Preparation of young soccer players in secondary schools & club nurseries

Abstract

The main question of the research is: Are students who do not participate in soccer training after school hours, as physically and skillfully prepared to play the game of soccer as those students attending a nursery? The researchers formulated a set of soccer skill tests that could be used in assessing soccer skills and testing their concurrent validity and reliability. The attitudes of boys' secondary school students towards learning soccer and that of P.E. teachers towards teaching the game of soccer were also explored. This study analyses whether boys attending Form 3 have been well prepared to play soccer. A quantitative research was carried out, namely questionnaires and standardized tests. 160 questionnaires were distributed to Fom1 3 male students and 12 questio1maires were distributed to secondary school PE teachers. 5 fitness and 4 soccer skill tests were carried out with 104 students. A total of 416 skill tests and 520 fitness tests were carried out to see whether there are any significant differences in the skill and fitness levels of students attending nurseries and students who do not attend nurseries. Schools were chosen from various geographical locations of Malta including; an Area Secondary, a Church School, a Junior Lyceum and a Private School. The results obtained from this research were compared with those of other local studies. Analyses revealed that students attending a nursery are performing significantly better in all fitness and skills tests when compared to students who do not attend a nursery. In order to provide students who do not attend a nursery with a good knowledge base for the game of soccer, extra lessons for the less skilful students should be implemented. Recommendations as to how those who do not attend a nursery can improve their fitness and skill level are also presented.