TOKYO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- In the midst of the cherry blossoms, it is Japan's graduation season. Xinhua News Agency reporters walked into the graduation ceremony of two community children's football clubs in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Kawasaki is home to Japanese J-League powerhouse Kawasaki Frontale, a four-time J-League champion who fielded five players each for the Japanese Olympic team and the national team in 2021 and 2022. Behind the development of professional football is a mature football environment composed of community football, campus football, elite academies for professional teams, and football popularization classrooms.
How to cultivate children's love for football from the bottom of their hearts? How to encourage parents to realize that playing football is an all-round help for children's physical and mental development? What motivates the community to hold grassroots football regardless of immediate returns? From the two graduation ceremonies and several follow-up interviews, we can get a glimpse of the mystery of the development of Japanese football youth training.
Special "Certificate of Appreciation"
"I hope that you will go from Egrenuma to the world like the four brothers who are active in the Qatar World Cup. ”
At the graduation ceremony of the Saginuma SC Children's Soccer Club, Chairman Hideharu Sawada encouraged the children with the example of four former graduates.
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, six Japanese internationals came from Kawasaki, four of whom came from Saginuma SC: Kaoru Mikasa, Bi Tanaka, Shuichi Gonda, and Itakura Kushi, which made Saginuma SC famous.
Not far away, Nakanojima FC won the U11 championship and U12 runner-up in the 2022-2023 National Elementary School League. At the graduation ceremony, 12-year-old Kuramoto Ryo also received a certificate of appreciation from the club's chairman Hiroshi Okamoto. On the front of the certificate is a message to Ryyoya Kuramoto as a "full-back", and on the back is his records from grades 1 to 6: the number of consecutive juggling records, the 50-meter run record, the kick-off distance record, the passing accuracy record, and the success rate of dribbles...... The other 28 young players also took the stage to receive their certificates of appreciation.
"The school would like to thank the children for their efforts and their love for football. ”
It has been revealed that in Kawasaki City, which has only 75,000 elementary school students, there are about 200 community football clubs for elementary school students, such as Saginuma SC and Nakanojima. Each club has a size of about 150 people, grouped by grade, with no entry threshold, and monthly tuition fees range from 3,500-4,500 yen (about 170-220 yuan). The training base is the playground of a nearby elementary school, and sometimes the space is rented for a fee. Children train on weekends and holidays, and some clubs also train for two days from Monday to Friday.
"If Kawasaki's soccer 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 Hideji Sawada told reporters that he believes that family and community linkage can cultivate children's love for football to the greatest extent.
"Our goal is not to develop professional players, but to root the love of football in children and families...... Whether it's at a club or a football school, time is always limited, but if you integrate into family life, your child can be immersed in the atmosphere of playing football 24 hours a day. Sawada said.
Yoshihiro Takeda, who is in his 40s, is the father of a fourth-grader and the operator of a Japanese third-division team, and the "dad coach" told reporters: "I don't plan to train my children to become professional players, but playing football is a great help to cultivate children's bodies, will, thinking, and character." I've gained a lot myself. ”
Some college students also coach in children's clubs for a very small salary. Eleven of the Saginuma SC coaching team are university students, and Kensuke Hoshino, 20, who has been teaching here for two years, is a junior at Keio University's Faculty of Law and an "alumnus" of Saginuma SC. "I was born and raised in Kawasaki and 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 the young players are coaches, and the mothers are not idle, Saori Kuramoto, who is in her 40s, is a veteran of the Nakanojima Club's "Mom Support Group", her husband has been a "dad coach" for more than 10 years, and all three sons have spent elementary school at the Nakanojima Club. "When the eldest learns to play football here, the second child in kindergarten is playing next to him, and when the second child is playing here, the third child is the same. Our family's weekends are spent here. Children who like to play football will not learn badly, and they will also exercise their will. ”
"Look for matches" everywhere and link up with professional clubs
In recent years, Nakanojima FC has sent more than three players to the youth team of professional clubs every year, and this year it is especially high, sending five players in the first three months. The club trains for 3 to 4 hours a day on weekends and twice from Monday to Friday for 1 and a half hours each. Hiroshi Okamoto said that multiple studies have shown that about 3 hours is the peak of a child's concentration in training.
In addition to training, the club also connects with competitions everywhere, Hiroshi Okamoto said: "You can't get stronger just by practicing, you have to play often, especially against strong teams, so that the children's motivation can be stimulated, and they will come back and try to improve more actively." "A lot of the time, the most he does is to go around and "get in touch" with other clubs, "asking if they can play with us".
Now the club has at least one game a week, and the game is not about winning or losing, but about giving each player practical experience: "There is an unwritten rule in the community club that every child should be given a chance to play in the game, regardless of their skill level. ”
The community club also maintains a very close relationship with the local professional team. Hiroshi Okamoto said Kawasaki Frontale's U12 team and U12 elite class interact closely with community clubs. "The three years of middle school are the time when the learning ability and physical condition develop the fastest, and it is very important for the development of children, and if you can enter the youth team of Kawasaki Frontale, you will improve quickly. ”
The Japan Football Association stipulates that a player can only register with one club, so a young player must withdraw from the former if he wants to register for the latter. Through communication, the community club reached a compromise with Kawasaki Frontale, the young players are still in the community club, but practice on both sides, which is equivalent to Kawasaki Frontale "booking" them, and then change the team membership after the young players are promoted to middle school.
Hiroshi Okamoto said that in recent years, not only Kawasaki Frontale, but also Yokohama Mariners and Tokyo FC have often come to watch practice and poach people in games, and Hiroshi Okamoto will also take the initiative to recommend excellent young players to them.
There are successors
Hiroshi Okamoto, 59, who runs an IT company, started playing football when he was in elementary school, and his two sons started playing with him at the age of two. The eldest son entered Nakanojima FC when he was in the first grade, and he also followed him to become a dad coach. "When my son was in the third grade, I was elected as the representative of the club. Later, I worked with a few fathers to implement reforms, and the club started with only children from Nakanojima Elementary School, then children from the neighborhood, and now children from all over Kanagawa Prefecture come to the club. Our philosophy is based on the characteristics of each child, some of them are cultivated in the direction of sending professional teams, and some 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 have their own jobs, it's not easy to allocate time. But we've been doing it for 20 years. ”
Running the club is not easy, but Hiroshi Okamoto intends to let his son, Kazuki Okamoto, who is 28 years old and is the head coach of Nakanojima Club. "My goal is to make Nakanojima Club the strongest elementary school club in Japan. "Kazuki Okamoto is ambitious.
Prior to entering university, Kazuki Okamoto played for five years in Kawasaki Frontale's youth team, where he played as a main midfielder in the varsity team and led the team to win the National University Soccer League. After graduating from university, Kazuki Okamoto went on to play for professional clubs in Cambodia and Canada, returning to Nakanojima FC five years ago to coach while also working part-time as a part-time coach at a football classroom at Yokohama FC and another university.
"I want all the kids to graduate with a love for football. We don't force children to practice, but we try to keep them entertained and motivated to play football, with a special focus on giving them tips and inspiration for independent thinking. ”
Hideharu Sawada of Saginuma SC also started as a "daddy coach". Forty-five years ago, Hideharu Sawada, who graduated from the Department of Physical Education at the university, was invited by the principal of Saginuma Kindergarten, where his son attended, to participate in the formation of the club.
Sawada Hideji is also succeeded by the current head coach of Saginuma SC, Taiyuki Kita, who is a foreign company executive, and 37 years ago, he was a young football player at Saginuma SC.
Hideji Sawada said with relief, "There are many such parents at Saginuma SC. Successive generations of graduates have become football-loving fathers, and then bring their children to play football, so that from generation to generation, more and more people in Kawasaki like football. ”