Fighting Yourself.

Anyone that sticks with the game of soccer throughout their youth and as they enter adulthood certainly has a passion for the game. As coaches, especially those working with the young, we are charged with helping to develop a love for the game. Love for the game can often be sparked by success. Therefore how we achieve and handle success becomes very important.

I am currently coaching a couple of young men whose early success was apparently defined by an ability to score goals.  The ability to score goals is a very fine thing, indeed!  While it is certainly true that Defense wins Championships it is also true that a team must score to win games. The means to the end is what concerns me with these two players and is what today's writing is about.

I do not find it a coincidence that both players are sometimes referred to by teammates as "the great black hole". This goes directly to the fact neither is very keen on passing.  Once they obtain possession of the ball their first thought is to shoot and if not in range they will attempt to take on all comers to advance the ball into shooting range. Passing the ball is a secondary thought even if by doing so their ultimate goal of scoring a goal might be made easier. In essence, they have become their own worst enemy in pursuit of what they desire.

The one gentleman plays on the wing and at some point early in his career must have enjoyed success (scored a goal or two) by making an inside run from the weak side.  This undoubtedly occurred at an age when crosses from teammates were not strong enough to carry to the back post. There is evidently an indelible memory of making inside runs to goal scoring opportunities in his mind.

Now as a young adult he continues to make inside runs from the weak side flank without consideration that his teammates have little difficulty in driving the ball to and beyond the back post area.  We have instructed and reiterated ad nauseam the approach for a wing on the weak side should be from the corner of the 18 through the corner of the 6 to the back post.  This approach allows the wing to adjust their path to the crossed ball whereas a path inside these parameters all but eliminates an ability to do so.  The inside run is so ingrained, the bad habit so firmly established, this player seems unable to stop himself from making it.  He is addicted to the inside run because at one point in his early development it was successful for him.  There is no cognizant recognition that since the game has changed as he has grown older that his recipe for success (scoring goals) needed to change as well.

The second player is of a similar single mindedness.  He plays forward and regardless of field position or situation his first instinct with the ball is to take on any and all defenders while attempting to get to goal.  He is quite obviously a product of kick and run youth soccer that featured "big, strong and fast" as the primary tactical considerations. The only problem is at this point in his life he is undersized and below average in speed although physical strength does remain. His role in youth leagues was to stand with the opposing backs waiting to be fed the ball by teammates and then take the ball to goal. He really struggles with any deviation from this pattern.

With both players their primary focus remains on scoring the ball. With both players they have become their own worst enemy in pursuit of their scoring goals. Both players are stubbornly insistent on sticking with what once worked well for them while missing the fact the game is passing, or even has passed them, by. They stubbornly refuse help from coaches and teammates alike in pursuit of scoring goals.  They become frustrated because the help offered deviates from what has previously been successful for them.  In short, both of these athletes seem to have fallen in love with soccer at a young age based on an ability to score goals, but have failed to nurture and develop that love since then.

This may well be the fault of their youth coaches who might have viewed these young men as budding stars.  The coaching attitude may have been, "why fix what isn't broken" as they watched these individuals and probably by extension their teams have success. In actuality we as coaches must fix what isn't broken as a proactive or even preventative maintenance program.  We need to help flame the spark of passion in players by expanding their game beyond initial success. As coaches we need to continually ask players to move from their comfort zones and expand their games.  It is obvious that these two players have been in an arrested state of development for some time before they came to us.

Our mission with them has been to break down the established and ingrained habits allowed to take hold when they were young youth players and provide them with the means to branch out of their comfort zones, to explore and expand their games in order to become unpredictable and more dangerous in pursuit of scoring goals. 

It's tough love at this point.

The first player refuses to stay wide and make his weak side run corner, corner, post run. Last night his stubbornness cost him 3 splendid opportunities to score goals. Instead of learning, he offers excuses.  The second player refuses to utilize drop passes when playing as a target with defenders draped all over him. He continues attempting to turn and take on defenders in these situations with the result being lost possession and growing reluctance on the part of his teammates to feed him the ball. He blames his teammates for not passing to him or providing him opportunities.

In both cases, it is the player himself who must recognize that what they have always done no longer works. They must seek, ask for and willingly accept help to expand their game that their strengths might be accentuated instead of being minimized as is the current trend. In short, it is their decision to make.  The quality of their soccer will be directly impacted by the quality of their decision making. 

My fear is the frustration both are displaying will continue to grow instead of their passion being nurtured.  They will never again be goal scoring machines on the scale they were in youth leagues, but they both have the potential to be solid goal scorers at their present level of play provided they recognize the need to expand, to nurture and grow, their individual games within the game itself.  The game at their age is about freedom of play and both seem ready to embrace this yet remain reluctant to accept the responsibility that comes with freedom. I'm not sure we will ever get to that point with either of these young men. It certainly has been a struggle to date.  I do know this, it is their decision to make. They hold the key to success in the palm of their own hand. Whether they decide to keep the door locked or open it to new possibilities is entirely up to them. It is a battle they fight with themselves.