Get Up and Move Ahead

The importance of being Resilient

Players falling down on the ground during football matches is a common sight. This may happen because of a brutal push by the opponent team player or because of an accidental collision. At that point of time, the player needs to get up and continue with the game failing which the entire balance of the team gets affected and the opponent may end up scoring a goal. Let's leave out those rare scenarios where players end up suffering a serious injury because of the fall. These situations are beyond anyone's control. 

But most of the other times the injury may not be a serious one or there may not be any injury at all, yet the player takes his time to get up because he feels a foul has been committed and is very upset that the referee has not penalized the opponent team player, and continues showing his frustration instead of getting up and continuing with the game. He does not realize that a moment's anger, frustration or the inability to proceed fearing that the pain may aggregate costs the entire game or even a tournament. Football is a team game and when such emotions are displayed by an individual it affects the entire team, and it becomes easier for the opponent who waits for such moments to take control of the game.

An Important Football Drill

If you look at the above video, you can see that a player places his palm on top of the ball and moves around it a couple of times and then holds himself up and kicks the ball hard. When a player moves around the ball as shown in the video, he ends up feeling dizzy. In spite of the dizziness, the player needs to gain control over himself and kick the ball. This is the main motive of this session. Coaches conduct such sessions to prepare a player for grave situations where he might suffer a severe fall onto the ground, but thanks to these sessions the player manage to get himself off the ground and continue with the game.

Life is like a Football Match

Now, let's try to associate this with our real life. There might be certain occasions when we suffer jolt in our life. It could be a loss in a business venture, getting fired from a job, being rejected in an interview, failing in an exam, medical-related problems etc. At that point of time, we feel like we have been thrown down onto the ground. Because of the shock, we are not able to get up for some time, and when we come to our senses we still refuse to get up from where we have fallen because we keep complaining about what happened, blame others and show our frustration. 

Take Responsibility and find Solution

What we don't understand is that half the problem is solved when we decide to get up. It means that we have actually shown the courage to face the problem and its consequences. Accepting failure/loss is the primary step to overcome any problem. It gives us a clear picture of what went wrong, what could have been done to prevent it, and how such situations could be avoided in future. Every pain gives a lesson and every lesson changes a person. The important thing is not to sit down and wail but to get up and move ahead.

AUTHOR NAME - Vinod Balan [Member of Play2Discover NGO]
AUTHOR MAIL - vinod.balan883@gmail.com