Most are taught from a young age to fit in. Adjust, be compliant and fit in with a crowd. But the biggest thinkers, innovators, inventors, creators who have made life changing discoveries products or services have been people who did not fit in. People that stood out and took pride in standing out. People that did not listen to others, marched to their own drum, maybe been called troublemakers but at the end of the day their standing out changed the world one way or another.
Why shouldn’t the same thing be applied in sports? Well, it does and top-level coaches like and encourage players that stand out, are creative, take initiative are free thinkers and leaders. Please do understand that there is a fine line between standing out and being a disruptive force. To society, to a team, to a coach. This is something that we feel should be taught and cultivated at a young age. In most sports at any given day, one will find coaches training players in skills, technique, and plays. Everything is choreographed and orchestrated by the coaching staff. Little is left up to the players. Most coaches are always telling, dictating to the players what to do, never asking their opinion or their thoughts. The same applies on game day when they are always shouting directions from the sidelines to accompany the instructions shouted by the parents. We realize that everyone has the players' best interests at heart, and everyone wants to help those players but the way they go about it is very wrong. By constantly spoon feeding the players we are not allowing them to be free thinkers. We are not challenging them. No one grows from having someone else figure out the solution to a problem when they are faced with adversity. By allowing players to figure out their own problems with our guidance we allow them to grow in their sport and eventually in life. Elite Player Futsal Training is More Than Just Technical Skills Training - It is mental and technical training. All top players have great technical skills but not everyone has top notch mental skills. The reason top players can execute consistently under pressure is because they have been taught to do it at the training ground over and over again, under pressure. I remember a player that was on one of my teams that always did his own thing, even when we orchestrated some activities, he would always do it his way, no matter how much we tried to direct him and help him. This player had serious physical attributes, speed work ethic and never gave up. He stood out right away. He loved playing soccer and you could see the joy in his demeanor. He was just never taught fundamentals, control, restrain or other qualities that make a good soccer player at a young age. My guess is that his previous coaches did not take the time to develop him thinking he is a handful. Well instead of trying to restrict him and confined him to everyone else we allowed him to do it his way if he was not harmful to himself or others. He would just run and sometimes be all over the place. He would put himself in situations that at times got him in trouble on the field, by losing the ball falling and tripping into other players, running out of bounce consistently and well you get the idea. Instead of trying to control him, since he would not listen, we would allow him to fail consistently and after a while he did not like it at all. I would then step in and offer him a suggestion to try it a different way and offered him the option of his way and a different one. Sooner or later, he would try it and by finding success he started to listen more and trust me more. I also would always ask him questions instead of telling him what to do. This player developed in one of the most creative, free thinker attackers I have ever coached. He became a top scorer and feared by everyone he played against. He went on to play at a remarkably high level and earn a college scholarship. The ability to stand out is an exact science. It is governed by law. The way you stand out is in the desire to do so, earning the skills to do so, the amount of work you put in, how well you perform certain skills, the ability to be irreplaceable, as well the need and the environment. A player must learn to stand out and most players do not know how to stand out. Most player think that skills will make you stand out. A standout player for me is someone that can change any situation, in the locker room, on the field anywhere. A player that makes his peers better anytime he is around them. In school, playing field, or life. A player that is not afraid to be creative, take calculated chances, help others, put other’s success over his. Sep up his teammates for success by working hard to make them look good. Not be afraid of failure rather than learn form it. Learn to view failures as steps to success. Learn to deal with success, be humble in everything he does and always look to better himself as well as others. A player who is always hungry to do better even when he achieves certain goals. A player who is always asking himself: “What’s next”. A player that is irreplaceable, a player that I can never take of the field, a player that I always want in my life on and off the field. One can do all kinds of things to be noticed and stand out, but many of them do not make a lasting impression.
0 Comments
As parents we all want what's best for our children.
We want it so badly, and most times more than they do, that we often overlook certain things that are pretty obviously bad for them. The road to youth soccer development is not an easy one to navigate if you allow your desires to over rule your player's.
Knowing some these youth soccer development tips makes it a lot easier and cost effective. |
AuthorNiko is someone who believes passionately that futsal should be intentionally used as a tool for developing soccer players year-round and come first in the developing process at the younger starter age groups of 3-12 years of age. He has a massive amount of experiences, observations, thoughts and ideas from being submerged in the futsal community as a player, coach and operations director waiting to be released that could truly benefit the futsal community as well as the soccer coach that is just getting into the futsal methodology as a soccer development tool as well as the futsal game itself Archives
August 2021
Categories
All
|