Differential Treatment, a Determining Factor in Preparing the School Representative Football Team

Abstract

Football is a game characterized by mixed, uneven effort in intensity and duration, fact which requires an appropriate training through methods adapted for developing all basic and specific motor skills and abilities (Dragan, 2008).
The multiple instructional and educational values of the football game led to its insertion in the school curricula too, where the contents of the general preparation of students are mentioned, as well as various types of organisation of school football activities.
Most often, the students selected for the football team as the representative of a school have different ages, and, in order to achieve the maximum of efficiency in their preparation, it is necessary to treat them differentially both in terms of age, level of training, as well as from the point of view of their specific motor abilities.
In this context, this study has setlled the following goals: to document, prepare and implement differential training programs for children in the secondary school, 11-14 years old (students of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades) that are members of the representative football team of School No. 13 of Galaţi.
The results of the initial testing after the sport tests (speed running on 50 m flat with standing start; 4 minute long run; lead the ball through cones followed by a shot on goal) indicate that not all the tested students have an optimal level of preparation to grant them a position in the school football team, which is why it is necessary to train children differently. At the same time, the analysis of the results led to the statement of the working hypothesis and to the selection and use of specific operating systems, different according to the age and the level of training, that would contribute to the increase in the motricity indices specific to the football game.
As a result of using differential training programs, in the final testing we have demonstrated positive results in all children included in this study, even though their progress was unequal, children having different motor abilities depending on their individual features.