Sport is a good way to fight stress. What is it like to be a coach of a children’s football team

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“My brother and I started playing football when we were five years old. We had a very cool coach,” Margarita Druzhynina, coach of the street football team, reveals her secret love for sports. The girl recalls that in the 2000s, women’s football was, to put it mildly, not very popular and most coaches wanted to form mono-teams from boys. “They took me first because I went with my brother, who is a year younger. I was the only girl,” she recalls. Everything ended suddenly – the team was transferred to another coach and he immediately said that the girls would not play for him. The new leader did not give in, even though the whole team convinced them to leave Margarita, who has been training with them for a long time. “It just broke me. My dream was to play football, it was a team that had already played… It was so unfair and sad, although my mother reassured me that my sport would still find me,” the girl clarifies. Today, Margarita is a coach of the street football team of Caritas Lviv. The girl told her story to “UP. Life”. Margarita Druzhynina, coach of the street soccer team Most adults who are injured and discouraged from playing sports in school physical education will agree that sports would hardly have found Margarita if she hadn’t wanted it. Margarita grew up in an incomplete family. Five children were cared for only by their mother, who tried in every way to organize their free time. “Throughout our childhood, we went to all kinds of sports clubs. We took part everywhere. We did everything we could. From some point on, we regularly visited Caritas Lviv every day – from Monday to Friday,” the girl smiles. It was in Caritas that the sister and brother were able to resume sports. “It was when we were 11 years old. We went for a month or two and stopped – we didn’t like something,” she recalls. After half a year, the children came to try again and this time they stayed. “We immediately talk about the fact that we have non-professional football. That it is just for fun,” says Sofia Zotina, a psychologist of Caritas Lviv, who takes care of the football team of the cell. “We had boys who dreamed of professional football. They went and watched, how they train there, and came back – decided that they are not ready to put in so much effort. Ambitions are ambitions, not everyone can be a professional football player, but everyone can love this sport, and everyone can play it with pleasure.” For more than nine years, the Druzhininas attended the football section of the charity foundation. “We saw an opportunity to develop, we received support in this,” Margarita notes. “Over time, when we became teenagers, we thought that we could help, join initiatives, organize some quests for the younger ones. So, visiting circles was supplemented by volunteering.” In parallel with football, Margarita also played ultimate frisbee professionally. It is also a team game, similar to rugby, only instead of a ball, it is a frisbee. “Sports, in addition to what was given to me, also surely provided this feeling of ‘acceptance’,” Margarita analyzes. , but there was no such thing in sports. In sports there was a team, mutual respect, a safe and pleasant environment.” The coronavirus epidemic became an obstacle to her professional career in ultimate frisbee – in 2020, Margarita was supposed to play for the Ukrainian national team at the European Championship, but the competition was canceled due to the pandemic. Now, at the age of 22, Margarita has consciously chosen her future profession and is studying to become a doctor, as well as continuing to play sports both for herself and as a volunteer. “It’s a crazy thrill to take part in some competitions and get recognition thanks to the fact that you can do something both by yourself and together with your team. So I understand Margarita and why she is with us. It’s always fun and interesting with children, you can be a child yourself . Now she shares with her wards the valuable things that she once had, in her childhood. This is how true volunteering is born, – notes Sofia Zotina. – In working with children, it is important to be ignited and pass on this “light”. If the coach does not have this , then there must be an assistant or someone else who will give the children this warmth and this charge. If there are no such people around, then it is better to run away, even from a very professional coach.” Margarita deliberately chose her future profession and is studying to become a doctor, and also continues to play sports both for herself and as a volunteer. This year, it is Margarita Druzhynina who will accompany the Lviv street football team to the “Caritas Cup 2023”, which has kindly agreed to host Caritas Romania. Abroad, children will be able to fully enjoy a sports holiday, play without being distracted by worries and have a good rest. In addition to the team from Lviv, children’s “teams” from Brody, Drohobych, Ternopil, Novovolynsk and Poltava will also go to Romania. Currently, Caritas of Ukraine is collecting charitable donations to provide children with everything they need. Most of the children who play in the teams come from families that are in difficult life circumstances. These are children from low-income, internally displaced and single-parent families. “In such families, too much falls on the shoulders of mothers or someone who takes care of the children, it is often a very stressful environment and there is no sense of stability, and with it also a sense of security,” explains psychologist Sofia Zotina. “Sports for children from these families is a good way to combat stress. It relieves the nervous system, releases emotions, relieves muscle tension and harmonizes the work of the cerebral hemispheres. That is, in addition to being a fan, spending quality time with friends, training team and leadership skills, and a lot of other very pleasant things, sports – real help for children”. Margarita says that she gives her wards young football players a lot of exercises for team work. “They sit in my circle, hugging. They also do dressings together, relays and quests are also helpful,” the coach enumerates. She tries to work with her wards not only on the field, so she creates personal nutrition programs and additional effective home training schemes for them. “Over the years in professional sports, I have many friends who are rehabilitators and sports doctors, so I consult with them in order to draw up programs in such a way as not to harm, as it is adolescence and there are many nuances in terms of hormones,” Margarita clarifies. The trainer tries to work with her wards not only on the field, so she makes personal nutrition programs and additional schemes for effective home training for them. After each training session, the team has a custom to arrange a “friendly circle” in which everything they liked or didn’t like is openly discussed; points to improve and things to focus on. “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to lose very much, but I always honestly tell them that only their joint efforts and efforts will lead us to a certain victory,” says Margarita. “Not necessarily, it will be the first places, but if they team up will do everything, then at least second place will be ours.” Psychologist Sofia Zotina adds that competitiveness is very necessary in any activity, because it is about purposefulness, result-oriented and long-term efforts: “Children must learn to cope with victories and defeats, with understanding and recognition of what they can achieve, and why not”. Olga Sytnik, specially for UP. Life

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