Football is more than a game

By Darren Stones

Start of Match

What a great game footy is, and what a great sport for improving and maintaining our mental fitness. For this article, I'm referring to Australian Rules Football, however you're welcome to reframe the following tips, suggestions and comments to align with your favourite football code.

We don't have to participate in an organised match to reap the benefits of running, sprinting, kicking, handballing, and bouncing. With a little thought - and a pen and paper - we can create our own mini games, drills, and exercises and incorporate the use of a football to improve our fitness and wellbeing.

Quarter Time

So you don't have a football, and it's been decades since you've either owned one or kicked one. Maybe your footy shorts are tighter, your trophies are collecting dust, and you can barely recall matches where you were best on the ground.

Now is the perfect time to break through your own banner and journey to a sports store to grab your new footy. Don't handball this responsibility to someone else - give yourself a pep talk and stay in the game with me. Be your own umpire, blow the whistle if needed, and award yourself a free kick for your effort. Doing this will put more bounce in your step. While you're there selecting your footy, consider buying a few orange disc marker training cones to place on the ground for a few drills.

Darren Stones with a Sherrin Football

Half Time

Jogging and bouncing the ball is a great way for us to develop our hand-eye coordination. Here are a couple of drills for us to consider:

Drill No. 1

Let's jog for 50 metres from the goal line to the 50-metre arc and bounce the ball with our right hand. Then let's turn around and jog back to where we started whilst bouncing the ball with our left hand.

Drill No. 2

Let's place five disc marker training cones 10 metres apart between the goal line and the 50-metre arc and bounce the ball when we reach each cone. We can repeat this drill five times to further develop our fitness. As we make progress, we can run faster and repeat the drill 10 times.

Don't baulk at the opportunity of running out on to the ground if the weather is cold. Let's put on our team jumpers and beanies, get out there and run, and twist and turn as if we are dodging opponents. We will find ourselves warming up quickly and achieving new goals before the final siren.

Three Quarter Time

If you happen to miss a training session, that's okay. There's no need to appear at the tribunal due to misconduct to explain your actions, because there's always tomorrow to get back into the game and kick some more goals.

At the end of our training session, let's be our own coach and tell ourselves how well we played. Let's say to ourselves: "Great match, we played well, and we were the best players on the ground."

Okay, it's time for us to head to the change rooms for some lime juice, water and ice and a few slices of orange. Or whatever we feel is appropriate. :)

End of Match

Our young people need us

By Darren Stones

We need to be mindful of constantly encouraging and supporting young people to be actively involved in our community.

We need to message them, chat to them, call them, see them, and tell them how good they are at doing what they do. If we can all do this with at least one young person in our life, we can all make a positive difference in that young person's life.

We need to pass on the baton by demonstrating how much we care about our young people. We need to show them how much we care about them and do our best to provide new opportunities for them.

We need to do the little things with and for them so we can develop a respectful bond that sees us all in the community gaining from the experience.

Our young people are our future. We need to nurture them and provide them with opportunities to shine like rising stars. We need to show them we care about them, so they can go on into adulthood to pass on the baton. We owe it to them and to ourselves.

 



Choose to invest in yourself

By Darren Stones

Consider that you have the power to choose to invest in yourself when you want to live your life to its fullest.

1. Consider who it is you want to be serving and engage in education, volunteering and work that leads you to achieving such.
2. Read articles and books that provide information, guidance and insights regarding the people you want to serve.
3. Research on the Internet about those people who are currently working in roles that interest you. Analyse their work, volunteering and education experiences.
4. Connect with people who you can meet face-to-face with so you can talk about life in general. Share experiences and discuss your dreams. Talk about family, work, education, current affairs, fashion, music, food, etc. Connect respectfully and build the connection to a point where you trust each other.
5. Take time to get away from it all. Make this a commitment to yourself and consider it as a health priority. By getting away, you can find space for reflection from a distance. It is when you step back that you can see the bigger picture. This is an opportunity to realign your thoughts and refresh your thinking.