Developing farmers' sports movement
- As one of the main productive forces of society, in addition to the need to improve production levels, farmers also need to improve their spiritual life through cultural and artistic movements, physical education and sports. In recent years, in our province, the physical education and sports movement among farmers, especially the football and volleyball movements, has developed vigorously, widely and brought about positive effects.
(Baonghean)- As one of the main productive forces of society, in addition to the need to improve production levels, farmers also need to improve their spiritual life through cultural and artistic movements, physical education and sports. In recent years, in our province, the physical education and sports movement among farmers, especially the football and volleyball movements, has developed vigorously, widely and brought about positive effects.
Linh Son is one of the communes with the strongest volleyball and farmer football movements in Anh Son district. The whole commune has 14 villages, all of which have volleyball courts, some villages have 2-3 courts such as village 9, village 13... The movement of playing football and volleyball here has developed to the point that in many villages, people have voluntarily exchanged their production land to build football fields. The alluvial plains along the Lam River or on the fields after the harvest season... have all become volleyball and football fields for young people. When the afternoon comes, from adults to children, everyone takes the opportunity to arrange their work to play sports, becoming "barefoot players" on the football fields. The matches take place enthusiastically from afternoon to early evening.
From that enthusiastic training movement, the commune's football and volleyball teams, both men's and women's, when participating in sports competitions organized by the district all won high prizes. Ms. Vo Thi Dung - a volleyball "giant" in village 9 confided: "Achievement is not the important thing, but above all, through the sports movement, farmers in Linh Son have a playground for entertainment and relaxation after hours of hard work in the fields, at the same time have the opportunity to exchange and strengthen the village and neighborhood relationship".
A volleyball match in village 9, Linh Son commune (Anh Son).
Going back to Highway 48, to the mountainous district of Quy Hop, the farmers' football and volleyball movement here is also developing as strongly as in the lowland or midland districts. Among them, the communes of Nghia Xuan, Minh Hop, Tho Hop, Chau Thai, Chau Cuong, Ha Son... Notably, in this mountainous district, almost everyone knows the Nghia Xuan women's volleyball team, because this farmers' football team is not only famous through tournaments in the district and province but also nationwide. At the National Ethnic Minority Sports Competition in 2003, 2005, 2007, the Nghe An women's volleyball team with the core of players from the Nghia Xuan commune team (Canh Thi Tuoi, Hoang Thi Hong, Trinh Thi Hang, Truong Thi Hieu, Vi Thi Thuan) won the Gold Medal.
Mr. Tran Van Hoan - Cultural Committee member of Nghia Xuan commune said: “The volleyball movement in Nghia Xuan has existed for a long time, but began to develop strongly in the late 1990s when the commune invested in building volleyball courts and implementing sports activities in the hamlets. The commune has 15 hamlets, of which there are 25 volleyball courts and 15 football fields. Each year, the commune organizes 2-3 volleyball tournaments, and hamlets regularly organize tournaments between clusters of households. The organization costs are mostly contributed by the people, the contribution is only from 10,000 - 20,000 VND/person and almost every household happily participates. It can be said that the volleyball movement here is strong because every household has someone playing volleyball.”
In the women's volleyball team of Nghia Xuan commune, Ms. Bui Thi Xuyen (born in 1958) from Phuong hamlet is the most veteran "athlete". Ms. Xuyen confided: "When I grew up, I saw everyone in the village, both men and women, playing volleyball, and then, the previous class taught the next class, and it became a tradition until now. After more than 30 years of association, even though I have grandchildren, volleyball has become an inexhaustible passion for me. Any afternoon without playing volleyball makes me feel restless. After a long day of work, playing volleyball makes all the fatigue disappear. "In Nghia Xuan, volleyball has become a common joy. Whenever we hear about a match between our commune's team and other communes, despite the busy harvest season, people still take the time to go cheer. Holidays and Tet in Nghia Xuan seem more jubilant and exciting thanks to the "Celebrating the Party, Celebrating Spring" volleyball tournament that has become a tradition.
According to Mr. Vu Van Nam, specialist of the Sports Department - Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in recent years, the farmers' sports movement in our province has developed very strongly, especially in the two sports of football and volleyball. Some districts have strong farmers' sports movements such as Anh Son, Do Luong, Nghia Dan, Quy Hop... tournaments are not only organized in communes and towns but also down to villages, hamlets, associations, and branches... From the farmers' sports movement, sports factors have been discovered to select for the provincial teams such as Truong Thi Hieu (Quy Hop, women's volleyball), Nguyen Van Dong (Anh Son, men's volleyball), or the farmers' football team of Hop Thanh commune (Yen Thanh)... In particular, through the farmers' sports movement, it has contributed to training the source of cadres in charge of sports in villages and communes - those who have the role of promoting the movement, organizing tournaments and selecting athletes from the grassroots.
To encourage the farmers' sports movement and improve tournaments for farmers, from 2000 to 2010, the Farmers' Association coordinated with the Department of Sports and Physical Training (now the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism) to organize football and volleyball tournaments for farmers in the whole province every two years and alternately (even-year volleyball, odd-year football). From 2010 to now, due to financial difficulties, these tournaments have not been organized. Mr. Hoang Van Minh - Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department - Provincial Farmers' Association said: "Through understanding the situation at the grassroots level, we see that people are very proactive in practicing sports. Therefore, the Provincial Farmers' Association encourages the Farmers' Associations of districts, depending on local conditions, to organize volleyball tournaments called "Golden Rice" for farmers. Some localities such as Do Luong, Quynh Luu... still maintain exciting and quality tournaments every year".
The farmers' football and volleyball movement is truly a beautiful cultural feature, a useful playground, training the body and community solidarity for farmers after a hard day's work. It is thought that sectors and organizations such as the Farmers' Association, the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism need to review the system of grassroots tournaments, creating a truly solid foundation for the farmers' sports movement to develop in the direction of "healthy to work well in production".
Article and photos: Minh Quan
