Meet our coaches: Nayef Maqboul
In today’s interview we present you Nayef, our football coach from Nablus. Enjoy the reading!
Hello, Nayef. Can you shortly present yourself (name, age, origin, sports background)?
My name is Nayef Maqboul, I’m 22 years old from Nablus, Palestine.
I’ve always loved sports, played much of every kind of sports, some I played them for clubs, and I recently started coaching for Sports for Life.
What is your favorite sport?
Soccer is my favorite sport, but when it comes to coaching any sport is my favorite.
Why did you become a coach?
I’ve been always volunteering and attending seminars and workshops about community life skills. In addition, helping others is something I have always enjoyed doing. Once I was volunteering for a group working with sports and kids and teaching a lot of things, and it just felt like home.
Why is sport important for children and youth?
Sport by itself has a big influence over the world. Healthy competition, enthusiasm, teamwork and many other things we can learn from sports. Such values to teach children and youth and with such a tool that everybody loves will make this process much easier and have bigger effects.
What do you like the most about being a coach?
What I love about it is you can implement the change firsthand. It is a process and it takes a bit of time, but sometimes you can feel your work changing something and it is just amazing to feel yourself contributing to a bigger picture of healthy change to the community all around us.
How do you in your coaching sessions connect life skills and sports?
As a sport player myself, I know how many aspects sports can have. Everyone in their lives played sports at least once. All we have to do is to connect the many experiences they had playing one sport with a life situation or apposition they had or they may have. It’s only about opening their minds to possibilities and broaden their way of thinking. With a little bit of exercise everyone can do it and this is our goal.
What is your message for Sports for Life friends and supporters?
Show up! You, your children, and other children you may know. Spread the word and then keep showing up. It’s a process. It works! The more you show up the bigger the influence will be.