Absolutely!

Did 85% of teenagers that quit the game really, really want to play soccer?

Probably not!

So what’s my point?

In order to want something it’s a good idea to have a plan. It’s also important that your want/s are in fact, your wants.

Deciding that a soccer career is for you instead of letting someone else decide for you is a significant problem. If your dream is not that elusive contract then don’t change your ways because someone is telling you otherwise.

Think about this for a minute.

Do you play soccer?

As a soccer player are you happy? This question is purely based on your relationship with the game.

You might think to yourself what is soccer happiness anyway?

My definition of soccer happiness is wanting the things you’re likely to get. Most players don’t set their goals high enough and feel happy when they accomplish becoming mediocre or average players. Another definition meaning the same thing but worded differently would be not wanting the unattainable.

Soccer should always be about the “you show”.

That’s right, “you”!

It’s funny when you trial for teams that want your services. All of a sudden you’re the star of the show. Training becomes a show piece for you to display and announce your skills.

When trialing with a new team, one approach is to be reactive, to listen to the coach, play where he puts you and to try and fit in without causing too many waves. It’s also a good idea to answer all questions directed to you in a safe and conservative manner.

Don’t you agree?

The other approach is to put on a show, to become the main star, to take charge and to also display your balls.

Which approach would get noticed the most?

This year I had the chance to visit Las Vegas. Las Vegas is the city of shining lights. On arrival, no one asked me what kind of lights I wanted. No one asked me what kind of entertainment I wanted. Vegas has its own shows. If you don’t like them, you leave! Plenty of people stay though.

The city Vegas exists because it puts on a show and the desert profits from its confidence of attracting new visitors.

So the point is this,

Most soccer coaches don’t want to pick players who have vision, personality and guts. But that’s okay because you don’t want to play for them anyway.

At the end of the day, Soccer is always about the “you show” and nothing else. Enjoy the spotlight.

I can hear you demanding, how do I become a soccer champion? How do I succeed in Soccer?

Before I start lets clear the air a little. There maybe nothing more haunting than seeing severe disappointment, hurt, misery or total unhappiness in someone you love. Whether it’s your kids, players, team or even yourself. Don’t torment yourself because soccer, or lack of it plays a huge part in our lives. Have you ever admired a great player or even felt envious?

Don’t you think it’s funny that our parents dedicated a major portion of their lives to helping us, their children. To give us every opportunity to succeed and to become champions. My father once said to me when I was playing soccer,

“the greatest soccer player is himself, if you want to be a great player you’ve got to be honest with yourself”. ( I think that’s how it translates from Greek to English)

Anyway, the point is this, you can’t lie to yourself. You can’t fake it!

So with that said, put your honesty cap on and see if you can relate to the following.

Soccer Enthusiasm

To become a champion in any event, not just soccer, you have to really love what you are doing. If you can’t acquire a love for the game, an enthusiasm that burns into a must have desire, then it may be time to sit down and reassess your soccer goals. Am I being too harsh, I don’t think so. Remember this post is for champions. Do you want to become a Soccer Champion? Not a soccer player, coach, fan or manager. A soccer Champion!

Without enthusiasm, you will not have the passion required to maintain your focus or drive. Doing what you are passionate about it is not working. Players like Ronaldo report that they trained 12-15 hours a day when they were young. Is this work? Or is it passion, something he loves and a burning desire that needed to be answered. You could be the best athlete in the world, the strongest, the fittest, the most talented, but all that means nothing without passion.

Commitment

To become a Soccer Champion invariably means having to learn more skills, develop new strengths, learn new techniques and obtain more experience. But more often than not, when we try and learn new skills or techniques we don’t succeed at first. Do you give up? Do you have the commitment to continue against all odds? Have you ever seen Ronaldo practice his free kicks? To simplify things, repetition, practice, review, effort and feedback are all essential. Can you commit to these? Remember you should be wearing your honesty hat. Commitment to training is an absolute necessity to becoming a Champion.

Goals, Objectives and Plans

Since you’ve read this far I’m assuming you possess enthusiasm and desire. You are committed to becoming a soccer champion and are willing to train your arse off. So far, so good, so what!

Combine your desire, enthusiasm with commitment to training and your heading in the right direction. But this doesn’t guarantee you anything. All the desire and commitment in the world won’t do you any good unless you have a goal. All champions set goals. I remember a little kid in the slums of Argentina juggling a ball and announcing to the world that he was going to be the best player in the world. You might know him, Diego Armando Maradona.

Soccer Champions set goals based on their strengths and weaknesses. Their plan revolves around improvements and reaching new, higher levels of performance. They inevitably increase on their strengths and eliminate their weaknesses. Whether their goal is strength (weight training), dieting or even psychological training, champions know that to become the best they have to surrender themselves to their goals.

Spirit and Tenacity

At the end of the day, Soccer is a series of tests. We have to pass one test to move on to the next. As we climb the soccer pecking order, guess what? We take a greater chance of failing. Competition at the top becomes fierce and if you’re not up for the challenge, then the fall will be hard and long. One thing I learnt from my playing days is that the falls are always painful. But wait a minute, we are talking about being a champion. Champions learn to get up after every fall. Only by getting up can you continue on this road to becoming a champion. Don’t become part of the ever growing list of soccer “has beens”. Get up, get up and if I wasn’t making myself clear, GET UP.

Networking

No matter how good you are, no one today makes it to the top without knowing the “right people”. Remember the saying,

It’s not who you are, it’s who you know”

All champions surround themselves with supportive people. The strength of your people is crucial to achieving the goal of championship status. Your people or team can comprise of family members, friends, managers or your coach. Your team will propel you forward and keep you focused and driven when required. Your team will also focus on unearthing opportunities for you that might have been overlooked. When you have a team networking for you, the opportunities are only limited by the fact that you can’t be in 2 places at the same time. Think about it.

Before you can become a Soccer Immortal, you must find your desire and commitment and find your inner strength. That means you have to discover and work with yourself. Discover yourself! Looking back in time, the little piece of Greek wisdom my father gave me when I was young still rings in my ear today,

“the greatest soccer player is himself, if you want to be a great player you’ve got to be honest with yourself”.

For those of you that have read this and go on to become soccer superstars, your welcome. Just remember when you’re signing your next big contract that my cut is 10% (Wink).

Soccer like any other sport has a positive and a negative side. Our competitive nature which strives for perfection can be seen as a positive. But for every positive, there must be a negative. While players strive to become the best (positive), many players that don’t succeed will start to show negative attributes. These attributes come in the form of cheating, becoming a bad loser, fighting amongst team mates and if left unattended will manifest into provocation, verbal and physical abuse. Have you ever seen a player spit on his direct opponent?

So how do we use our competitive nature to our advantage? Do we focus our competitiveness towards our opposition? This is clearly better than competing amongst your team mates isn’t?

The only problem with directing your competitiveness towards your opposition is that your opponent or opposition will dictate how you feel. This is not a good thing! Let’s use a few scenarios to illustrate this.

Your playing the bottom team and your team is clearly superior. You end up winning the match 3-0  and your individual performance was sensational. How do you feel? The chances are you feel fantastic, full of confidence and you start to dream of winning the league. Sound familiar? But what happens when the team you are playing is superior? You feel a sense of defeat and become deflated while simultaneously losing all your confidence and self-esteem as the score board reads 3-0 at half time. Surely this one sounds familiar? So how do we deal with defeat?

If the score board reads 3-0 at half time this will inevitably take your mind off what you are trying to achieve in Soccer or simply why you play the game. The score line will also make you fear your opponent, create anxiety and create an avalanche of pressure that will eventually break you. Remaining focused and relaxed is impossible as you continually chase your opponents shadow.

Can you see the problem? When you direct your competitiveness towards your direct opponent or opposition, the way you feel and perform is dictated by your opponent. Why would you ever want to do this? If you continue to direct your competitiveness towards your opponent guess what will happen in the long run? You will start to select your opponents at training and even line up against the weaker players in a match. Why? The answer is simple, you want to ensure that you finish the match a winner. You want to feel confident and you would like to place another secure layer around your ego.

Choosing opponents or becoming the “Big Fish in a small pond” is the best way to guarantee failure. If you are guilty of doing this, stop it right now. Don’t play against weaker opponents if you have a choice. Test yourself, stretch yourself and try to play against better players. Playing against better players is the only way to significantly improve your soccer performance. If you spent a year training at Arsenal with Arsene Wegner you would become a better player than if you were the best player in your local team. Even if you were the worst player at Arsenal the benefits would easily surpass that of the local team. Can you see the bigger picture?

Winners or players that have set soccer goals avoid the pain associated with poor performance and defeat. They use performance and defeat as a challenge and a way of keeping themselves motivated. They push themselves and create new, higher levels of soccer performance. Don’t be afraid of someone that is better than you, learn from them and compete against them. Eventually you will become just like them. You can only improve by playing against better players even if you suffer more defeats than victories.

The best bit of advice I can offer is this, enjoy the challenge and really test your capabilities. Enjoy the challenge of seeing how good YOU CAN BE! Always compete against yourself in order to be the best you can be. By doing this you eliminate any negative pressure and allow yourself to play freely. When you suffer defeat, you will be gracious and will be grateful as your opponent provides you with a measuring tool to study your own progress.

At the end of the day all pressure is Self Imposed. Taking a penalty kick in the park is exactly the same as taking a penalty kick in the world cup. Same distance, same goal dimension and the same ball dynamics. The pressure is in your mind, you create it.

Next time you’re at training, take your competitive nature and apply it. Step up and mark the best player, take responsibility and have self belief in your own playing ability. If you do not improve, build confidence and practice against the best, you’ll never win anything.

Once again these are my thoughts and should not be read as gospel. What works for me might not work for you. But the generic formula is always the same.

• Each Goal should be a positive statement- When you set a goal always refer to it in a positive way. Players trying to make the cut in a team should never think or say, “I hope I don’t get cut from the team”. Replace this with ” I can’t wait to play for this team, all the hard pre-season is paying off”. At the end of the day, the coach does pick the team or does he? If you want to play for a team and you really want it, you select yourself. Grit your teeth and don’t stray from your goals or your plan.
• Be Cut Throat/Precise- Set an exact goal. By such and such day I will have accomplished my goal. Set dates, times and places so you can measure your achievement. By giving yourself a time frame you can work out whats working and whats not working. “In 6 weeks I’m going to be the fittest and strongest player in my team”. Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team.”
• Priorities- If you make several goals, priorities them. By setting goals in order this will eliminate the feeling of being overwhelmed. This will also help you direct your energies in the right order and direction. “In 6 weeks I’m going to be the fittest and strongest player in my team, as soon as pre-season starts I’m going to show the coach that I’ve put in the hard yards and ready to play 1st team football. I would like the number 10 shirt and would like to play in my desired position”. Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team”.
• Write your goals down- Have a log book and keep track of your progress. Recording progress will allow you to develop momentum and allow you to up the stakes as you improve. “Completed 2 Km run in XX minutes which is my personal best. Tomorrow I will endeavor to beat this time, no crush it.” Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team.”
• Keep your Goals small and realistic-Look for steady improvements and work towards attaining smaller portions of your goal that leads to the bigger masterplan. If your goals are too large and you don’t see results you will become frustrated and discouraged. “This year I will consolidate my place in the starting eleven. Next year I will represent my State in the Nationals”Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team.”
• Set Performance Goals, not Outcome Goals-Always set goals that you have total control over. This can include bad weather, injury or just bad luck. Keep your goals performance based and personal, then you can control them and get satisfaction when you tick them of the Goal List. “I’ve rolled my ankle but it’s not the end of the world. I’ve established myself within the starting eleven and have proven to be one of the best and fittest players.” Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team.”
• Set Realistic Goals-Set goals you can achieve. Once you gain momentum then lift the bar to new heights. Compete against yourself, not the team, the coach or your ego. “Today I juggled the ball 100 times before it hit the ground. Tomorrow I’m chasing 200″. Not “I hope I don’t get cut from the team.”

Setting goals and achieving them builds your confidence and self-esteem. Once you’ve put in the hard yards, your thoughts will not be

I hope I don’t get cut from the team.

If you’ve set goals and have ticked them off your list, you arrive at pre-season training ready and full of confidence. When the coach does time trials to analyse the players fitness, you are ready.

I’ve completed this run many times. This is my time to beat, I will not wait for any players. I will unearth my lungs of steel and everyone will soon be eating out of my hands.

Before you set any goals, decide what is important for you. If your a parent, listen to your kids and work out what is important to them. Always stay motivated and/or always encourage and motivate your kids. Always remain humble and down to earth because if you practice these methods you will become the best, you will become confident and most will see this as arrogant.

If you don’t set goals or never have, try it. If you follow the above steps honestly I will guarantee you in a years time you will be twice the player you are today.

Learn to commit to yourself before you commit to the team of your choice.

Grab a piece of paper and pen and write your goals down. Lets have this same discussion in 2010 and see if anything has changed……..

P.S A big thank you to everyone who has subscribed to my site.