What are the benefits of playing soccer?
Soccer is already the most popular sport in the world, but it’s still continuing to grow. All across the world, there are new leagues and teams being formed, whether it’s at the youth soccer or professional level. In an age where it seems many sports are struggling, interest in soccer has never been higher.
The reason for this is simple: there are just so many benefits people can get from playing. Soccer can help not only the physical health of players, but it can also potentially improve their mental health, confidence, collaboration, and more, and help players on and off the pitch.
Physical Benefits
The physical benefits of soccer are perhaps the most obvious. In general, exercise and sports are very good for improving people’s health, but few sports combine as much as soccer does.
First, it’s great for stamina and endurance. The average soccer player runs 6-7 miles, or about 10 kilometers, per game. While this doesn’t translate over to youth leagues (you probably shouldn’t make your kids run that much), it does show the level of stamina that develops when playing. In general, soccer players are always moving, whether they are using short bursts of pace or jogging around the field. This level of movement and endurance that builds is exceptional and will help young athletes be able to play and run for longer without getting exhausted. This makes soccer a great activity that improves heart and cardiovascular health.
Soccer also can help players of all ages burn calories and gain muscle, particularly in the lower body. This can lead to players becoming faster or more agile, while it can also strengthen their legs, meaning they can kick the ball more powerfully. Playing regularly also can help players become more coordinated.
However, at the same time, the beauty of soccer is that players don’t need to be particularly physically gifted. Lionel Messi, widely considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, players of all time, is just 5’7”. There are plenty of players who are not the fastest, don’t have the most stamina, the strongest leg, or, in Messi’s case, aren’t the tallest player in the world.
That doesn’t stop anyone. While players who play will probably see physical improvements, they shouldn’t worry if they don’t see any gains or if they think they are not physically prepared to play. Anyone can play at any time and at any age, and that’s rare in sports.
Mental Benefits
Soccer doesn’t just have physical benefits, as there are many different mental health benefits that come from playing soccer.
One of these is that playing soccer gives people motivation. There are many different levels to this: some players might be driven to become a professional, while others might just want to score a goal or have a decent game. This motivation might seem unimportant, but it gives players goals to reach and a drive to do better.
Playing soccer can also help one’s confidence. If players, especially young ones, play well or simply have a strong part to their game, it can give them confidence on and off the pitch. On the pitch, they might be willing to try more, while off the pitch, it can be good to know that you can play the sport well.
Yet another mental benefit is strategy. Soccer is a deeply strategic game, no matter how you look at it. Now, not every player is going to think about the game on the pitch as much as Johann Cruyff did, but playing will undoubtedly help players think about strategy a little more — where they need to be to receive the pass, where they should move off the ball, or even things as simple as where they should place their shots.
Building Teamwork
Teamwork impacts people at every stage of life, whether they’re students in class working on a group assignment, working on a project at work, or even getting along with others on a daily basis. Soccer helps everyone—especially young players—learn to work as a collective and be unselfish.
For a start, there is the benefit of just having to function in a team. Team sports, in general, are a great way for young athletes to get used to working with others, and soccer is, of course, no exception. In fact, it’s actually better than most sports.
With soccer, maybe more than any other sport, teamwork is crucial. With so many players on the pitch, players need to know where their teammates are, how to communicate with them, where to pass, where there is space and more. Because of this, so many drills are focused on teamwork, especially passing drills like a rondo. If you can’t function well when it comes to passing and working together in training sessions, then you probably won’t do so well on the pitch during games, either.
Of course, teamwork won’t come naturally. However, over time, young soccer players will learn how to function as a team because they have to work together for the team and themselves to get the best possible result. The longer players play together, the more they will get used to playing with others, and they will function better as a team. Winning doesn’t hurt, either.
You’ll Get Better
I know it sounds obvious, but it’s true. If you play soccer, you will get better at soccer.
The more a player is exposed to the game, the more they will learn and be able to use it. A young player may not understand all of the rules, like the offside rule, for example, but once they have seen it enough times in a game, they will have a complete understanding of it. The same applies to things like how to strike the ball or where to make your runs.
And all of those physical benefits mentioned earlier? Those will all help you improve at soccer, too. With stronger legs, players will be able to kick harder, which means that they can take shots or make passes from further out. Increased stamina and endurance mean players will be able to play longer without getting tired, which is why games gradually get longer as the age level increases.
Speed, agility, coordination — improving all of those things by playing means players will see improvements on the pitch, too. The longer you play in a specific position, you might get better at it, but if you don’t, then you can experiment with trying a new one and you could find that it comes a lot more naturally. Many of the best players in the world initially didn’t do too well at a position, but through playing more and experimenting, they found what was right for them.
Simple skill moves and tricks, like juggling, might seem impossible at first, but continuing to try them both in games and at practice will see players improve at them, and it will also help other aspects of their game. The more repetition, the more you will see improvement. This applies to all aspects of the game, whether it comes from participating in games and scrimmages or from basic drills and training.
What this means is that players should not get discouraged. If they play enough, even if they aren’t necessarily the standout player or one of the best on the field, it will all start to come more naturally. Everyone improves or understands things at different speeds, but all players need to do is stick with it, and they will get better over time.
It’s Just Fun
To put the words of the beloved AFC Richmond midfielder Roy Kent in more family-friendly terms, “Football (soccer) is a game we played as kids because it’s fun.” Even when people progress up the levels and get to more intense levels, that’s why everyone plays deep down.
While AFC Richmond is not real, and neither is Kent (the club and Kent comes from the hit show Ted Lasso), his words are very real. If soccer wasn’t fun, nobody would play it.
Yes, soccer is convenient to play and relatively easy to understand (although if there are some rules you don’t understand, we’ve got you covered.) But that’s not how it became the most popular sport in the world and how it continues to be so popular in an age where all kinds of games and entertainment surround us.
Whether it’s with friends, strangers, or by yourself, soccer is just a really fun game to play. That’s a big benefit because that’s how we fall in love with the sport, and it can help people find their passion. It might inspire players to chase their professional dreams, find a new team to watch every weekend or become a coach someday. Or it can simply be a great way to spend an afternoon.
The Final Whistle
There are just so many different benefits to playing soccer. Whether physical or mental, people of all ages find some improvement or something positive in it. This makes it an excellent option for people everywhere to play, regardless of their level or any concerns they might have had about it. That’s why so many people across the world play.
