Do you remember the Wonder Years?

In one particular episode, Kevin went to work with his father, Jack (Dan Lauria) to see what his dad actually did for a living. The scene started with him sitting in his father’s chair at Norcom. While looking through the draws he noticed a difference in his father’s attitude when dealing with both his boss and his subordinates.

With a proud tone in his voice, Kevin asked,

“When did you decide to become a manager at Norcom?”

Jack Arnold looked back at Kevin with one of those famous stares while mumbling “grrrr”.

“It was something that just happened all by itself” he sighed.

The innocence of the question and the pain in Jack’s voice leads to only one conclusion. It was never the life that Jack consciously chose for himself.

Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75- Benjamin Franklin

The Wonder Years was so popular because the stories related to 90% of the population. Any one of us could play the role of Kevin’s dad or Kevin depending on our age.

Do you remember being a child and being asked that QUESTION;

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I bet you do; and I can also safely bet that you didn’t want to become part of the corporate machine of a large organisation that would provide a chunk of coin for your family.

No, I would safely place my chips on you answering from the heart.

“Professional soccer player, guitarists, pilot or a small time lawyer fighting and protecting the environment”

Of all sad worlds of mouth or pen, the saddest are these; it might have been- John Greenleaf

Forget about practicalities and immerse yourself in your dreams. Forget about the conditioning and what society, your parents, teachers and even your friends want you to pursue.

Know Thyself

Wherever you are and whatever you’ve become, it does not need to stay that way; unless of course, you choose to remain in your current position.

There is nothing wrong with your current profession, BUT if there is still something deep within you, a burning desire, that remains unfulfilled, perhaps now may be the time to rethink what your life is about.

When we have no definite purpose, direction or goals, life becomes what happens to us. Life dictates what happens to us and we play the role of the victim and what we become, sigh! There is nothing wrong with that, after all the world needs middle management.

But here’s the tragedy, a product of circumstance and opportunity is probably not what you would choose for yourself given your wonder years again.

So why would you enforce the same rules on your child?

Why would you allow your child to wonder through life without direction?

Why would you deny them the opportunity to pursue their dreams?

So answer the following question,

“When did you decide you wanted to become………?”

With this in mind, do everything in your power to fulfil your child’s dream of becoming a professional soccer player.

The Epidemic of Life

The next time you feel depressed, unappreciated or like your dreams have slipped through your fingers I want you to know that this song plays for everybody.

This epidemic can be cured by connecting, loving and protecting your children.

The minute we realise that the child sitting next to us needs us, we’re able to extinguish our past and concentrate on their dreams.

Do not allow your child to be average!

Everything we are taught in school, by our parents and the media is outdated, a myth. A myth that is designed to produce obedient civilians. Don’t let your children get brainwashed by schools, religion or believing that a job and following instructions is the key to life. It’s not!

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education- Mark Twain

Manchester United!

Liverpool!

Real Madrid or even Barcelona!

Why not?

Our children have no trouble believing the “impossible”.

It’s only you and I, with our big brains and little heart who doubt, over think and condition our children to play it safe.

“What would you do, if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me, lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song, I will try not to sing out of tune”……..

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”

Every child on this planet has something important to say and do. No matter how small their contribution may seem, there is a place for them in the soccer world, in the stadium of champions.

The word “champion” is synonymous with excellence, winning and being the best. Champions are those individuals at the top of their game, the absolute best and are labeled “winners”.

This is where I draw the line.

To define champions as winners implies that everyone else is a loser.

A champion is not necessarily someone who plays professionally, scores the winning goal or wins the league. For me a champion is someone who gives 100% into whatever goal they set out to achieve.

Kids that participate in soccer clinics are champions.

Kids that play the game for fun, champions!

Kids that train hard and play for a team, champions!

Kids that have fun and play with a smile, champions!

What do you think?

12 Easy Steps to becoming a Champion

1-    It’s your call to play soccer. If you commit, choose a positive and enthusiastic attitude, no matter what!

2-    Realise that training offers you unlimited opportunities to improve.

3-    Training! Arrive early; leave late. Out train your teammates and opponents, it works!

4-    Shut up and listen aggressively.

5-    Acknowledge your weaknesses and enjoy your mistakes. Start pushing the envelope, no mistakes equals no improvements.

6-    Always keep it friendly, preferably with a smile!

7-    SMILE!

8-    Always be willing to lend a hand. Help or encourage your teammates.

9-    Practice with your weaker foot. What’s that? You do not have a weaker foot! Perfect! Practice both then.

10- Always look the coach in the eyes.

11- Pay attention to techniques, fitness will come and go. Skills are forever.

12-Always remember to say thank you.

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”

My philosophy, as a soccer parent is simple.

“Soccer is a metaphor for life”

Soccer offers the opportunity to learn in a team environment and allows children to cope with winning, losing and is one of many great workout programs.

But my philosophy fails to acknowledge something that haunts the majority of kids. I’ve referred to it as the struggle previously but will call it the bogey man for this post.

The Fear of Failure

When kids play with fear they tend to be scared and find refuge outside of the spotlight. My question has always been this, can these players improve by succumbing to fear?

Young kids need to take risks and have the confidence to stamp their authority on the game. They need to trust their ability and play with freedom. If they can manage this, significant improvements will follow and wait for it, they might start to enjoy the game.

At no stage should children make decisions based on fear.

Fear of Failure Dialogue

-I play better in training than on match day.

-I’m worried what others think, especially my parents.

-I’m concentrating too much on my position as opposed to going for it.

-I need to win so I refuse to take any risks or make any mistakes.

-I try not to make any mistakes so my team mates can accept me.

Why would our children be thinking this way?

The Bogey Man comes in 5 Varieties

Fear of losing a match- Kids worry about losing and become anxious and consumed by the scoreboard.

Fear of letting others down- Kids are afraid to let their parents down, the coach and even their teammates. They feel the need to win to avoid being a disappointment.

Fear of not meeting expectations- for some strange reason kids think that others set high expectations of them. Usually the by-product of #1 and #2

Fear of embarrassment- Like getting caught with your pants down, they’re afraid of what others might think.

Last but not least, fear of rejection- Kids have a tendency to equate bad performances with losing friends and rejection.

Now for the million dollar question, how do you know if your child suffers from “fear of failure?”

Try these scenarios on for size

-Performs better at training and crumbles during match day.

-Pre game anxiety and stress usually resulting in silence, not wanting to play or that mysterious illness that pops up on match day.

-Performance dictates their mood and self esteem.

-Wants to win at all costs

-Worries too much about what others think.

-Worried about letting down the coach, teammates and even sitting on the bench.

Success through Failure

If you want to help your kids succeed in soccer, you’ll need to change the perception of failure.

Yes!

You read that right!

“I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”-Michael Jordan

If in doubt, call in the experts.

Let’s start with a quote from the researches at the University of Poitiers in France.

“Children will perform best when they are told that frequent tries and even occasional failure are normal and important aspects of learning.”

The men in white coats have identified a vicious cycle that has plagued kid’s soccer for decades. Children will not seek new information or challenges with enthusiasm and interest because children are scared to fail and are reluctant to challenge themselves.

They also concluded that fear of failure produces an environment where children will not pursue difficult tasks which puts a stop to development, learning and inevitably erodes any self confidence left in the tank.

Solution

Children are more likely to succeed when parents and coaches reassure them that effort and sometimes failing is a requirement for success.

Case Study

The following case study has been ripped out of the scientific journal of Experimental Psychology.

1^st Experiment- 100 6^th graders were divided into 2 groups. Both groups were given difficult anagram problems that couldn’t be solved.

A researcher then spoke to both groups about the difficulty of the problems. Group A was told that learning is difficult and failure is common. But with effort and practice they could progressively improve.

Children in Group B were simply quizzed on their approach to solve the anagrams.

Group A and Group B were then given a second series of tests.

Group A (learning is tough and that failure is a normal part of the process) performed significantly better than Group B.

Another experiment involved a reading comprehension test (same kids). The kids were also asked to judge their academic competence.

Group A were given this message before the test,

“Learning can be difficult and requires effort.”

Group B wasn’t given any feedback.

Study Results- Children in Group A not only performed better on the test but also reported fewer feelings of incompetence.

Conclusion

We need to tell our children that learning new things can be difficult and that learning takes time, effort and repeated practice. This message will boost confidence, reduce the fear of failure and ultimately improve performance.

Action Plan

Be a Role Model- Encourage your children to observe your progress in solving problems or trying to accomplish something new. Emphasise the effort that is required irrespective of the outcome.

Trust the Process- Forget about results or outcomes. Discuss the process of learning and discuss the small steps required to improve.

Resist the urge to help and make the problem/obstacle easier. Give your child a chance to complete the challenge on their own. Watch and praise effort.

Knowledge is Power- Look to teach when suitable. When your child is struggling to complete a new drill, ask about the experience and what they could try differently next time.

Are you the King of the Jungle?

From the animal kingdom, which animal best describes you?

Really!

For me, most soccer parents resemble that of an ostrich. While watching cartoons with my boys you’ve got to laugh at the ostrich.

Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they get scared, confused or threatened.

What’s even funnier, they think they’re safe because they cannot see the danger.

How does this relate to you?

Because you fail to recognise the fear and the importance of failure.

Instead, when your child fails, loses or struggles you quickly bury your head in your hands without addressing the issues.

Stop being an ostrich and change the perception of fear before the bogey man comes knocking.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything-all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important”-Steve Jobs

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”

Soccer books published for kids fail to ask the right questions.

What really makes children feel alive?

What makes them happy?

What are the experiences that make soccer worthwhile?

“More than anything else, men and women seek happiness” Aristotle

Now let me ask you a question. Have you ever been so engaged in an activity that you lost track of time or even your surroundings?

Have you ever been so engaged in an activity that all your problems for that moment just vanished? All problems including financial, problems at home and even the hard ass boss that awaits you every morning at work.

Although I wasn’t aware of this state while I was playing, I certainly did experience it.

Today I want to talk about a concept referred to as “flow”.

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity

To put it simply, flow is completely focused motivation. This concept was developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and after decades of research has produced this little gem.

“What makes experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow- a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity”

Children can achieve this state of flow with any drill, as long as the conditions and the environment are right.

Imagine that, young kids focused and concentrating on the drill instead of fooling around.

7 Steps to Flow

1-Kids must be challenged by the drill or training session.

The difficulty level of a drill has to be “just right”. If the drill is too easy, your child will get bored and eventually stop, finding refuge in kicking the loose mud around. On the other hand, if the drill is too difficult, your child will get frustrated and eventually wave the white flag. Either way, you lose.

2-Kids must have the ability to concentrate on the drill.

Your child needs to focus and understand the purpose of the drill. All distractions must be removed. Without concentration, you cannot enter the state of flow. The most frequently mentioned characteristic of flow is the ability to forget all the unpleasant aspects of life. This happens because the drill will require such concentration that only a small range of information can be allowed into the jelly marshmallow encased in your skull.

The benefit of this is significant as your child will stop worrying about looking good or making mistakes because he will be fully immersed at the task at hand.

3-Goals, Goals, Goals…..

If you do not set goals your child will inevitably fail. Goals create a mechanism to measure progress, development and allows you to establish a benchmark or baseline for future reference.

Completing drills that are coupled with set goals also provides a sense of achievement. Children in the state of flow always achieve their goals.

Simplicity is the key here. Children must learn how to set goals and understand why they are completing the drill. Once they master this, the feedback they receive from the coach or you is symbolic and has enormous power. What makes feedback valuable in this environment is the feeling that your child has succeeded in achieving his goal.

“This happens when energy-concentration is invested in realistic goals and when skills match the opportunity for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else”

4-Feedback not Criticism!

With clear goals linked to drills, you know immediately if your child is improving and what areas need improving.

Boom!

The creation of awareness.

5-Don’t Worry, Be Happy

This is the number 1 benefit of achieving flow. Your child is so busy concentrating on the drill that all other problems seem to evaporate into thin air.

“When not preoccupied with ourselves, we actually have a chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self consciousness can lead to self-transcendence, to a feeling that the boundaries of our being have been pushed forward” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

6-Control without being Controlled

The challenge of the drill must accurately match the skill level of your child. Get this wrong and your child will never enter the state of flow.

“The flow experience is typically described as involving a sense of control, or more precisely, as lacking the sense of worry about losing control that is typical in many situations of normal life”

What children (and most parents) enjoy is not the sense of being in control but the sense of exercising control in difficult, challenging situations. In other words, not blowing a gasket.

7-Time is Forgotten

If you get the conditions right, the drill becomes an autotelic experience.

The word autotelic derives from two Greek words, “auto” meaning self and “telos” meaning end. It refers to an activity that is not completed with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the drill is the reward and the completion of a goal.

Most parents would argue, “this sounds great but I have no control over the training sessions”.

Here’s what you can do

As discussed above, create clarity through goals and don’t forget to always praise EFFORT!

• Let your child know that you’re interested in them and their soccer career. Always speak to them in the present tense and make no reference to the future as this could add unnecessary pressure.
• Let your child choose his goals and let them know soccer is a choice, as opposed to the end of the world.
• Ensure your child feels safe and protected. Through love based soccer you will develop trust that allows your child to play freely without fear.
• Provide challenges that accurately match their skill set.

Watching kids play soccer is stimulating and enjoyable under the right conditions. But when soccer becomes about winning and takes precedence over development, the enjoyment tends to evaporate before your very eyes.

Addicted to Flow

For the last 17 months I’ve been training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The alarm gets set at 5.30am and I travel in the darkness to get to the gym.

To everybody’s amazement I’m addicted and have not missed a session unless travelling interstate for work. I’ve even discussed with my partner training every day. My friends are quietly analyzing what they think is a midlife crisis.

But every morning when I put on my Gi, the following occurs in a pool of sweat.

I’m challenged- learning new techniques and rolling (Jiu Jitsu word for wrestling) with more advanced students isn’t easy.

I need to concentrate- Concentration is required to learn new techniques and to protect my limbs from being pulled apart.

Goals- All training sessions on the mat are designed with a purpose. My goal at the moment is to achieve my blue belt within the next year.

Immediate feedback- occasionally this comes in the form of a snapped tendon in the arm/leg or waking up after being put to sleep via a choke. Usually it comes from the Sensei correcting poor technique or teaching new drills.

On the mat you need 100% concentration or you run the risk of being injured or put to sleep. For those 90 minutes, the outside world does not exist.

Control comes in the form of self-defense.

The session lasts 90 minutes. 90 minutes feels like 5 minutes and without the sweat, aches and pain, one might assume someone is tampering with the clock.

Without knowing it, every morning I’m achieving flow and growing as a person. I’m expanding my skills by challenging myself. When I leave the gym for work, I feel energized and cannot wait for the next session.

Is it the Jiu Jitsu or the state of flow that I’m addicted to?

Now that you’re aware of it, could the state of flow benefit you and your child?

Something to think about

Have you achieved the state of flow today?

Does your child experience flow at training?

Have you read a soccer book that discusses the importance of flow?

Signed,

Flow addict and future BJJ Black Belt.

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”

Some great soccer insight!

For our first Soccer Roundtable, Jared Montz, Dan Abrahams and Pavl Williams were asked the following questions.

1-Why do so many children quit the game of soccer?

2-If you could give parents one piece of advice, what would it be?

3-Identify 3 characteristics of a great soccer coach working with kids?

4-If you could control the parents, what would you do with them?

5-One of your players lacks confidence and refuses to take part in the training

session. What is your approach?

6- What is the one thing you never leave home without?

7- What is your favourite drill for kids and why?

8- How would you define coaching success?

9- What is your idea of the perfect game?

10- What makes a great soccer player?

 Jared Montz

Jared Montz is a former pro soccer player and founder of Online Soccer Academy.

At OnlineSoccerAcademy.com they make better soccer players through free online training videos.  Their mission is to teach players that if you Believe in it® and back that up with hard work anything in life is possible.

Interview

1. I don’t have any statistics about this.  My guess is as kids get older they find out what they are passion it about and stick to that.  If they aren’t passionate about soccer they quit.  Which is okay.  They should play the game because they love it.  Not because they have too or their parents make them.

2. My advice to parents is to support their children and not put pressure on them when it comes to soccer.  Parents make mistakes, just like kids do. You don’t want your son or daughter playing scared to make a mistake because you will yell at them.  If they have that fear in their mind they will never reach their full potential.  Encourage your kids to play with confidence and know that if they make a mistake it’s okay, mistakes happen.  Tell them to laugh off mistakes, react positive and hustle back on defense!  Support your kids, don’t scare them.

3. Coaches that are organized, create a culture of fun and encourage kids to be confident in their abilities.

4. I’d encourage them to act like I suggested in my answer to question 2.

5. I talk to them privately during a water break and try my best to find out what the issue.  Sometimes things are going at home that you don’t know about which is the cause of this behavior.  I do my best to talk to the player, encourage them to forget about their problems during practice and have fun playing.  Sometimes they are scared and need a confidence boost.  In my opinion this is not a situation to yell at this player in front of the team.  This player needs private attention.

6. Underwear!

7. I love speed of play exercises that I created.  They are my favorite because speed of play and teaching players to check their shoulders prior to receiving a pass is rarely taught.  Teach a player to think faster and an average player becomes good and a good player becomes great.

8. Coaching success is when you see players doing the little things right because they know too and want too, not because you told them too.  Picking up trash next to the bench, being good sportsman and playing good soccer from their own thinking; not you telling them where to go.  Also when I see a player with confidence because they have been working hard to improve that is success.  Confidence on the field translates to confidence in the classroom and in life.

9.  A perfect game… I don’t think there ever is one.  Winning a championship is about as perfect as it gets!

10. A player that is passionate, loves the game, communicates with teammates, makes players around them better, works hard and is a smart player.

Dan Abrahams

This man needs no introduction. If you missed the first interview make sure you read it here. Plenty of gold nuggets in that interview.

Since we last talked, Dan has published his first book “Soccer Tough”

About the Book

Soccer Tough demystifies this crucial side of the game and offers practical techniques that will enable soccer players of all abilities to actively develop focus, energy, and confidence. Soccer Tough will help banish the fear, mistakes, and mental limits that holds players back.

His passion is simple: to demystify sport psychology and create practical, simple techniques to help soccer players win.

Soccer Tough is destined to become one of the best football books available and required reading for all football / soccer players who want to excel and achieve in this most demanding of sports.

If you buy one soccer book this year, buy this one.

Interview

1. Good question with no simple answer. There are multiple reasons. The game will lose players naturally as kids grow other interests, but we also have to mind our club and coaching cultures. Kids first and foremost want to have fun and meet new friends. Clubs need to cater for this rather than pushing a needless overly-competitive environment onto them. The concept of ‘kids need to understand life is competitive’ is simplistic and potentially harmful. Kids are naturally competitive anyway. To my mind the culture of a club should be fun first, social second and skill third. Winning comes down the list and is a given anyway. Strive to win but do so in a manner that is fun, social and is building as much skill as possible. If you don’t have that you’ll lose players.

2. Avoid coaching, support from a distance, encourage and ask questions rather than give advice. “What went well today?” is a fantastic question straight after a match or training session.

3. Patient, colourful communicator, passionate

4. Control is a strong word. Parents need further education about their role in the coaching process.

5. Allow him/her to sit out and address the challenge after the session. Work with the parents to try to find out what the challenge is and gently expose the child to training.

6. My phone

7. As a psychology consultant – ‘My dream game drill.’ Helping kids imagine playing their best game really builds confidence

8. Having happy kids who play with fun, freedom and focus

9. Happy kids who play with fun, freedom and focus

10. Simple really – the better you are at each component the better you will be – technical, tactical, physical, mental and game intelligence.

Pavl Williams

Pav Williams is the Editor of The Coaching Manual – a unique online resource which gives grassroots soccer coaches a window into one of the Premier League’s most productive Academies.

Soccer Mastermind readers can get 6 HD Video Sessions completely free by visiting http://thecoachingmanual.com/you-and-us/free-sessions and 25% off an annual subscription using promo code “KIDSSOCCER”.

Pavl is a recognised authority on grassroots development and has been interviewed several times by the BBC and published a number of articles for several household soccer magazines.

He also owns BetterFootball.net where he interviews the world’s leading coaching experts.

Interview

1. I’m not sure that every child is given the opportunity to fall in love with the game in the first place. I think there’s a lot of coaches who see soccer through an adult’s eyes and jump straight in to “Developing Technique” or “Learning to Win” or “Creating Intelligent Players” or whatever the currently trendy coaching cliché is. In fact none of these noble intents are valid if the kids we look after aren’t allowed to discover what the game in its rawest form is – it’s the most popular sport in the world because it contains everything glorious about sport even (especially?) before a coach steps in and ‘modifies the game’.

2. Take a long-term view.

That means take a long-term view towards development and understand that kids don’t become great football players in a season or two, and that there’s lots of things a coach will have to work on to lay the foundations for later development.

Also, it means take a long-term view towards your child’s participation in the game – in England less than 0.01% of participants will ever play the game at a professional level so to discuss the game in these terms is madness. Instead, consider what it would take to encourage your child to still be in love with soccer, still be playing when they’re 25 years old (at whatever level they can) and still be in weekly contact with the dozens of close friends they have met through the sport?

3. Always enthusiastic. Great communicator. Constantly learning.

4. Try to educate them. I’d encourage them to visit site’s like this and consider the effects that their actions or comments can have on their children’s enjoyment and development. There’s only ever a minority who cause any problems but having other parents who are better prepared to talk to those ‘difficult’ ones would be great.

5. This could really change player-to-player but one strategy would be to include a variety of challenges within the same training session, allowing players with lower confidence to get some ‘easy wins’ and gradually build up their confidence. Many players won’t want to perform in front of other kids so having practices where everybody is working on their own thing (i.e. having a ball each) will take the focus off less-confident players.

6. Like most coaches I know, my car is simply a mobile coaching equipment lock-up so I’m rarely without the essentials!

If I had to pick just one single item for a session it would be a Futsal ball; we could still play a game (“jumpers for goalposts”) but the heavier weight would encourage dribbling and short passing. If we had more than 10 players I’d have three (or more) teams and rotate a new team in every 2-3 minutes.

Aside from a ball, I always have my iPhone with me so that I can access all my session plans and session notes (stored in iBooks and Evernote) wherever I am.

7. I like anything that is game-based as it guarantees a realistic high-tempo, lots of realistic decisions and lots of touches for the players. One of my favourites is to set-up a large goal on one end-line and two smaller goals on the other end-line because it encourages two different types of attack. (You can see the set-up in broadcast-quality video here: http://www.thecoachingmanual.com/Sessions/Attacking/Small-Sided-Games/Conditioned-Small-Sided-Games-74.aspx).

A twist on this set-up is to only allow the team attacking the large goal to ‘score’ points. The defending team must play out from the back and pass in to one of the two smaller goals (simulating a pass to a forward player’s feet) to ‘escape’. If the defending team is successful, the teams swap places and they start with the ball so they are now the team that can score.

8. I will judge my long-term success on the number of players I have coached at an early age who are still playing the game when they are adults.

Shorter term, I look at metrics like attendance, retention and recruitment of players (they all play for free). We also measure how players have improved over a six-week unit of work and how they have progressed over a season. These subjective measures are a product of coach and parent feedback combined with the player’s own targets and self-evaluations.

I’m not convinced that win-loss record has a significant correlation with player development; if I start the season with the ‘strongest’ players and win every game, have I had a more successful season than the coach who started the season with the ‘weakest’ players and won a handful of games?

9. Two evenly matched teams so it is competitive until the last minute. An appropriate number of players on every team and playing on an appropriate sized field with appropriate sized goals. If there are substitutes for either team, they don’t just sit on the bench – instead they play an informal game against each other on the sidelines.

Every child plays the same amount of time, playing some time in every position on the pitch. And every player on my team scores a goal so great that they can race home with a smile on their face and tell their family all about it!

10. Their uniqueness.

Every professional player has outstanding touch, vision, fitness and so on. What makes players interesting – and what makes the true greats “great” – is the unique elements they bring to the game.

Messi, Ronaldo, Henry, Zidane, Bergkamp, Maradona…  These guys weren’t just better versions of the forwards or midfielders they played against; they all did things completely different that it would have been impossible to predict a generation earlier.

That’s why it’s arrogant of coaches to think they can ‘build’ a great player of the future like a jigsaw puzzle, by simply gathering together all the pieces and arranging them in a certain way. Instead, it’s our job as coaches to help young players become as good as they can be – to maximise their unique talents – and see where that takes them.