Great title don’t you think? I know, I know, a little misleading.
Did you believe it? Sorry!
Unless you’re living in Fantasyland or in the district of delusions, age is definitely not on your side. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, tick, tick, tick.
A.G.E in this case stands for Attitude, Goals and Execution.
Attitude is the most important out of these. Questions like
How do you deal with pressure?
How do you deal with failure or mistakes?
Are you happy and hungry for the game?
What about your likeability? Do you enjoy the game?
Do you train with enthusiasm and high spirits or do you merely drag your feet and go through the motions?
If you have the wrong attitude and lack motivation then your path to stardom will be a difficult one. Goals and the execution rely heavily on your attitude.
If you ask any youth coach these days they will preach training and execution is the most important. However, I’ve just spent the last two days reading a book purely on coaching kids soccer.
390 pages of bullshit and at times it felt like he was writing to fill his quota. Don’t bother asking who the author is or what the book is called. But what amazes me is that this book is a best seller on Amazon.
Best Seller?
Gee Wiz, how many parents with all the best intentions will coach from this book? Parents with no experience will learn from this book and try to coach their kids. Is it the right message?
News Flash, Big News or just simply wake up.
No player has ever succeeded because they executed tactics or training drills from a book. Instructional books are worthless if you do not set yourself goals and short-term targets.
What’s the point of training if you do not have goals?
As far as I’m concerned, the most important aspect of the game is never talked about. Don’t get me wrong here, training is important and so are drills. But if you’re going to write a book about soccer success and struggle through 390 pages of rubbish, please mention Attitude. Surely goal setting would make an appearance but it never showed.
What a waste!
In the middle of this post are 6 questions that never get talked about. If you’re attitude is wrong, no amount of goal setting or training will help. A book that simply displays training drills will not guarantee you success, far from it.
Answer the following questions honestly and you will gain more from this exercise than reading any book.
Remember this before I go,
Attitude is everything. The best coach and training facilities will not guarantee you anything in this game. Get your attitude and goals in order and let the coach worry about the drills.
“May the Winds of Destiny blow you to the Stars.”
Could you elaborate by what you mean by attitude. Just judging by the questions presented it sounds more like you’re talking more about a persons love of the game which would be very hard for a book to even influence.
Gday Doug,
Attitude is about your mentality and how you deal with situations. The questions I ask are trying to reinforce that we need to be positive and expect the good with the bad.
I don’t care what anybody says, you cannot publish a book on “soccer success” and not address Goal-setting and Attitude.
Love for the game cannot be gained from pages in a book but how you react to certain situations or individuals can. Soccer success is a predetermined path. All good autobiographies would expose this.
Common theme in these books, POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION, SACRIFICE & TRAINING YOUR ARSE OFF. That sentence alone is more valuable than the book I’ve just finished.