You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Dealing with difficult soccer parents

August 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Some soccer parents are so passionate about their kids soccer ambitions (there’s a fine line between the child’s ambition and the parents ambition) that they are just difficult to deal with.

But difficult doesn’t have to mean impossible (especially if you’re a parent of a future Asia soccer star).

Sometimes,  a little understanding and strategic communication is all it takes to get them on side. Soccer parents need to be on side to motivate and inspire their kids, but they also need to make sure the coach keeps the authority and respect to command the best from each member of the team.

May be you can recognize some of these traits being shown by parents at soccer matches or even at soccer training sessions. May be you recognize some of these traits within yourself: [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: ,

Asian soccer stars need to hunt the yebuts

July 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Future Asain soccer stars, in fact any soccer stars looking to play professional soccer, and their coaches need to keep a keen eye open for the ‘yebuts’

I suggest adding “the hunting and slaying of ‘Yebuts’ to the job description of everybody  involved in youth soccer.

‘Yebuts’ – pronounced “Yeah-but” are monstrous little beasts that inhabit the meetings and conversations that take place in every soccer team.

A ‘Yebuts’ purpose in life is to sap a team of its competitive strength by allowing the fostering of excuses and spreading them like a wild-fire through the whole team.  They do this by grabbing someone’s tongue and making them say things like: [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: , ,

Asian Soccer Stars can learn from Muhammad Ali

July 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Future Asian soccer stars can learn a thing or two about training from the great Muhammad Ali.

I have a massive poster with a quote in my gym, where I coach Sobha and other future Asian soccer stars. The quote comes from the legendary fighter and sportsman, Muhammad Ali:

“Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”

This is the last sentence, and most important part of a longer quote in which he says: [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: , , , ,

Soccer training and overuse injuries

July 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sobha’s busy soccer training schedule could have lead to overuse injuries if we hadn’t been monitoring his progress and adjusting the intensity of the work involved.

Slight pangs of pain alerted us to an area around his hip which is prone to overuse in youth soccer players.

Coupled with another growth spurt his training program and schedule has been reevaluated and restructured.

The importance of monitoring, analysing and adjusting kids soccer training programs is so important that parents and coaches who overlook to put a safety mechanism in place risk the future soccer careers of their kids.

Here are a couple of articles that may help you understand more about soccer training overuse injuries.

How To Recognize and Prevent Overuse Injuries in Soccer
by Gary A. Levengood, M.D.

Soccer, one of the most popular team sports in the world with over 200 million registered players worldwide, is a game of nonstop action. Most injuries in soccer occur in the lower body, mostly to the knees and ankles. [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet, soccer injuries Tagged With: , , ,

Adopt the Forrest Gump winning attitude

July 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Adopting the right attitude whilst dealing with the ups and downs of a future professional soccer career, can be the difference between success and failure.

It really can make or break your dream.

It has been found that a common trait shared by very successful soccer players is their overall-winning attitude.

In fact, most of the professional soccer clubs have a team of psychologists and therapists whose sole purpose is to monitor players’ mental state periodically. [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: , ,

Soccer train me like a kid, not an adult!

June 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A while back, one of the kids I was soccer training just blurted it out “soccer train me like a kid, not an adult!”. I was stunned, but it opened my mind to the possibility that I may not have a full understanding of how to coach young soccer players.

Working with children needed specialist knowledge and understanding, which I gained through a mentor working with children and completing children fitness courses.

Coaches need to have a  real understanding of how to bring the best out of young soccer players. The problem is that most of the information out there is based on adult training methods. That’s because the adult body, with regard to training, has been studied pretty thoroughly and that is where the expertise has been developed. [Read more...]

Filed Under: himmet, performance, soccer injuries Tagged With: , , , , ,

Asian soccer star: whinge and lose!

June 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I  have a strict “no whinging rule” when coaching youth soccer, especially future Asian soccer stars.

I don’t want to hear all the whinging and moaning from kids who aren’t willing to put in 100% effort into what they’re doing.

It may seem a hard rule, but when anyone, especially kids, get into the habit of whinging everyone is affected. And as we all know habits are hard to break, sometimes lasting into adulthood.

People act and behave like the people they are around at any particular time, and on the training ground and soccer pitch this really shows. You can call it peer pressure or anything else you want to, but the bottom line is when it’s negative, it’s no good for anyone. [Read more...]

Filed Under: himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: , , ,

I want to be an Asian soccer star now!

June 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kids who dream of becoming Asian soccer stars, like kids from any other community, are in danger of losing their dreams by living a life of ‘instant gratification’ or ‘I want it now’.

Living in a world where everything is available in an instant is a major factor in breeding a culture of laziness and lack of fitness.

Want proof? Go watch a Sunday youth league match.

So what’s happening? [Read more...]

Filed Under: himmet, mental attitude Tagged With: , ,

How many millions was that?

June 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Woah! Has the soccer world gone mad? At first it may seem that way but when you think about it, it makes sense. After all soccer is big business, especially for the big clubs.

You see Real Madrid are seriously lacking in the silverware department and the structure of the club is such that the members not only demand silverware but more importantly dividends.

So how can they justify paying £80 million for Ronaldo and £56 million for Kaka?

You can’t argue that both these  footballers are amongst the best in the world, [Read more...]

Filed Under: blog, himmet Tagged With: , , ,

Soccer speed and agility training

June 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Soccer speed and agility is what the clubs are looking for in kids, and anyone out there serious about becoming a future Asian soccer star needs to start to work on these areas of their game.

According to recent workshops i’ve attended, professional soccer clubs are advising coaches that kids need to work on their speed and agility.

If the speed and agility is there, the rest can be worked on and developed. The technical skills, fitness and awareness are areas that can be developed over a period of time. In fact, the intense academy training is geared for such development. [Read more...]

Filed Under: himmet, speed and agility Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts