The joy of play
Vince: I think when you start playing 5-a-side at 5 or 6 years old you learn straight away. You start to learn the game to a certain extent. What I’m trying to say is you’re not coached. You get on and you play the game.
We’ve found some of the parents, more so the dads - because they’ve played football themselves, maybe they’ve got to a certain level and they’ve wanted to get to a higher level and they couldn’t do it - they’re trying to live their lives through their sons playing football.
Vince: It’s been their decision on what they’ve done, how they’ve done it and how they’ve gone about things. I wouldn’t say coaching [is the reason] as such because the lads went to the 5-a-side at the boys club and I think that helped them a lot. They played and played. They didn’t have to be coached early on because they played 5-a-side for years. They picked things up. I didn’t turn round and say you’ve got to do this, you’ve got the do that. I’d say ‘how about doing this, how about doing that.’ And with the 5-a-side, I’d come and support but let somebody else run the team.
Self Determination Theory is one the most influential approaches to human motivation. It says that people are fundamentally driven by a desire to function effectively, to feel a sense of personal initiative and to feel connected to others. The three basic needs are described as competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Thousands of studies from education and youth sport have shown these three factors to be essential for developing intrinsic motivation, personal well-being, optimal functioning and constructive social development.
I still played in the 5-a-side until I left for West Ham when I was 15
Lynn: Vince played to a good semi-professional level when he was younger but we’ve never ever tried to push the boys. I pinch myself now and this is the honest truth, because I can’t believe what Michael has achieved. And with Graeme when he was playing football and even with what Graeme’s doing now it’s just like, ‘Well, how have they done it?’ It’s not a case of having pushed them, we’ve just been supportive in everything that they’ve done.
Nearly every lad in the town went to the boys club. It was the thing to do
Michael: Nearly every lad in the town went to the boys club. It was the thing to do. U9s was the first league but Saturdays was just getting kids into the boys club and getting the younger lads to have a game really, it was just a kickabout.
They’d have a blackboard and Bob [the coach] would sit you down with teams of 5. It seemed like it was packed full of kids. It seemed like there were about 20 teams and he’d have a blackboard and he’d go down and write your name on and he’d be like, ‘You’re Brazil’ and everyone would be buzzing, or ‘you’re England’.
It was basic stuff but it just got you so buzzing that it was like a free-for-all. The league started from 9 year old as I say and then I still played in the 5-a-side league all the way through. I was still playing 5 aside when I left for West Ham when I was 15.
Everyone seemed to go to the boys club and take an interest in the 5 a-side. We talked about it at school, like ‘Who’s playing tonight?’ or ‘they’ve got them tonight it’s a big game’, people would turn up to watch this game of 5-a-side.
I wouldn’t say it got heated but it was competitive, especially if there were a couple of teams who were quite near the top of the league. It was quite serious but it was fun at the same time. There was the element of winning because it was a league and you wanted to win but it was just playing against your mates.
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