If you are planning to play soccer with your friends, but you’re afraid that soccer might be a little bit violent and you want to know how safe you are doing a soccer match, then you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re a parent and you’re worried about your children when they play soccer, then this article will help too.
Is soccer a violent sport?
Soccer is not a violent sport at all. Soccer itself does not require violence in order to be enjoyable. In fact, the less violence a soccer match contains, the more enjoyable it becomes. Professional soccer players know how to steal the ball from opponent players without causing them any harm.
This does not mean that people who are playing soccer are immune to any violence or injuries. What this means that if the players are careful enough, then the chances of any injury for any player are very low.
Why are there some violent professional soccer matches?
If you have watched one of those soccer games where there’s so much violence involved between players, then you might immediately think that soccer itself is a violent sport.
However, these matches are rare and they’re violent for a reason that is not related to soccer itself.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and with that said, there are a lot of fans involved, and there is a lot of rivalry involved between soccer clubs too.
Thus, there are some matches between rival opponents that can be very intense and may lead to injuries among the players, but the reason behind such intensity isn’t because of the soccer game itself but because of the rivalry between the competing teams.
So if you’re planning to join a soccer match yourself and you’re worried about your safety because of some rare violent soccer games that you have recently watched, then you can rest assured that you’re safer than you think you are during a soccer match among your friends
The game rules themselves prevent any player from taking any actions that might hurt other players during a soccer match.
How safe is soccer for teenagers and adults?
This study on professional Netherland soccer players during the 2009-2010 soccer season concluded that there were 6.2 injuries within 1000 hours of player-hours.
This means that on average, a player will be injured around 6 times if they play soccer for 1000 hours.
The study claims that the number of injuries is high, which is totally correct when it comes to playing professionally with a soccer club.
But remember that these soccer players get paid to play soccer. Soccer is their professional career. With that said, it’s their job to fight for the ball and sometimes put their safety on the line in order to win a match.
This is totally not the case if you are a teenager or an adult looking to have some fun with your friends by playing a soccer match together.
There won’t be a lot of rivalry between you and your friends, and you won’t risk yourself in order to score or block a goal.
What I am trying to say here is that soccer can only be aggressive if you want it to be. But if you and your opponents are careful enough, the game is as safe as any other sport.
How to make sure that you’re safe during a soccer game?
1- Make sure that you are playing against people of your age
It’s very important not to play against people who are very older than you. This is very important especially for kids. If you’re a kid and the opponent’s team has teenagers or adults on their side, then you might get hurt.
2- Make sure you are playing against people of your own size
Size matters too. If you’re much thinner than the guys playing in a defensive position against you, then there’s a chance that they hurt you unintentionally when you try to reach their goal.
So it’s always better to only play against people of a size that is close to yours.
3- Make sure you’re playing against people who are good enough at the game
You might think that this is a little bit weird. Why should someone want to play against people who are very good at the game. Doesn’t that make beating them a lot harder?
Well, it does, but you’re much safer if you play against people who know what they are doing.
Stealing the ball from your opponent can be tricky if you haven’t played soccer a lot. It requires some practice to be done in a way that doesn’t hurt you or your opponent.
Beginners might kick your leg by mistake instead of kicking the ball. With that said, playing against people who know nothing about soccer can be a little bit risky.
Just pick the guys/girls who know enough about how to play soccer and ask them for a soccer match.
4- Don’t follow the ball when you think it’s dangerous
There are some situations that you face in soccer where it’s better to leave the ball than try to get it. In such situations, you need to just leave the ball.
Unless you are a professional soccer player who gets paid to play soccer and win matches, it’s better if you prioritize your health over winning a soccer game.
Even professional soccer players may decide that they don’t want to chase the ball when they think it’s a little bit risky to do so.
Violence between soccer fans.
If you are a soccer fan, then you know that there is always some sort of tension between fans of rivalry clubs. A great example is the tension between Barcelona and Real Madrid fans.
Such rivalry between different clubs and fans is what makes soccer one of the most entertaining sports on Earth. However, things can sometimes go out of control and violence might occur between fans of different soccer teams.
While these occasions are rare, they do happen. Especially when a very important match takes place between two rival soccer clubs.
Such violence doesn’t come from the soccer game itself, but from the love of the game. With that said, the game itself isn’t very violent and it’s usually very fun to watch or play. The point here is that you shouldn’t judge the game based on the actions of it’s audience.
To summarize
Soccer is generally not a violent sport. Kids, teenagers, and adults can enjoy soccer without the fear of getting hurt. Violence in soccer do exist, but it’s usually among rivalry clubs and it isn’t the result of the soccer rules themselves. In fact, the soccer rules try their best to prevent any violence on the soccer field.