What is the greatest battle a soccer player must fight? A better question might be what is your biggest battle?
The biggest battle in soccer, whether you’re a seasoned veteran, youngster or teenager is the battle within yourself, the battle to remain true to yourself and your beliefs.
When we talk about the battle within oneself I’m referring to the EGO. Whether we like it or not, everyone (not just soccer players) are plagued by their own ego.
What is ego?
If we flick to Collins or Webster we have the following explanation.
“A person as thinking, feeling, willing and distinguishing himself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.” Or
“Egotism, conceit, self-importance, the enduring and conscious element that knows experience.”
The ego as I see it would be defined as,
“ Self centered anguish that ruins lives and any chance of success usually inflicted by someone telling the truth.”
If you sit back and listen to someone with a big ego the vocabulary seems to be limited to,
I want, I am, I need, I, I, I &I.
If you let your ego run free chances are you’ll never make it. To add insult to the wound you’ll become one lonely soccer chop. V-E-R-Y Lonely.
It’s only fair that I mention this, “I had the biggest ego once upon a time and had both my feet firmly planted in shit.” Did my ego serve me well?
Relying on your ego or delusions is a great way to fail in soccer. What would you bet on, “how good you think you are”, or “blood, sweat and tears.”
“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars.”
Hi,
Great article! It certainly hit a nerve with me.
I still love to play soccer even at the age of 56. (We play a six-a-side game every Monday night – rain or shine, mostly rain in the UK!)
Last year my knees were giving me some pain and I said that maybe the time was right to hang my boots up and retire. For some reason my knees started to get worse as I talked about the problem with team mates, friends and family. So I actually stopped playing for about six weeks. Then I was really missing playing and thought maybe I could just go along and play in goal or something. I was pretty desperate for a game! So I returned to playing and soon got fed up of playing in goal so started playing out for small portions of the game. And slowly built it up. But the main thing here was that all the time I was now telling myself my old knees still had some life in them. And the more I told myself that I could play on the better they got. So it was a case over mind-over-matter winning the battle with myself.
So it’s all about BELIEF. Believe in yourself and your abilities.(And your joints!)
Best wishes,
Richard