What is creativity? In 1929 the mathematician Henri Poincare said: “Creativity means to combine existing elements with new connessions perceived as useful.” Being creative means breaking the existing rules to create others better than the old one.
Which is its role in football? Creativity is an essential part of football.
Often the training of creativity is perceived less relevant than the technical and tactical development and it’s very often treated as a quality genetically determined: “That player is creative.” This is the reason why often the training of creativity can be mistakenly overlooked.
The creativity is influenced by both the age of the players, (for experiences and development level of coordination skills) and the different environmental situations during the practice (variety of tools and game conditions). This last aspect is part of the coaches’ creativity. During my experience with youth football I have observed and talked with many coaches. I have seen coaches change their proposals, renew their education, discover new tools, I saw them seek and stimulate their players’ creativity. On the other hand, I have seen many coaches blocked on their positions, more concerned about winning the “clash” without even knowing that the real name is “confront”, unwilling to change and learn and committed to criticize parents than to grow young athletes.
If you want to grow imaginative players, there is need to train coaches to know the tools and the situations stimulating creativity and imagination. Sports psychology is also involved on this track. If your child’s imagination goes coached, then it’s equally true that the coaches should know the way to stimulate the creativity. What is the coaches task to reach this goal? They have to propose new and different game situations accompanied by rich and challenging variations. They have continually to teach their players to seek new solutions, to allow the young athletes to acquire an important competence linked to soccer practice.
Infact,in Brazil, which is one of the best schools of football technique in the world, creativity is stressed even before technical skills, which are realized consequently and simultaneously.
It is certainly undeniable that there are people more creative than others, but creativity can be stimulated and trained. At first, we can start by knowing the 4 key words related to the training of creativity:
Safety
- Clear and simple rules
- No criticism and judgments at work ideational
- Give everyone the same opportunities and attention
- Stimulate divergent thoughts
Freedom
- The psychological freedom lowers defenses. Even the extravagant and granted ideas must be listened and welcomed
- Permit freedom of action. Choose, some times, to indicate only the expected result: the young athletes will choose and invent the path to achieve
Learning
- Avoid the closure with the outside. The children must be able to grow and learn especially by comparison
Fun
- Fun working. The fun and uninhibited training climate encourages the search for alternatives
“In his greatness, genius disdains the beaten track and search unexplored regions” (Abraham Lincoln)
(by Daniela Sepio)
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