Football is undoubtedly the most loved sport in the world and millions of young athletes play football everywhere and on every kind of pitch. Between matches with friends, improvised goals and breathtaking races imagining that they are in the most important stadiums in the world, kids are used to chasing a ball from an early age.
But what is the right age to start playing football, such as to respect the child’s psychophysical awareness and, at the same time, guarantee their fun and eventual growth among professionals? Some scholars, including many psychologists, have divided the psychic and physical peculiarities of children by age group, identifying the best years to start practicing this sport in an optimal way.
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The psychomotor development of the child
Since football is the most followed and loved sport, there is almost always a tendency to start a football academy from a very young age, even going so far as to find four or five-year-old children ready with the ball at their feet. While it is a fun activity that can be done outdoors, the importance of certain timing in psychomotor development at an early age, in sports in general, must nevertheless be taken into account.
In this case, starting to play football when the child is not yet able to focus on some key points, such as the distance or size of the goal, as well as the weight of the ball or the strength and effort necessary to make a tackle, could lead not only to technical defects to be corrected later, but above all it could be detrimental to the health of the young athletes.
For example, choosing a football approach through five-a-side football is more suitable for children, as the size of the field, the goals and the ball are more appropriate. Visit this page for more information about five-a-side football rules.
The psychological breakdown by age group
Scholars took into consideration the behavior of children in different age groups to find the most suitable to start playing football; around 7 years old children get tired quickly of something and therefore are led to live multiple experiences in a very short time. Likewise, they are not used to rules dictated by a coach, who requires them to take a specific action, so the risk of them getting bored and leaving football early is very high.
At the age of 8, you already have a greater awareness of learning, so playing football is also taken as a fun way to learn. However, at that age one is not yet able to manage oneself, so without adequate supervision, there are frequent drops in attention that often lead to violent behavior.
At 9 years of age, the child is more able to focus better on something that attracts him, trying to continuously improve, with curiosity, putting himself into discussions day by day. Finally, at the age of 10, children are psychologically aware of the importance of belonging to a team, becoming aware of their teammates and the environment around them.
For this reason, in view of a future competitive activity, safeguarding the child physically and psychologically, the age group between 9 and 10 years is, according to scholars, the most suitable.