Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Muscat: Football is known as the most popular sport in the world, and in Oman, it is certainly true. For one particular school, it is a passion, with coaches training and developing young children to better understand their body movement to play the sport more effectively.
Samba Futsal Centre dedicates its time to train youngsters to play effective football while focusing on body movement and technique. The players are separated into four groups: under 6 years of age, under 8, under 11 and under 14 years, and they train on the same day.
“We basically develop their technical skills but not tactical, because tactical is about having a team. You can practice tactical skills. Every day is something different,” said Paulo Koscina, Manager and coach at Samba Futsal Centre (SFC).
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He explained that many of the children have never played football in the past and so they are teaching them from scratch. A school is a different concept than an academy. Academies have plans with a beginning, a middle and an end, whereas a school has a plan for a day to start and end with, while devising a plan for the next day.
“I design every single training session with the coaches and as you see, every group is doing the same training. They receive the same training and follow the same structure,” said Koscina.
“The only difference is the intensity with which we train them. We are more strict with the under 14 group because they are older. I cannot be strict with under 8 students or those even younger because they are small children and not used to the ball. They are just starting,” he said, adding that the under six group is the only one with a completely different setup.
“They (children under 6 years of age) are trained more in body coordination because first they need to understand how their body works. Only then will they start playing with the ball,” Koscina added.
The coaches of SFC play the role of a ‘big brother,’ rather than as men who give instructions. Koscina explained that they guide the children through the training course, but let them do everything by themselves.
They do not yell or scream at the children but rather question them on their mistakes and make them understand how to fix these.
Asking them ‘why’ every time they do something wrong, or even when they do good, will help them understand the reason behind their actions, he explained.
Currently, there are around 70 children training with the SFC. A total of 125 students have registered since September.
“Some children leave because of exams or their parents pull them out because they are doing badly in their studies. There are a variety of reasons,” said Koscina.
Children interested in joining will undergo a trial and parents will need to fill a registration form, pay a fee and receive the child’s uniform.
To find out more about Samba Futsal Centre and to register your children, go to: www.sambafutsalcentre.com
