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.

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.

But, it can also bring out the worst in a person and that can lead to lasting damage both physically and mentally. Especially when the young football player has a negative frame of mind.

Competition amongst trialists at some pro club centres of excellence and academies is particularly intense and in many cases intimidating. Coaches drum it into the trialists that they are fighting for their position and invoke a host of negative actions from the stronger characters; swearing, bullying, pushing, cajoling, fouling and altogether bad sportsmanship.

The newer trialists with less agressive personalities, tend to be left out of the team spirit and fall by the wayside. They can’t wait to move on.

Some may argue that they need to get used to the realities of the game, both on and off the pitch, and need to develop a stronger more agressive attitude. They need to be able to stand up for themselves.

I think that kids, in whatever field of endeavor, need to be nurtered and evolve naturally. The biggest competition they should face is themselves.

Future Asian soccer stars need to realise that competing with others will not always lead to positives outcomes and is therefore out of their control. Kids develop at different time spans and the nature of the game means there is never a constant.

The best athletes and football players don’t compete so much with others as they do with themselves. After all, once your better than all your competitors how can you keep improving yourself if your focus is always on ‘being better than others’.

Making yourself your greatest competition is the way to go.

Keep a log of all your stats before you start your programme; height, weight, bmi, strength, speed, agility, endurance, kicking distance, awareness, mental toughness and focus on improving each area step-by-step.

Monitor and log each area of focus weekly, and before you know it the improvements will start to show.

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.

So all the hours I was spending training was doing me more harm than anything else and no one ever picked up on it.

After having an analyses done on my running technique I had a new training programme to sort my running out.

The really good thing was that the programme worked my muscles harder but in less time. It included short spurts of speed running (on a treadmill with a lot of it uphill work), plyometrics and strength training.

Within 8 weeks I saw a massive difference in my speed, agility and especially my running technique. The really good thing is that my coaches and team-mates also saw the difference.

Speed and agility is really important in soccer, especially for future Asian soccer stars, so make sure your technique is correct before doing anything else.