The Soccer Life...How I got here and How you can do it too.

The Soccer Life

Lessons on how I got here and Expectations at the pro level

The Early Years

 As kids, parents tend to encourage us to engage in sports and attempt to put us in activities that will benefit us through out our lives. Through this process in my life, my first sport attempted was soccer and immediately I was drawn to the game. My early years from age 4-10, soccer was a recreational activity I did as a hobby, as any kid would do at that age. When year 11 came, the game got a bit more complicated and serious thought proceeded as to whether I wanted to continue to play recreationally or competitively. At this age, club teams begin to form. This decision weighed alot on dedication, availability, skills and financials. The following are some of the decisions and responsibilities one must go through before making a decision on whether to continue.

 
Dedication

One must know that they have enough dedication to go to practice whenever it's scheduled. The Passion needs to be in full effect to understand that every practice/game is a way to get better. Also, knowing that your committments to practice and games will result in less time or taken time away from friends and other activities. If this is a step you can accept and fully understand, then you've taken your first big step towards a decision.

Availability

Now with this step, it's not so much the kids availability but the parents. The parents must be available and also dedicated to be involved in their childs sport. One must know that there will be practice twice maybe three times a week and traveling games on the weekends. At this age the parents must be just as dedicated and available as the kids. If the parents aren't always available, it's a great benefit to have family friends involved in the team, sort of a substitute parent to jump in when the parents can't. That's how most of my travels came about, I stayed with a teammates family most of the traveling weekends.

Skills 

This is the harsh part of the game, but at this age you've to that one has got to be useful in some way to benefit the team. There are cuts and eliminations, other players are trying to make this team and there are only so many spots available. I'm not saying you have to be an amazing player, just that they must bring something to the table. There are many ways a player can make a team, through good skills, leadership roles, hard workers, durability and politics (knowing someone).

Financials

Everything has a price and sports teams are no different. Families must be financially able to pay for team funtionalities such as monthly team payments, the childs sports equipement, travel capabilities such as a car or extra gas money for trips, and also money for weekend stays at hotels for tournaments out of driving range. 

Expectations at the Pro Level

 Expectations of yourself should far exceed anything anyone could ever expect from you.

At this level there are two equally important factors that a player must be able to control, handle and use to their advantage: Physical ability and Mental Strenght. This game is a balance of matching maturity of your skills down there, to the capability of intelligent decision making up there; If one suffers, the other soon follows.

 Physical

Size doesn't truly matter, but it does help. I'm doing it at 5' 8" and not only that, I'm a defender and at this level defenders are usually atleast 6" tall. It's all a balance, what I lack in size, I make up in jumping ability and speed. If for instance a player is 6" but a bit slow, he is able to use his body to fend off the fast. You can't control genetics, you play with what you have; but one thing you can do is improve certain skills. If your slow, work on some speed techniques, if your short, enhance your jumping skills, if you have a weak left foot, take extra time to only play and develop confidence with that  foot.

You've got to understand your weaknesses to develop your strenghts and thereore adapt the game to your own. 

A player must be 100% fit in order to fully take advantage of his skills to its full potential. If not, a player cannot make that extra sprint into space to free clutter, they won't be able to mark/guard their man, fend off other players, accurately shoot and pass. It is said that a player can run anywhere between 3-4 miles per game depending on their position and work rate on the field. I've been on both sides of the spectrum and let me tell you when I'm not fit, I sometimes just want to die and give up on the field and that's not who I am. Un-normal characteristics are displayed when players are un-fit on the field and most of the time others can tell. When one player is faulty, then their teammates are usually the ones who suffer as well, they have to make up what your lacking and no body likes that. Being skillful to a certain extent is a must, but more importantly understanding the game your playing ultimately defines what kind of player you are. The pace of this game at this level is nothing less than fast. One-Two touch ball is expected, your expected to know before you even receive the ball where your going to go with it. Your going to be expected to be structually disciplined as a team, either defending, shifting, attacking or in your personal roles. Your expected to be perfect to a certain degree, chances to score usually arrise from mistakes the opponent makes, the more mistakes you tend to make to make the more likely you'll find yourself sitting the bench or worse being released from your contract. Mistakes usually occur from lack of preparation or mental mistakes , this next segement will guide  you  in mental  strength  and preparation.

Mental Strength

I find one reason why most athletes are extremely tired after a game is not only due to the physicallity of the game but mental apsect of it too. In order to be a high qulaity athlete you've got to 100% focused for the game, before and during. There are many routines athletes use to prepare themselves before a game, I can't describe a general routine because everyone is different, what I can do is describe some of the things I do to prepare for a game.

This is in preparation for a 7pm game. This day has a theme of relaxation. I try to stay in a calm environment for myself, away from any distractions because I like to be in control of my surroundings as much as I can on this day. I'd like to sleep in till about 10 or 11am, If I don't feel like I rested well I'll start feeling the affects of it around 3 or 4pm yawning and what not. I start my day off with a medium size breakfast to keep me satisfied for several hours. I then put on a good movie till about 2 o'clock. At this time I head to the gym nearby where I ride the bike or run the treadmill for 10-15 minutes and spend 30-45 minutes strecthing and relaxing my muscle. I do the short workout because then I won't have to rely on the pre game warm up to take care of any sore muscles or aches that I don't know about or forgot about until I started running. When I know I've strecthed properly before a game I mentally don't have to think about the physical aspect of the game such as stretching as much because I've already done it and I use the pre game strecthing to take care of any other slight aches. When I get back from the gym I take a quick shower and I make myself my last little meal before the game, I either eat a turkey sandwhich or PB&J (peanut butter and jelly). This last meal has to be 2-3 hours before my game, crazy I know, but this for me guarantees that my stomach won't be upset or disturbed with digestion while I prepare for my game. And yes I'm starving after my game, but it's worth it because of how I feel pure or mentally un-distracted with digestion problems before a game. On game day one absolutely has to be hydrated and I found out for my body that it takes 2 pints of water to do that. Not only does 2 pints of water keep me hydrated during my game but it also gets rid of any un-pure fluids that I have had the day before or sugars stll in my body. You may be thinking, this all seems to be physical and not mental? Well, one derives form the other. If my body is physically set for the game, then mentally all I need/ have to worry about is the game.

It's 5 o'clock and I have to set off to the field to collect my uniform and get ready for my game. I have an hour before  we begin to warm-up and really get ready for the game. In that hour I take 15 minutes to do a Mental warm up/excercise, It's  called visualization. I learned this technique 4 years ago by an amazing lady called Yvonne, she was our mental coach at USF for our soccer team. This technique has alot of details and it takes time to master and understand, so I'll just give a super short pilot lesson. What you do is get a visualization of the field, whether remembering it when you've played on it or by scoping out the field before hand, seeing, touching, smelling and take in the weather as well. Close your eyes, take that information and experience the game in your head. Pass the ball where you want it, dribble around, cross the ball, shoot, make moves, and experience that confidence where you have no weaknesses. Play a small game in your head and put yourself in difficult situations where you get out of them successfully. Do this for about 15 minutes, then open your eyes. What you've just done is expereinced the game your about to play and now have the confidence to know you can do it because you've already done it.

GAME TIME.