2024-04-06 07:55:23
Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, April 6th: Starting from the graduation ceremony of a Japanese community children’s football club
Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Ting
Amidst the blooming cherry blossoms, it’s graduation season in Japan. Xinhua News Agency reporters walked into the graduation ceremonies of two community children’s football clubs in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Kawasaki owns the Japanese J-League team Kawasaki Frontale, which has won the Japanese J-League championship 4 times. In 2021 and 2022, it will send 5 players to the Japanese Olympic team and the national team. Behind the development of professional football is a mature football environment composed of community football, campus football, professional team elite academies and football popularization classrooms.
How to cultivate children’s heartfelt love for football? How to help parents realize that playing football can comprehensively help their children’s physical and mental development? What motivates communities and other grassroots football players to continue running football regardless of immediate returns? From two graduation ceremonies and several follow-up interviews, we can get a glimpse of the secrets of the development of Japanese football youth training.
Special “Certificate of Appreciation”
“I hope you will go from Saginuma to the world like the four senior brothers who were active in the Qatar World Cup.”
At the graduation ceremony of Saginuma SC Children’s Football Club, Chairman Sawada Hideharu encouraged the children with the examples of four past graduates.
In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, six Japanese internationals came from Kawasaki, four of whom were from Saginuma SC: Kaoru Mizuki, Aoi Tanaka, Shuichi Gonda, and Koji Itakura. Saginuma SC became famous as a result.
Not far away, Nakanojima FC won the U11 championship and U12 runner-up of the National Primary School League in the 2022-2023 season. At its graduation ceremony, 12-year-old Ryoya Kuramoto received a certificate of thanks from club chairman Hiroshi Okamoto. The front of the certificate of thanks is a message to Kuramoto Ryoya as a “full-back”, and the back is his various records from grades one to six: record of consecutive ball throws, 50-meter run record, big-foot kicking distance record, passing record Accuracy rate record, dribble success rate record… 28 other young players also came to the stage to receive certificates of appreciation.
Why does the school thank its students? Hiroshi Okamoto said: “The school would like to thank the children for their efforts and their love for football.”
According to reports, in Kawasaki City, which has only 75,000 elementary school students, there are regarding 200 community football clubs for elementary school students like Saginuma SC and Nakanojima. The size of each club is regarding 150 people, grouped by grade, there is no admission threshold, and the monthly tuition is between 3,500-4,500 yen (approximately 170-220 yuan). The training base is the playground of a nearby primary school, and sometimes paid venues are also rented. Children train every weekend and holiday, and some clubs also train for two days from Monday to Friday.
“If Kawasaki football is compared to a pyramid, the community club is the ‘base’ of the pyramid, which is basically coached and run by parents and graduates who love football.” 70-year-old Sawada Hideharu told reporters that he believes that families Linking with the community can cultivate children’s love for football to the greatest extent.
“Our goal is not to train professional players, but to ingrain the love of football into children and every family…Whether it is in a club or a football school, time is always limited, but if it is integrated into family life, children will I was immersed in the atmosphere of playing football 24 hours a day,” said Hideharu Sawada.
Yoshihiro Takeda, who is in his 40s, is the father of a fourth-grade student and the operator of a Japanese third-division league team. This “dad coach” told reporters: “I have no intention of training my children to become professional players. But playing football is very helpful in cultivating children’s body, will, thinking, and character. I have also gained a lot.”
Some college students also work as coaches in children’s clubs, receiving only very meager remuneration. Among the Saginuma SC coaching team, 11 people are college students. 20-year-old Hoshino Kensuke has been coaching here for two years. He is a junior student at the Faculty of Law of Keio University and an “alumni” of Saginuma SC. “I was born and raised in Kawasaki, played for six years under my dad and senior student coaches in the community, and now it’s my turn,” he said.
The fathers of young players serve as coaches, and mothers are also not idle. Saori Kuramoto, who is in her 40s, is the veteran of the “Moms Support Team” of the Nakanojima Club. Her husband has been a “Dad Coach” for more than 10 years, and they have three sons. They all spent their elementary school years at Nakanojima Club. “When the eldest brother is learning to play football here, the second child in kindergarten is playing next to him; when the second child is playing here, the third child is doing the same. Our family spends weekends here. Children who like to play football don’t You can learn to be bad, and you can also exercise your will.”
“Look for games” everywhere and link up with professional clubs
In recent years, Nakanojima Club has sent more than three players to the youth teams of professional clubs every year, especially this year, with five players sent in the first three months. The club trains for 3 to 4 hours every day on weekends, and there are also two training sessions from Monday to Friday, each lasting 1 and a half hours. Hiroshi Okamoto said that multiple studies have shown that around 3 hours is the peak time for children to concentrate on training.
In addition to training, the club also contacts competitions everywhere. Hiroshi Okamoto said: “You cannot become stronger by just practicing. You must compete regularly, especially with strong teams. Only in this way can the children’s ambition be stimulated and they can actively try to improve when they come back.” .” In many cases, his most important job is to “build relationships” with other clubs everywhere and “ask if they can compete with us.”
Now the club has at least one game every week. The game is not for winning or losing, but to provide each player with practical experience: “The community club has an unwritten rule, which is to let every child compete in the game regardless of their level. Get a chance to play.”
Community clubs also maintain very close relationships with local professional teams. Hiroshi Okamoto said that Kawasaki Frontale’s U12 team and U12 elite class interact closely with community clubs. “The three years of middle school are the time when learning ability and physical condition develop the fastest. It is very important for children’s development. If you can join the youth team of Kawasaki Frontale, you will improve very quickly.”
The Japanese Football Association stipulates that a player can only register with one club, so if a young player wants to register for the latter, he must withdraw from the former. Through communication, the community club and Kawasaki Frontale reached a compromise. The young players’ team memberships are still in the community club, but they practice on both sides. This is equivalent to Kawasaki Frontale “booking” them, and they will change team memberships following the young players enter middle school. .
Hiroshi Okamoto said that in recent years, not only Kawasaki Frontale, but also Yokohama Mariners and Tokyo FC teams have often come to watch practices and games to recruit players, and Hiroshi Okamoto will also take the initiative to recommend outstanding young players to them.
There is a successor
Hiroshi Okamoto, 59, runs an IT company. He started playing football when he was in elementary school, and his two sons started playing with him when they were two years old. The eldest son entered Nakanojima FC when he was in first grade, and he also joined and became his father’s coach. “I was elected as the club representative when my son was in third grade. Later, I and several fathers worked together to implement reforms. At first, this club only had children from Nakanojima Elementary School, then children from nearby areas, and now children from all over Kanagawa Prefecture come here. . Our philosophy is to train some children to be sent to professional teams based on their characteristics, while others are to strengthen their bodies and cultivate their interests.”
Hiroshi Okamoto said that the club’s biggest problem is not funding, but time allocation. “Because the coaches all have their own jobs, it is difficult to allocate time. But we still continue to do it, and it has been 20 years in the blink of an eye.”
Running the club is not easy, but Hiroshi Okamoto plans to let his son “carry on the father’s legacy”. The eldest son Ikki Okamoto is 28 years old and is the head coach of Nakanojima Club. “My goal is to make the Nakanojima Club the strongest elementary school student club in Japan.” Ikki Okamoto is ambitious.
Before entering university, Ikki Okamoto played for Kawasaki Frontale’s youth team for five years. He played as the main midfielder in the school team and led the team to win the championship in the National College Football League. After graduating from college, Ikki Okamoto also played for professional clubs in Cambodia and Canada. Five years ago, he returned to Nakanojima Club to coach. At the same time, he also worked as a part-time coach in the football classroom of Yokohama FC and another university.
“I hope that all children will graduate with a love for football. We will not force children to practice, but will work hard to make children enjoy it and enable them to play football more actively, with special emphasis on giving them tips and inspiration to think independently. .”
Hideharu Sawada of Saginuma SC also started as a “dad coach”. 45 years ago, Hideharu Sawada, who graduated from the university’s physical education department, was invited by the principal of Saginuma Kindergarten where his son attended to participate in the formation of the club. He later obtained the qualification to coach junior high and high school competitions and has stayed at Saginuma SC to teach.
Sawada Hideharu also has a successor – Saginuma SC’s current head coach Kitai Yasuyuki. His main business is as a foreign company executive. 37 years ago, he was a young football player of Saginuma SC.
Sawada Hideharu said happily: “There are many parents like this in Saginuma SC. Graduates one following another become fathers who love football, and then take their children to play football. In this way, it is passed down from generation to generation, and people who love football in Kawasaki more and more.”
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