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‘Leaping outside my comfort zone’: lessons from a squad of football influencers

Midlife crises come in many forms. As someone with negative hand-eye coordination and a lifelong allergy to team sports, I can see why alarm bells might sound at my sudden enthusiasm to pick up football skills from a social media platform largely used by people born in a different millennium to me.

On the other hand, midlife learning is having a moment. A survey conducted by YouGov and Kantar Sifo suggests that 43% of European workers have tried to learn a new skill over the past year (“tried” being the operative word here). Meanwhile, a timely book called Beginners: the Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning published earlier this year charted the efforts of its author, Tom Vanderbilt, to pick up new skills as an adult. The point, Vanderbilt suggests, is not to master any of them but to rediscover the fun of stepping outside your comfort zone, stretching your brain and your body.

So here I am, in my garden, quite literally leaping outside of my own. I jump, tense every muscle in my face in preparation for impact and then … I open my eyes, look around, and find the football lying in the grass, several metres away. My middle-aged mission to header a ball is falling flat. Where am I going wrong?

Basically everywhere, as it turns out. On TikTok, squads of football influencers are sitting on the digital bench, just waiting for you to open the app and give them the chance to show off their skills on your phone screen. And they’re not all men. Lia Lewis, a UK-based freestyle footballer, shares tricks and tutorials with her 1.9 million followers. Former Arsenal and England national team academy player, Harriet Pavlou does the same via her account @harrietfreestyle, reaching 5.5 million fans. In fact, you only have to type “soccer header tutorial” into the search bar to find a library of instructional videos, filmed in a variety of styles and aimed at different levels. Some are set to music, some set up like a micro-interview.

This immediately appeals to me, since the alternative would be to ask for help from friends and family and suffer their unending mirth at the prospect of my engaging in sport. The videos do not judge. Plus, instructions are accompanied by visual aids which – since the video is looped – can be paused and examined ad nauseam until you begin to get a grip on what’s required.

I start with Fabian Pecher, a German football influencer whose header tutorial is filmed with Swiss female footballer Luana Bühler. Bühler takes Pecher, and by extension me, through a series of exercises designed to improve technique. A good header makes use of your whole body, not just your neck, she explains. To practise, Bühler advises dropping to your knees and pulling your whole trunk backwards as the ball approaches. I try repeatedly until I’m making regular contact with the ball. The glee this fills me with may seem slightly pathetic, but it’s authentic.

Soon, I’m ready to graduate to JT Soccer School’s tutorial in defensive headers. This boils down to three easy-to-follow steps: time the jump, keep your eyes on the ball, and use your forehead to attack the middle of the ball.

Related: ‘A forest of information’: how TikTok helped me grow my plant family

Easy, that is, in theory. In practice, it takes significantly longer than I’d care to admit to connect the right bit of my head with the correct bit of the ball. Not that I’m complaining – indeed, the whole endeavour is a worthwhile reminder that time spent looking at my phone screen doesn’t need to be at the expense of off-screen activities. Around 30 minutes on TikTok has led to two hours of outdoor exercise.

By this stage, my family has come out to watch. They’re laughing – whether it’s with me or at me is debatable. Either way, this is the most fun we’ve had in the garden in ages. And so I begin my second challenge: the volley – a strike or kick of the ball made before it touches the ground.

“A volley”, according to Wikipedia, “can be extremely hard to aim and requires good foot-eye coordination and timing.” Clearly, this is going to take a lot of help from the TikTok classroom. First, a “simple volley tutorial” from Mathieu Sylvain breaks down the basics. One: keep your eyes on the ball, wait for it to fall to the desired height. Two: kick the ball in the air with the top of your foot. Three: keep practising.

After kicking thin air for an hour or so, I decide to try @d9freestyle’s “flick up and volley tutorial”, which delves into more granular detail, explaining that I need to get into position as soon as the ball’s arc begins to drop, point my supporting foot towards the goal and straighten my leg for maximum power. Meanwhile, @traineffectiveofficial addresses the question of ‘‘what is needed for a perfect volley?” The answers are not comforting. The uber-volley requires “perfect timing, calculation and ball anticipation”. It will also, I learn, require me to be “very fast, like a jaguar”.

Reader, I do not master the perfect volley. Here’s what happens instead: I try, fail, try and fail again. I laugh a lot, sweat a great deal, and pick up a smidgen of humility – which, in the end, is probably an even greater lesson. More importantly, I’ve discovered the joy of just giving something new a go.

Why not try something new? Discover the benefits of just having a go #LearnOnTikTok