Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

Asian Soccer Star, London – The old adage ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ rings true for many aspiring Asian Soccer Stars. Football coaches, parents and players who fail to put together and follow a progressive plan for their kids to move into professional football are in danger of failing before they even get started.

When we say ‘plan’, we’re not talking about an ill-thought out plan put together based around football coaching or football training sessions.

Although high quality football coaching and football training is important, they should actually be part of a more comprehensive plan; incorporating fundamentals such as technical training, tactical training, strength and power work, speed, agility, core stability, balance, flexibility, sports nutrition, recovery and psychology… and there’s more.

An important aspect of the plan that really needs to be highlighted is that of progression in all areas, especially the level at which the games are played. It’s not enough to stay at a club or even a league that doesn’t challenge the player; change is inevitable in football and the sooner players get used to it the better it will be for them in the long term.

Once the plan is put together, it has to be implemented and adapted to the changing nature of the human body, especially as kids go through many physical and emotional changes as they grow. The plan has to be progressive with built-in benchmarks to track improvements at all stages.

In a nutshell, football coaching and football training is about much more than taking kids through the normal Sunday League football sessions provided by most clubs. Any Asian Soccer Star readers, whether parents, coaches or players need to get educated on what it really takes to get into the professional game.

It’s not enough to put your hopes and dreams into the hands of others; you have to take the initiative and educate yourself on what it really takes. You have to plan and then you have to go out and find people who can help you reach your goals.

It’s not easy, but it is possible.

We at Asian Soccer Star will help you as much as we can based on our personal experiences and with expert input from our professional mentors and coaches.

You’re Wrong About Your Competition

The majority of people have got it all wrong about the competition.

Agressive parents and coaches are the worst offenders. Regular youth match attendees have all seen these parents and coaches that go completely bonkers, yelling from the stands, ruthlessly making it into some life or death competition.

What they should be doing is to make football a positive experience for the kids instead of making them pawns to use them to vicariously re-live their own childhood. The main problem is parents and coaches who put too much pressure on the kids to perform rather than develop and the programmess that emphasized winning as the main focus.

You see, competition is a good thing, infact it’s a fantastic thing… if it brings out the best in a person. Competition can show a person where his or her true weaknesses lie. [Read more...]

Wow! What a difference in speed and agility.

I can really feel the difference in my speed and agility over the last couple of months.

Last season I thought I was ok in my speed and agility and I used to train for longer, but then I had a growth spurt. I started to grow really fast and started feeling a bit clumsy. I noticed my running speed started to slow down even though I still had my stamina.

The problem, I was told, was my running technique.

Basically, I used to run long distance at primary school and I was still running like that when playing soccer.

The long strides I was taking were great for endurance running but terrible for soccer. The heel of my foot was landing first instead of the ball of my foot and this was like putting a brake on every time I took a stride. The impact was going straight into my knees and boy did they hurt. [Read more...]

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