When else in life other than soccer or sport do we engage in a weekly battle where we face opposition that genuinely wants to defeat us? Everything is relative, so whether you are playing in the Champions League final or your over-40’s C division game, you are facing an opposition that will do pretty much anything to defeat you. Yes, you may be friends before and after … [Read more...]
The Soccer of Business: Don’t Think About Your First Touch
Great players never think about their first touch. They don’t have to. It’s automatic. They have practiced it so much that they are on autopilot when the ball comes to them. They can spend those next seconds (or even milliseconds) thinking about their second touch, where the ball will go next. Long? Short? Where’s the gap? Who’s coming toward me with two feet raised? But … [Read more...]
The Soccer of Business: Brand and Culture
Why is it that some players perform incredibly for one manager and poorly for another? Why do they perform poorly on one team and then one transfer later they are at the top of their game performing at the peak of their career? It can’t all just be a different determination (or lack of it) from the individual player, can it? Top-level athletes are mentally honed to … [Read more...]
The Soccer of Business: Playing to Win
Top players don’t play to compete. They play to win at every level. If you go to any Premier League training ground and observe the training session, you may be amazed at how competitive the games are. Players playing against THEIR OWN TEAMMATES, giving everything they have got to win what may seem like just a meaningless training game or exercise and being genuinely gutted if … [Read more...]
The Soccer of Business: Can I Be Better Than Yesterday?
Top athletic achievers don’t come to training and do the same things every day. They don’t lift the same weights, train at the same intensity, and want what they wanted the previous day. That’s what average athletes do; they sit in their comfort zone. And you know when you are there – as you feel, well, comfortable. But guess what, it’s supposed to hurt. It’s … [Read more...]