the classification strategy in the phases of age

grouping and its coaching focus. This strategy was

selected by considering the growing age as well as

physiological development of human in general.

Therefore, the right football materials for specific

ages need to be determined. All these efforts are

performed so the players in their adolescence period

will be ready to play the philosophy of Indonesian

football (Indonesian football coaching curriculum,

2017).

PSSI as the parent organization of Indonesian

football divides ages into four phases. The first

phase is the age group of 6-9 years old named as

Football Excitement Phase. The second phase is the

age group of 6-9 years old named as Football Skill

Development Phase. The third phase is the age

group of 14-17 years old named as Football Game

Development Phase while the last phase is the age

group of above 18 years old (senior) named as

Performance Phase.

The basis of the training phasing strategy is

initiated from the weaknesses of Indonesian football

which are linked to the demand in the top-level

football. The early basis is the target to create 18

years old-Indonesian players who have reached

maximum performance in which these players have

the ability to do attack-transition-defend based on

the football philosophy of Indonesia.

2.3 Training Method for Children in 6

to 9-year-old and 10 to 13-year-old

Training Concept

The training method for 12 to 13-year-old children is

focused on the movements/ actions in football game.

Football game requires seriousness in learning and

prime motoric movements. Four years before the

players learn football action skills, they need to like

football. In addition, the players also need to be

taught about the variety of movements, so they will

easily learn the skills of football actions. Therefore,

the age of 6-9 years old serves as the phase when the

players are having fun in learning the movements.

This phase is referred to as Football Excitement

Phase.

Football Excitement Phase is for 6-9 years of

age. The 6-9 years old phase is the first phase of

rapid development where legs and hands grow

longer than the torso. At the same time, the organs in

cardiac respiratory system are expanding on their

sizes. As the consequences, the players move a lot,

Football in Early Childhood, Achievements as Processes or Goals?

425

have rough coordination of movement, untrained

muscles, low concentration level, dominant sensitive

attitude, and having adult idol as the role model.

This early phase is also the time when the

children start their schools. With new environment

outside the school, the children are in the transition

phase to discover new social environment. In this

context, football school becomes the third new

environment after home and school. The football

school must become a place that is similar to school

in which the children are able to learn how to

socialize, accept the presence of the coach and the

peers.

According to PSSI (2017), the training used in

football game is play-Learn-Play method. It is

related to the structure of daily practice made for the

players at this age in which the training is started

with short and fun warming-up. After that, the

training is directly started with a game, for instance

2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, to 4 vs 4. The purpose of Playing (M)

at this early stage is to make the players happy and

able to seize the big concept of football game itself.

After the players seize the big picture of football

game, they need to do Learn (B) phase.

In this stage, the players will be introduced to

various actions in football that will be useful if they

do the actions properly in the game. At the end, the

football actions that have been studied can be done

in the Play (M). The recommended game is 4 vs 4

without keeper. In this M-B-M method, the topic

that being given should not only one. In psychology,

a single topic will bore the players at this age. 2-3

types of topic can be given in this stage (PSSI,

2017).

Another crucial thing to do is that this training

phase has to be fun. One of the ways is by arranging

the training in a tournament format. The tournament

format will increase the fun and enthusiasm of the

children in the learning process. The coach also has

to show full enthusiasm and spirit. Positive energy

shown by coachers will make the players passionate.

Especially in 4 vs 4 game (M), the players will

naturally play without any rule and gather around

the ball. As an initial step, this condition is a

common thing and can be ignored. The correct use

of proper language becomes the success key to

introduce the game rules.

2.4 Football Skill Development Phase

(10-13 years old)

The phase of 10-13 years of age is commonly called

as the golden age of learning. In this stage, the

important materials of football will bw taught and

absorbed quickly by the players. Better movement

coordination makes the players learn various actions

of football easily.

The advantages are as follows (1) more

proportional body, a biological and physical balance,

competitiveness attitude increased, craving to win,

(2) prime movement coordination, be enthusiastic

about new things, eager to learn, (3) increased

concentration and the ability to observe situation.

This phase is very effective for the players to

learn new football skills. In addition, the meaning of

these skills should not be simplified merely as the

execution of movement but as functional action

skills of football. It means that every action that is

created has benefit toward the game achievement,

like scoring goals as much as possible and getting

conceded as minimum as possible (PSSI, 2017).

Training method being used is learn-Learn-Play in

which the content of learning (B) is the Introduction

of Skill Practice. This training could also be

functioned as warming-up to take the players into

the next training. Although this training is the

opening session and be functioned for warming up,

the materials of the introduction of skill practice

should contain the process of communication

making decision-execution. Multi-options should be

available in the materials, so the players have to

communicate and take decisions frequently.

The content of Learn (B) is the Practice of Skill

Components in which this practice is quite similar to

the game situation. There are friends and opponents

and the chain of communication-making decision-

execution. The practice is a game-based activity

with certain rules and formats, so that the game will

unconsciously stimulate the football action skills

that want to be trained to occur more frequently.

Although every practice always covered with a

specific topic, the application of the topic should be

realistic and functional for the game. The topics

related to the skills in dribbling, passing, shooting,

and the others are the means to attack. However,

they are not the purpose. Therefore, the coach

should not be trapped in the coaching topics.

A coach has massive responsibilities. The

progress of Indonesian football is determined by the

quality of players created by football coaching in

early childhood. High and low qualities of the

players are certainly determined by the quality of the

coaches. The philosophy of Indonesian football will

be meaningless if the coaches do not take their

responsibilities properly. According to PSSI (2018),

the coach has 3 main competences. First, the football

knowledge competence. It is described as follows

(1) the coach is obligated to have deep

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

426

understanding about football and how to play it. The

understanding/ comprehension toward the way to

attack-transition-defend as well as the principles

contained within it, (2) coaching competence. After

having knowledge about football, the coach should

understand how to transfer the insight/ knowledge to

the players. The coach should have didactic skill and

training methodology. Therefore, the training and

the match (learning process) could occur

systematically, (3) managerial competence. The

meaning of managerial in this context is related to

administrative management as well as human

management. Administrative management includes

recording and documentation while human

management is associated with the relationships

with players, staffs, management, etc.

2.5 The Process of Proper Training

The success of team in match is determined by the

success of team in training. The success of team in

training is highly determined by the degree to which

the coach conduct proper training processes. In

general, training processes are divided into several

stages: planning, preparation, implementation, and

evaluation. These processes are the continuously-

rotating cycle (Rosca, 2017).

2.5.1 Planning

Planning is the first stage. The most important thing

in creating a planning is making the Game as the

starting point. From the game or practice, the coach

then has to define the issues. Based on the defined

issues, the coach designs the practice. For football in

early childhood in particular, the game analysis has

to be linked to weekly/ monthly practice plan. The

coach has to be able to analyze the problems that

will and may occur during the practice, then define

them. The instrument to help the coach define the

problems is by answering 5W questions. After the

football issues/ problems are defined, they become

the basis for the coach to design the training. The

principle being used is “training like playing,

playing like training!”. In other words, the created

training design has to be similar to the game in

which the purpose of training has to be focused on

solving the problems.

2.5.2 Preparation and Implementation

After creating the training plan, the coach can take

the field with a directed reference. The next stage is

preparing the training. Training preparation is

associated with players, field, and training

equipment. The coach has to consider the number of

players. In the case of football school with

fluctuating presence of players, make sure that the

coach creates a rule that the players who unable to

attend the training must inform the coach. Other

things to consider are the available field and the

training equipment. Make sure that the coach creates

efficient practice grid from the beginning until the

session is over by using efficient location of the

field.

The coach explains the regulation and the

procedure of training while demonstrating them.

After being demonstrated, the players should try. If

the players have tried correctly as the indication of

understanding, the training can be started. The tasks

of the coach are to observe the training performance

then identify the mistakes. When mistakes occur, the

coach must shout “STOP”! The purpose of this

shouting is to evaluate while freezing the situation.

All players have to stop immediately and should not

move. When the situation is frozen, the coach can

come to the player/ players who make the mistakes.

When correcting the mistake, it is important that the

coach should not do direct coaching by directly

punishing the players for the mistakes but explain

the solution. The coach should conduct question and

answer session to guide the players in finding the

solutions (guided discovery). This effort is done for

the players so that they can always think and

analyze. If the players are able to find their own

solution, the solution will be embedded in their brain

memories.

2.5.3 Evaluation

Evaluation starts directly when the training session

is over. When the training is almost over, make sure

that the coach asks some questions to the players.

Based on the players’ answers over the coach’s

questions, the success rate of the training can be

measured. If the players are able to answer correctly,

thus they understand the training given. Besides

questioning the players, the coach also needs to

make reflections. This effort is conducted by doing

self-questioning. Honest answers of these questions

will become the crucial evaluation materials for the

coach. With reference of evaluation from players,

himself, and the game, the coach can redo the

planning of training.

Football in Early Childhood, Achievements as Processes or Goals?

427

2.6 The Coach is the Role Model

Besides core competences and mastery toward

training processes, another thing that not less

important is becoming a coach with integrity. Coach

is the main representative of football game. What the

coach does on and off the field will be an example

for the players, administrators, parents and the

community. Due to that matter, the coach should act

based on what he says. Before the coach demand

something to the players, he has to demand it toward

himself. If the coach wants the players to be

punctual; thus, he has to show that he is being

discipline about punctuality. If the coach wants the

players to communicate actively on the field, the

coach must be communicative as well. With the

integrity and professionalism, the respect of players

toward their coach will grow. The players should not

respect and appreciate the coach due to hierarchy or

fear.

The respect comes from the players because they

see the coach as the role models that always giving

the best. Giving the best in running the profession as

a coach is becoming a learner in football game.

Therefore, the coach has to always learn either

formally or informally. Having formal learning is by

following the coaching certification of D, C, B, A,

and Pro licenses. Whatever background the coach

has, coaching course is obligatory.

The experience as ex-player or having Bachelor

Degree in Sports will become valuable qualifications

for the coach. However, the primary knowledge in

training football is acquired from formal training

courses.

The learning to become a reliable coach has to be

done informally as well. The most effective learning

medium is the game itself. Football coaches have to

spare their time to watch football matches as many

as they can. Watching football games while taking

positive/ negative things from the games is an up-to-

date learning process. The learning can be done with

other supporting references like reading books and

articles. By reading, the coach will have

newperspectives and improve the coaching

knowledge. The presence of internet will facilitate

the coach to find the latest coaching information as

many as possible.

3 CONCLUSION

Considering the above explanations, the

accentuation that has to be emphasized on the coach

and children’s parents who participate in football (in

early childhood) in the age of 6-9 years old and 11-

13 years old is the process toward maximum

achievement on the golden age of football and to

prepare the proper basic technique. Therefore,

physical, tactical, and mental developments of

players will grow properly and appropriately.

Children in early childhood in football (6-9 years

old) have to feel happy in playing football. Thus,

football sport becomes one of the education and

learning media besides the learning in formal school.

The supporting factor of one of the children’s

successes in loving football is the role of the people

around them, like the role of parents, the coaches

and the peers/ friends. All these elements have to

work together in accordance with their respective

roles. The purpose of football game which is to find

victory should not be mixed with the football in

early childhood which does not prioritize victory.

The football game in early childhood prioritizes