For some reason, sports like to label themselves. Spin doctors construct sexy catchphrases in an attempt, I think, to convince themselves and the rest of the planet that they are indeed the most watchable and purest game.
Rugby league has labelled itself the greatest game of all, union has tried to convince us for generations that the game is played in heaven, just not in Western Australia, and the slick marketing of the AFL has seen their campaign vary immensely over the years.
In the United States, the PGA has claimed, ‘these guys are good’ and the NBA have used the rather inclusive, ‘this is why we play’ and ‘where magic happens’, to emotionally connect their stars to the public.
Football might just have grabbed the purest and best of them all when ‘the beautiful game’ was popularised by Pele. True ownership of the term is a little hazy yet I can see why it has caused such angst among followers of the other codes in Australia.
‘Frrrmpppffff’, they say. ‘How dare they call their game the beautiful one?’ They cite the magnificence of a rugby league immortal, the wizardry of a rugby legend or the grace, courage and elegance of the AFL warriors who perform superhuman feats each week.
And you know what? They are correct. There is beauty in all and feeling that football is claiming beauty as its own is shortsighted.
Just like it would be idiotic to suggest that rugby’s use of a religious reference in their slogan, somehow implies that everyone else is a pagan, unworthy of God’s kingdom and the privilege of playing rugby while up there.
These things aren’t mutually exclusive. However, there is something uniquely beautiful about football that is difficult to capture succinctly in words.
(Photo by Joan Cros Garcia/Corbis via Getty Images)
For generations we have heard words like poetry, artistry and sublime and they are all apt. It appears to me that an extrapolation of these words might reveal the origins of the passion that burns in youngsters when first exposed to the game.
Simply put, kids seem to flourish in the safe environment provided by football at a very young age. The pack that forms as little toddlers chase a ball in open spaces looks like fun from the sidelines and it’s hard not to smile.
Sure the skill level is a little low, that comes later, yet I regularly see kids turning to football after restricted involvement in other sports. In multiple conversions struck up on the sidelines, parents express the disappointment their child felt in a previous sporting involvement and how this led to their decision to ‘give football a go.’
This is a wonderful thing for the game and potentially at the heart of the massive participation numbers. However, there must be more to it than just a few disgruntled kids who hated being tackled or rarely touched a ball.
To me, football will always be the rawest of games. Seeing images of ad hoc matches from different places around the world, played in extraordinary circumstances and conditions, always reminds me of how basic and primal the game actually is.
Images of kids in the Middle East playing matches on vacant blocks littered with glass, wire and bricks are vivid for me, as my wife’s heritage stems from that part of the world.
Contrastingly, the sight of a young English lad dribbling a ball along a lane-way of terraced housing, thumping the odd shot at the wall as his mother calls him in for his Yorkshire pudding, produces the same romantic notions of the game.
The surge in African football is rooted in wild affairs with hundreds of kids, amid a chaotic high pitched din, chasing and controlly a roughly made sphere that will be lucky to survive until the final whistle.
That sphere is at the heart of football. It is the simplicity of it. The sheer rudimentary and base equipment required and the straight forward skill set needed to compete.
Baseball possesses the same core. Pick up a rock and throw it towards someone with a stick in their hands. They take a swing and make contact. Or throw that same rock to each other a few times. That’s the game.
Much like the origins of football, where a parent and child trade kicks with the aforementioned sphere.
Many other sports seem convoluted and contrived in comparison, burdened with extraordinarily expensive equipment and difficulty in becoming involved.
In contrast, football will have kids hooked in the most simplistic of circumstances. Luckily for parents, a twenty dollar, good quality sphere will sustain that interest in the short term.
We’ll talk another time about registration fees, academy membership and uniform costs which have become exorbitant. Although, sports such as golf, tennis and cricket would stack up as easily as expensive with football, when equipment costs are considered.
There is a quantum leap from the young, football obsessed little tracker and the skill, artistry and wealth on display in the biggest leagues in the world. Yet perhaps that also lies at the heart of the magic in the game.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
There appears a clear comprehension in kids of a connection between what is happening on the screen in a Champions League final or a World Cup game and the basic skills required to perform.
This ‘every man’ and more increasingly ‘every woman’ quality, permeates through football. A game that has and hopefully always will, lie with the people.
While the elite traipse off to their yachts and polo fields, whenever Kings and Queens are engrossed by dressage competitions and breeding corgis, football will remain as something more basic and human.
A simple game played by all. Height matters little, age is somewhat irrelevant and lesser talented players can still find their place. (My career in the backline is clear evidence of that.)
“I’ve got this sphere here if you would like to have a kick”.
“Sure, we could have a game.”
“Yeah, your friends can play too.”
I’ll play against you if you are gay, straight or somewhere in between. I would love to hear your refugee story at the end of the game and I will treat you with kindness and respect despite your disability.
I’ll also buy you a beer after the game because I know you are struggling a bit and I don’t mind being nut-megged by a woman.
The reason being, I am fan of the game of football. The beautiful game.
valhalla
Guest
werent you a hawthorn member???
Midfielder
Guest
northerner I have worked in the states 3 times for varying lengths ... late 80's, mid 90"s and this year ... all up a little over a year and a bit. I can tell you the US media, makes the Melbourne AFL media look tame... To suggest to any ""American Football"" person there are merits in Football is almost unheard of. I think its part of the US engaging with Football and becoming more acceptable... Roughly 3 years ago now Football over took Basketball for having the most players.. Average crowds for the MLS are grater than Basketball, Hockey and I think Baseball ... being careful Basketball & Baseball play many times a week and have far more teams so total attendance is still way in their favour. What does it all mean ... who knows... what is clear through is Football is growing in the US..
Nemesis
Guest
Absolutely I understand what he's saying. I don't expect quarterbacks to be good footballers, unless they're playing in goal I can't imagine they'd have any of the technical, nor physical, attributes. Happy for Football to give kids who move to other sports people a grounding for spatial & tactical awareness. PS: I've heard cricket is massive in the USA. Billions being spent on cricket ovals. And AFL, well... apparently that's huge with people who have hangovers & want to run it off.
northerner
Guest
Ermm, he advises kids to play soccer until they're in grade eight. Then he says they should switch to American football. You seem to have missed that point. In any case, he believes quarterbacks in particular need to be the best athletes out there, so he wants them to have played a range of sports to develop their skills. Footwork, balance and spatial awareness are critical, but those qualities are only a part of what he's looking for. He uses makeshift soccer games, among other sports, to test his players' athletic qualities. But he also mentions climbing trees as good training and as a good measure of overall athletic qualities. No, he doesn't mention rugby, or AFL or cricket. You do know he's in the US, where none of these sports is exactly big? But he does have his college quarterbacks throwing baseballs and playing dodgeball, both of which provide (and test) essential skills that soccer football doesn't demand. All the different sports experiences are a means to an end - and football is just one of his building blocks. Like dancing was for some earlier coaches. And like throwing and catching baseballs still is as well.
northerner
Guest
There's a reason why touch football (both the rugby and gridiron version) is a fast-growing sport both here and in North America.
Nemesis
Guest
"I don’t think that means quite what you think it does" It means exactly what I think it does. A highly respected coach of College gridiron says he advises his quarterbacks to also play soccer because "soccer can help them with their footwork, coordination, balance, conditioning and spatial awareness". He doesn't advise them to play: Rugby, or AFL, or cricket, or swimming, or tennis, or golf. He advises his quarterbacks to play soccer. This advice is exactly what I think it means.
Locomotiv
Guest
Some on here may mock these stories when using a soft drink can or playing football with another piece of made up stuff. The reality is that by doing so, the person or group of people are actually engaging with the creative side of the brain. Those of you that have children will know. Sometimes the idea of something is a lot more fun than the actual real thing.
chris
Guest
Good article. No doubt football can teach you the finer skills and movements not really required in many of the other contact sports.
Midfielder
Guest
Northerner There is talk of banning heading the ball all together at all levels its very early days ... however that the talk has started says a lot. Football taking out heading, cricket talking out bouncers are changers but the overall game is about the same, buy collision codes like Rugby Union, Rugby League, Hockey, Grid Iron, AFL, would find huge challenges to maintain their games basic structure and stop head contact.
Midfielder
Guest
cone worked too.
Waz
Guest
Thanks jb. Good response too.
Waz
Guest
There's still a bit of that going on. It's less than say five years ago but still a few out there that miss the point.
northerner
Guest
Absolutely. Obviously, traditional sports like American (and Canadian) football, rugby, and ice hockey, not to mention boxing and MMA are high risk, but football (insofar as headers are concerned) also carries question marks. Easy enough to modify football for kids so they don't use the head until they're older, but much harder to modify the other sports.
pacman
Guest
Thanks for the interesting article Stuart, and thanks also to the various contributors regarding their thoughts and experiences. I enrolled at Parramatta Junior Boys High in the mid '50s, an English migrant kid who had never kicked a soccer ball in his life. This particular school had 100% asphalt playgrounds, so the recreational lunch break options were hand ball (clapped out tennis balls) or soccer (timber block offcuts scavenged from the woodwork classes - the blocks were generally 50-100cm in each dimension). The wooden block game was most beneficial in developing inside of the foot receiving and passing skills, but not for much else. Still, it toughened us up, and "soccer" was not considered effeminate by any means! These experiences did, i believe, assist me in my later soccer coaching endeavours, After playing 4 seasons of soccer over a 25 year period I was coerced into the coaching arena. Thanks son! But anyway, I was able to demonstrate how to pass the ball on the deck. It was the only skill I had, and I hadn't lost it!. This was revealed when I inherited an U/10 2nd team, with the more talented boys being assigned to the 1st team. Two years later, my boys played their more highly rated opponents off the park, by playing the ball on the deck, whilst the opposition were still hoofing the ball with little thought. The ability to demonstrate is an integral part of coaching. I did it with my U/10's-12's without thinking, but the results encouraged me to learn, and to a degree, master new skills. Later, I was able to demonstrate stepovers, Cruyff turns, striking the top half of the ball to prevent it from rising, and various other less appreciated skills. So, to any budding coaches, I recommend that you develop a few of the simple skills of the game, just the most basic inside of the foot receiving and passing for starters, and demonstrate these to your young charges. Above all, be patient. If you are a late learner like me, that will not be a problem.
Ruudolfson
Guest
I mentioned this another yarn but it doesn't help Australia's concerns to improve when the kids only play 5/6 months of the year, whilst in real football countries, they play year round. Fix that problem and Australian kids will be in an open playing field with the best in the world, wasn't the NC meant to fix this? I know the golden generation had a similar environment, the only difference was their habit of un-structured football unlike now, maybe that's why the player quality has dropped off? Who knows... But it's great youth participations are very high, need to capitalize on that, Australia has so much potential to achieve great things in football.
Midfielder
Guest
northner true and studies from the US have reached a point that arguments ....could... be made that a club is knowingly risking a persons health. Me thinks within 10 years this could have a huge effect on the sports we engage in today.
marcel
Guest
Great read again Stuart...in my travelling years losing myself in the backstreets of a new city and having a kick about with the local kids was a universal pleasure...and still my fondest memories of that time. A couple of times in the middle East I even encountered the fabled ball made out of rags tied together.
northerner
Guest
From what I've read, the problem isn't as simple as saying it's all about concussion - apparently there's evidence that sub-concussion hits can be equally dangerous. Apparently, soldiers being exposed to IEDs going off are at high risk too. It's a very complicated subject with not a lot of strong evidence yet to say what the heck is the cause - except that head trauma of almost any kind is a risk factor.
Mattyb
Guest
Lol,nice story. Bit of a worry though that these kids from some private school weren't cluey enough between them to think to bring a tennis ball with them in the first place? Not sure why it matters who drunk the can,the bin would be full of them? Not sure how a crushed can helps technique,it doesn't bounce or have any real rebounding capabilities,just stick your foot out and it's trapped,then you kick it and it slides away? Should have just said once when we were waiting for a bus or something like that.
northerner
Guest
Ah, well, Nem, I don't think that means quite what you think it does. American football coaches have often looked "outside the box" to improve skill sets. Heck, Knute Rockne was famous for developing a move from ballet, or maybe just Broadway dance, back in the 1920s, and a lot of coaches since have used dance as a training tool for their players. American football is a bit more sophisticated than you realize, and good footwork it a big part of what the game involves. So whether an American football player learns from dance, "soccer" or martial arts, it's all a means to an end.