5-a-side is fast becoming the most popular recreational sport in Britain. The sport contains many benefits such as offering an outlet to stay in shape, providing an increased ability in various aspects of your all-round football game, and of course, the camaraderie that comes with a kick about with the lads.
Still not convinced? Here’s just a few reasons you should start playing 5-a-side in Cardiff and at Gôl Football Centres across South Wales:
Improve Your Game
5-a-side football is a great vehicle to improve key skills that are transferrable to its counterpart - 11-a-side football. Close-control, passing, creativity and movement are but a few attributes that will receive significant boosts as you play on the much smaller pitches.
Passing: Accurate passing will be needed in the tight confinements of a 5-a-side pitch as one wayward pass is a sure-fire way of giving away a goal.
Creativity: Fancy yourself as an Iniesta type? Great. You’ll need all the creativity possible to unlock tightly packed defences. As your experience in 5-a-side builds, you’ll start recognising gaps in the defence and will be able to utilise the clever runs of your team-mates.
Movement: Standing still in 5-a-side puts you at a great disadvantage as you become easy to mark. Clever runs towards goal can help your side create better opportunities whilst making yourself available to your team-mates allows your team to continue fluid moves, hopefully yielding a higher amount of goals scored.
Shooting: Gôl Centres goals are a tad smaller than conventional 5-a-side goals which means your shooting has to be on-point if you want to beat the opposition. Accurate, powerful shots to the corners are the best way to beat the keeper and as you visit the centre more and more, you will find your shooting accuracy sky-rocket.
Play Longer
As mentioned previously in this article, Gôl’s goals are a tad bit smaller than most 5-a-side pitches but this gives you and your team a greater challenge. With an average goals-per-game equating to roughly 10, the ball spends the majority of time on the pitch rather than the time consuming journey from the back of the net to the centre spot.
Our emphasis is on playing football and ensuring that all our customers at Gôl get a decent amount of touches on the ball instead of opposing keepers constantly picking the ball out of the net.
Health Benefits
The benefits to your health whilst playing 5-a-side at Gôl is substantial. 5-a-side has been proven to be more beneficial to your fitness than other recreational sports such as swimming and cycling. So what exactly can be improved upon?
- Lower percentage of body fat
- Reduced risk of heart & lung disease
- Reduced risk of diabetes
- Improved cholesterol
- More efficient heart
What’s great about 5-a-side is that studies have found that the above benefits are available to anyone who plays no matter what gender or age as stated in an editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Flexibility
You can play as much or as little as you like if you’re playing in the Gôl leagues. With leagues available on every day (except Saturday) you can gather your mates for a kick about on almost any day of the week.
Is playing in a league not your thing? We have the option for you to book out a pitch for an hour so feel free to give us a call on 02920 375 760 (Cardiff), 01633 290 857 (Newport) or 01685 788 064 (Merthyr) to guarantee your booking.