At the foot of Yanshan Mountain, which is more than 200 kilometers away from Beijing, there is a primary school with football characteristics. There are just over 150 students in the school, but each has two soccer balls. The school also has two courts, in addition to the on-campus one, there is also a "riverside court" outside the school that has been converted from a riverbank land. Their school team is not only a regular member of the county championship, but also represents Chengde City in the football summer camp in Hebei Province for many years, and is the only one from a mountain village primary school among more than a dozen teams. In July this year, they were also invited to the Beijing Workers' Stadium to exchange Xi...... with the coaching staff of the Beijing Guoan team
Not long ago, I walked into this school and completed a close-up interview.
A well-known domestic football commentator once said in an interview with ** that the most important reason why the level of Chinese football has fallen instead of rising in recent years is the lack of people who play football. According to its survey of 20 key cities in China, in the 90s of the 20th century, there were only more than 10,000 primary school students who played football all year round, and between 2000 and 2004, this number dropped to about 5,000.
Why are there so few children playing football in China?Don't like it?No courts?Or is there a lack of equipment?
The Sa Henan Primary School I interviewed, although it is a primary school in a mountain village, has carried out football well, how did they do it?What exactly did football bring them?There may be many answers, but what touches me the most is the perception and philosophy of local educators, as well as their efforts and dedication, regardless of gains and losses.
For Shancun Primary School, manpower and funding are very limited, and if you want to develop football, you have to be self-reliant. There is no decent court, so the physical education teacher puts his own 15 acres of river beach land was opened up for free use by the school;In order to save money, some of the equipment, including the goal, is welded by the school security guards themselvesIn order to give the school team more opportunities to compete and practice, the principal not only collected information and personally helped to sign up, but also tried his best to accompany the whole process of the competition - in the summer of 2016, the principal and several teachers took more than 10 students to Chengde for the competition, took all the pots and pans in a van, rented a three-bedroom apartment, and played on the floor for two weeks, and finally the team won the fifth place ...... out of 14 participating teams
On the walls of the school, the school motto of "Be a good person, read good books, play good football, and do good deeds" is very eye-catching. Here, playing football is as important as being a person, doing things, and studying. "Football is not just a sport, it is part of education in itself. The principal told me that the development of football in the school has nothing to do with utilitarianism, and will never restrict children from playing football based on the quality of cultural classes, and his wish is that "in every village in the jurisdiction, children can be seen playing football happily".
It's not about utilitarianism!This coincides with the above-mentioned sports commentator's answer to the question "How to get young people involved in football" – "In short, it's about getting rid of utilitarianism." The health and happiness of children is the main purpose of developing school football. ”
Indeed, do you need a reason to play football?The answer is written on each child's smiling face. The vast majority of children eventually fail to become professional footballers, but this does not affect their health and happiness in the process of playing, and their overall personal qualities are improved. As advocated by the World Football Federation (FIFA), football goes far beyond sport itself, it is a powerful medium for educational, cultural and social development.
A teacher told me that the children at this school look different from the children at other schools. During the interview, the children did not cringe in the face of unfamiliar cameras as I had expected - they would love the court like their faces, and the big pebbles would be pulled outWhen kicking a ball, they bump and fall and scratch their skin, and they immediately get up, pat their butts and keep running;After school, children can often be seen playing football in the streets and alleys of the villageTheir faces are always filled with bright smiles, like the warm winter sun ...... in the mountains
Playing soccer is fun, while kids are playing every day. Guarding this nature with heart, not utilitarian, indifferent wins and losses, just for health and happiness, just to keep the children's purest love for football - in the mountains, I saw a realistic picture of physical education, but also saw the original intention of developing football.