Soccer players have a hard life. Whether they are in
middle school, high school, college, or even pro they have challenges. Those
challenges may be family, friends, life, school, certain aspects of soccer, or
something else. However, soccer players need to push past all of those problems
and just play the game to the best of their ability. I do not know what is
going on in your life right now; therefore, I cannot give you advice about that
(unless I already wrote a blog about it). But, I can give you some advice about
soccer.
The first piece of advice is: never assume. Don’t assume
you will be starting, don’t assume you know what to do and when to do it, and don’t
assume you can’t do it. The biggest part of soccer that many players do not think
about is the mental aspect. We come to soccer with all of these problems; and
if you do not push past them you will not play your best. You are your own
worst enemy. Most players cannot find the happy medium where they know they are
good but they do not brag about it. You can NEVER assume you are that good or
you are not that good, because as soon as you do another player will come along
and beat you.
The second piece of advice goes along with the first: you
need to know that effort always beats skill. There are players out there who
have natural abilities for soccer. It is great if you have those abilities. The
problem is a lot of players who have those abilities just rely on them. If you
are just sitting on the couch thinking that your natural ability will get you
that starting position, you are in for a rude awakening. There are players out
there, who do not have the natural ability, who are working their butts off in
order to be better and to even beat you out for your position. If you want to
keep your position you need to work hard too. You need to lead by example. You
need to push yourself to be your best.
The third piece of advice is: learn from your mistakes. I
know this better than anyone because I am a goalie. Goalies make the most
obvious mistakes on the field because, if they make a mistake, it gets noticed
by everyone. I tell my players and keepers that I coach to have a goalie mind.
They need to think about their mistakes for 10 seconds during games and
practices then let it go. After the game or practice they can go back and think
about what they did wrong. However, you cannot just think about what you did
wrong. You also need to think about how you can fix it. If you do not reflect
on how you can change you will not grow. This is what separates the good
players from the great players. Great players don’t dwell on their mistakes. They
think about them, figure out what they did wrong, think about how to fix them,
and they fix it.
The final piece of advice is probably the one that hits
closest to home for me: never take it for granted. For so many years I have
played soccer. I had natural ability but I worked hard to get better. However,
I had other circumstances that almost made me decide not to play soccer during
college. I can say that I am so thankful that I decided to play. If I did not I
would not have met so many amazing people, impacted others whom I did not even
know, and I would not have grown as much as I did. However, during my soccer
years I think I took that time for granted. Don’t get me wrong playing soccer
and having 19 credits was hard, and sometimes I wished my load was a little
lighter. But, it was so worth it just to get to have those 4 years on LBC Women’s
Soccer Team. Please, if you are playing soccer at this point, remember that it
is a gift. Sure, you will have times where you wonder if it is worth it. But,
when you look back I know there will be times where you had a great time and
you realized you were growing.
So, will you choose to have a proper mental outlook on
soccer? Will you work hard to be better and grow? Will you learn from your
mistakes and not dwell on them? Will you enjoy your time you have to play
soccer?
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14, Colossians 3:23-24, Proverbs 24:16
No comments:
Post a Comment