Japanese coach Takashi Kaneko, who is directing the Nanjing female U-16 soccer team to compete in the first Chinese National Youth Games here, told the big difference between the two countries in soccer youth training on Sunday.
"In Japan, a young footballer is required to think, but in China, he or she is taught to obey," Kaneko, 51, who used to be the head coach of the Japanese national youth team, told Xinhua.
"In training, I ask children to think about what is happening and what they should be doing, what are bad habits and how to solve their own problems," said Kaneko, who is also a principal of a soccer school in Japan.
"I think this is very important for young people to play football," added Kaneko.
"In China, people pay much more attention to who win, but I believe that win or loss does not matter when you are young," he said. "It is more important to explore young players' potentials."
"Being a coach from Japan, I believe it's best to train athletes as young as possible. The result is not important. I would prefer to see which team really knows how to play football," said Kaneko.
He also indicated that for young players, a key aspect of training is the well-being of their body.
"Some methods can cause injury and this is definitely a bad way to train," he noted.
