Kids that participate in Soccer can be split into two groups. If you were to draw an imaginary line, on the left hand side you would have the kids with determination, the spark and the twinkle in their eyes. On the right, the kids that look sad, lost and wander around kicking loose pebbles off the pitch.

When a player looks determined, you can’t help think to yourself, this kids got a chance, he’s going to make it. With determination and a little hunger anything is possible.

What about the players that hide at the back of the lines? You know the ones, shoulders drooped, low self-esteem and waving the white flag.

What do you see in their eyes?

I’m pretty sure it’s not determination or the eye of the tiger.

Could it be fear?

If you have fear in your eyes, the chances of you learning decrease significantly. All your energy is wasted on being scared. Also the chances of you signing a professional contract diminish and training alone will not help you.

Remember this at all times, nobody can guarantee you a professional soccer career. Searching for those guarantees or those miracle boots will only lead to tears.

Have a go at this next time. If you’re going to search for anything, search for the determination, the fire in the belly that lies dormant in us all.

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

So you’ve decided to coach kids soccer, congratulations. Coaching kids soccer is not rocket science, so they tell us, but it can be the most frustrating experience leaving you with little to no hair.

Let me ask you; is your coaching regime textbook? Do you follow those training manuals or even copy some of the drills found on the net?

What will separate you from all the other coaches?

Will you enforce your own ideas or will you follow in the failed path of many before you?

Where will you find your great ideas? That’s not really important, what’s important is that you add your touch to the game, your beliefs, your personality.

Where do you find good ideas?

Who cares?

It could be staring outside through a window. It could be reading a label on a bottle or reading the side of a cereal box. It could appear from the corner of your eye as you try and avoid those daggers. It could hit you as you run away from the disgruntled, angry mob (parents). You could find them in magazines, books or even proven training drills.

But your great ideas, your coaching ideas must tackle the status quo. Your ideas must address the problem soccer faces today. Your ideas must help reduce the mass exodus that is kids soccer.

Stop coaching from a book and introduce your ideas and beliefs. John S. Mill (philosopher) once said, “one person with a belief and an idea is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interest”.

If you’re looking for inspiration try love based soccer. It works!

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

All soccer experts who say pain is the greatest motivator have forgotten the power of love.

People will scale mountains with luggage on their backs, swim upstream in a creek full of crocodiles, go into a hurricane and battle against armies and unbeatable odds to fulfil the emotion in us to love and be loved. What about the mother that defies physics and lifts a car to save her only child?

Love rules.

Love moves everyone.

Love has destroyed empires and helped build them.

Love is the greatest motivator.

Love is the greatest pleasure trigger.

If you ask me and I’m glad you did, Love isn’t an emotion but rather a mindset. And as a mindset it is the strongest force in the world, stronger than any other emotion.

Something to think about next time.

Does the stick (discipline) inspire?

Does the carrot (reward) inspire?

What about love? Does love inspire?

Listen up carefully please.

Our goal isn’t to tell players what’s wrong with them or to remind them of their pain or mistakes, but to help them imagine and then experience the pleasure they long to have, love.

I like to call it Love-Based Soccer.

It’s the greatest, it’s noble and it works.

Why haven’t you tried it?

I bet you’ve tried everything else!

Whether you’re a player, coach, parent or just someone surfing the net, read the message in the above picture. It might just change your life.

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

Soccrastination (soc-kras-tuh-ney-shuhn) is the deferment of soccer to a later time, often a mechanism for coping with fear or self-doubt.

Don’t Google the word, it doesn’t exist, it’s one of my creations.

If you’ve been playing soccer for a while, you know the pain of soccrastination.

You know how ugly soccrastination can be. Soccrastination disrupts your goals; crushes your spirit and can make you second guess your ability.

It can take you from daily training to letting days, weeks or even months pass you by without kicking a ball. It can even make you question whether you’re cut out for this gig; you know the one, the full time professional.

Soccrastination allows you to postpone and defer things until tomorrow. But tomorrow never eventuates.

Not right now!

Has it stopped raining yet?

Lets start tomorrow are all symptoms of a soccrastinator. Let me finish my take away while playing Xbox is another great example of a soccrastinator.

Thomas Jefferson (3^rd president of the USA) declared, “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”.

Abraham Lincoln said, “you cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

John F Kennedy demanded, “the future starts today, not tomorrow”.

But my favorite of all time, “learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” None other than Albert Einstein.

What’s that?

You’re not a soccrastinator because you eventually get to training. But let me ask you this. Is training like banging your head against a brick wall? Are you afraid of the pain that goes hand in hand with training?

You wouldn’t call yourself a soccrastinator because you do train, fair enough.

However, is training so painful that you can’t bring yourself to do it very often?

So let me ask you again, are you a soccrastinator?

If so, here comes the remedy, the magic potion if you like.

I call this exercise “the secret of soccer” and when you do it right, amazing things start to happen. All the good habits of soccer miraculously appear in you. The secret of soccer is forever tattooed on the walls of your brain when you believe and train.

That’s it!

When you believe and train, you begin to think and act like a soccer player, like a champion, not like a soccrastinator.

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

First and foremost, Happy Easter to everyone, hope you’re having a great day. For those that don’t believe in Christ or aren’t religious, hope you’re having a great day as well.

A few minutes ago I read about a man who lived a long time ago. His name was Jesus Christ and is the central figure of Christianity. No I’m not a religious nut, far from it. But have you ever wondered, questioned or even doubted?

Do you really believe?

Without preaching, a quick synopsis or an executive summary if you like.

Jesus walked the earth and offered various lessons and teachings. Jesus, slowly but surely, gained a following, a group of people who believed and worshiped him.

Betrayal- Like anyone that creates waves or upsets the Status Quo, he is betrayed. The temple guards arrest Jesus.

Jesus is stripped, flogged, mocked and crowned with thorns. He is crucified between two thieves and his cross states that he is being executed for aspiring to be the King of Jews. (smile) Long story short, he utters a loud cry and dies.

What is Impossible?

The dictionary offers many definitions for the word impossible. Not possible, unable to be, exist or happen. Unable to be done, performed. Unsuitable or extremely difficult.

The Resurrection- The Gospels state that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday and gave birth to the tradition we call Easter.

Do you believe?

Is this possible?

For many, a vast majority of the population believe. If not in Jesus, in their own God, spirit, statue, Buddha it doesn’t really matter.

But lets talk about Impossible.

I believe in the impossible.

I think you can have, do, or be anything you can imagine.

I love to think big, dream of the fairy tale and to live happily ever after.

I also love to read about people who set “impossible” goals and then achieved them.

Although not Soccer related, Lance Armstrong.

Lance Armstrong won the Tour De France a record breaking 7 times from 1999-2005. On October 2, 1996, at the age of 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer. The cancer had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Reports clearly stated that Lance was coughing up blood during his first visit to the hospital. The doctors and specialists gave him little hope or chance. Impossible? What is Impossible? Did Lance Armstrong defy Impossible when he rode in the Tour De France last year and finished second after retiring?

What about Roger Bannister who broke the 4 minute mile with a time of 3min 59.4 seconds? No one can run a 4-minute mile, impossible!

What is impossible?

What about my favorite, Greece winning the European Cup in 2004 and beating the host nation twice. The bookies had Greece at 500-1 and didn’t even classify the bet. The bet was placed as “others” and included other small countries that had no chance of winning the cup.

What is Impossible?

What about NASA and space travel? What about the pioneers that conquered Mt Everest? What about the geeks that connected the world with Google?

What is Impossible?

What we have, instead, are mindsets, or mental blocks. Conditioning that limits us and even scares us. I feel, no fuck it, I know that most of us don’t think big, don’t dream and have succumb to the impossible. What is impossible anyway?

S-t-r-e-t-c-h your mind and believe. Our mental blocks are what stop us from achieving and maybe one day playing for the club of our choice.

With all of this in mind, what do you want to accomplish from Soccer?

What’s your impossible dream?

What would you want, if you knew you could not fail?

Remember this next time you embark on immortality, Impossible is just a word.

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