Asian Soccer Star, London – Football coaching is a skill; a skill that is borne out of experience not just theory. Understanding the importance of this statement with clarity could make the difference to whether or not Asian Soccer Star readers… parents and coaches especially – can guide their players into the world of professional football.

It’s said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well if this statement holds any amount of truth then there are many insane football coaches walking around.

At Asian Soccer Star, we’ve always advocated the importance of working smart. Working smart does not mean seeing what everyone else is doing and doing the same thing; this is what we like to call common football coaching. If it was as easy as conforming to the norm, there would be many more talented British Asian footballers breaking into the professional game.

Sometimes conformity can actually be a curse. Human nature is such that we have a built-in need to follow people and rules we blindly accept as having a certain amount of authority. We naturally tend to copy what we think is the right way because that’s what we’re told. This is very true in football coaching.

Look at the football coaching industry today and you’’ll see why this is so crucial. Just about every football coach does things the same way. Just about all of them are hoping for better results.

So they’’ve got their coaching qualifications, quickly sized up their competitors … figured out what they’’re doing … and start doing the same thing.

That’s why their football coaching, training, tactics … are all nearly identical; and to a certain extent they have to do things this way because it’s what they’re taught and what’s proven to work.

But doing the same thing that everyone else is doing is not going to work for budding British Asian Soccer Stars; Asian players face unique pressures and challenges from many quarters which will ultimately affect their chances of playing professional football.

The fact is that there is a stereotyping of Asian football players within many quarters of professional football. Much of this stereotyping is misguided and outdated, whilst some is genuinely true, and to break the mold we must change our own mindset at every level that affects player development; both on and off the pitch.

This doesn’t mean changing our identity and moving away from our culture. It does however mean strategically planning overall player development; working to our strengths of family support, work ethic, determination, persistence, hunger and desire to succeed. It means taking the instinctive approach Asians take to education and entrepreneurship and applying it to forge a path for our footballing youngsters.

Asians can play football; but to make it into the professional game we must adopt and adapt only the best of what is working in mainstream football coaching and make it work for our future Asian Soccer Stars.