Football for kids
Lots to worry about in this article. 50% of kids never play in the street? Really? I did. Loads. At least till we moved to live on a main road.
I would, however, like to say that the Dutch have got it right, just like it says. There are pitches everywhere, and not just for football - hockey is the other big sport. In Haarlem they tend to be big fields, usually a full pitch and close by a few five a side pitches. In Amsterdam they were five a side 'cage' style pitches dropped in the middle of neighbourhoods. Where we used to live, in a note particularly salubrious suburb, there were three in what you'd consider 'playing distance' from our apartment .
The Dutch, incidentally, were the most successful nation per capita, and the second most successful overall when the list of the top 100 living football players came out a couple of years ago (Brazil were top). The standard of play in five a side games is extremely high, and very technical with a lot of passing and tricks. Ex-pat teams tend to get results by focusing on scoring goals, which doesn't always seem to be the main preoccupation of the natives...
I would, however, like to say that the Dutch have got it right, just like it says. There are pitches everywhere, and not just for football - hockey is the other big sport. In Haarlem they tend to be big fields, usually a full pitch and close by a few five a side pitches. In Amsterdam they were five a side 'cage' style pitches dropped in the middle of neighbourhoods. Where we used to live, in a note particularly salubrious suburb, there were three in what you'd consider 'playing distance' from our apartment .
The Dutch, incidentally, were the most successful nation per capita, and the second most successful overall when the list of the top 100 living football players came out a couple of years ago (Brazil were top). The standard of play in five a side games is extremely high, and very technical with a lot of passing and tricks. Ex-pat teams tend to get results by focusing on scoring goals, which doesn't always seem to be the main preoccupation of the natives...