“I trained 3-4 hours a week at Ajax when I was little but played 3-4 hours everyday on the street. So where do you think I learnt football?” -Johan Cruyff Consider reliability and resilience as skills. At first, these don’t seem like skills and fully understanding and appreciating them as skills takes some work, reflection, and …
Category Archives: Posts
A Lesson in Losing and Accountability
Losing comes in many forms. On the simplest level, losing can be thought of not being victorious in meaningful competition. Going one step further, it can mean losing an actual opportunity or chance. Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the ‘art’ of having a bad game because there’s a myriad of ways to process …
Fitness as a Lifestyle
Running abroad Last week, my wife and I travelled to Ireland to visit my sister, Laura and her family. On that trip, we made sure we took the time to take in the sights and experiences that travel to other countries affords us. My sister and I share a passion for running. However, her dedication to …
Superman Complex or Savior Syndrome – the Inconvenient Truth about American Soccer
Think of American soccer the way people viewed cars and technology in 1950s science fiction mail-order catalogs. Everyone thought we’d have our flying car by now, right? In essence, the quandary morphs into what I call the ‘Jalopy-to-Flying Car Theory’. The impatient and uninformed firmly believe it’s possible to go from a jalopy to a …
The Art of Self-Sabotage
*This post will focus on players, but the principles mentioned can (and should) be applied to coaching as well. Players and coaches think they know how to improve; but their actions and the corresponding results (both literally and holistically) often suggest otherwise. Here’s why: far too many players train their perceived strengths way too much, way too …
Rules to Play By
Here are 25 strategies or pieces of advice that can help you elevate your game — or at least give you some new insights. Most these are more about life than sport; however, it’s important to see the overlap where ever possible. If you expect every person you meet to be rational, truthful, and loyal …
