Top 3 Benefits of Small Sided Open Play
You have heard us speak to the many Physical, Technical and the Mental traits which are given to you when Freestyle, 5 a Side, Futsal, and small sided Open Play are incorporated into your football, this last post will highlight the ways of how open play football can develop you as a player through a social and psychological form as well.
Social Interaction
Street football is a game that just like Futsal and Freestyling, helps to promote creativity and expressing yourself without the fear of failure, but once you can commit yourself towards playing random players who might be better or worse can help you meet a lot more personalities, which can also be viewed as beneficial because it can teach you how to deal with different type of people, not just in football but in other situations as well. So often players are pushed to only interact in the sport with players other adults view as “elite” or “high level”. Many times this is not the case as we all know success in a league or team placement is not a direct reflection of the quality and passion of football a player has. Players must abandon ego and engage with the sport in all levels.
Competitive nature
We all know how it is when you have the guilty pleasure of nutmegging your friends, the knuckle ball free kicks from 30 yards, but the truth behind doing those things is inspired by having a confident, strong minded mentality, which I think that through the consistent practice of playing open play small sided games, can be learned and adapted when you step on to an 11 a side pitch, or any pitch for that matter. Some games are won just through mental willpower, and my theory contains that playing your football with confidence can be duplicated onto you wanting to win more than the other team on either a football, futsal or 5 a side pitch, and I think open play football teaches that overtime.
Helps you learn what kind of player you are
Self-expression, something that has been mentioned through some of the other posts, but there is a reason for why I call this website, ‘the home for creativity’. Street football is a beautiful game that can be used to analyze your game and the different types of creativity that you are able to produce. It can also identify your strengths and your weaknesses, helping you know what you can and should work on, while increasing your passion for football. This has been something that we have experienced directly, which is why we praise the sport so highly.
Conclusion
Now, Open Play, small sided football may not be completely perfect and in my opinion, shouldn’t be solely replaced with real footballing development if you want to use it to be a football player, but when a decent amount of time is put in towards just playing competitively with friends, you can use the sport to help establish your own brand of football and sharpen your skills in the process. Many of the football greats have used small sided football to better themselves and praise the sport for helping them to believe in their abilities and create their own style of football as well.