Soccer is a funny game at times. On the one hand you have the coach striving for perfection. He wants training to run smoothly and wants all his players to obey his every command. Then you have the youngsters who spend all training trying to avoid mistakes. Far from perfect don’t you think?
Not just young players but everyone, including you, are taught from a young age not to make mistakes. The goal of any test or exam is to get 100%, right? How do you achieve this? Eliminate the mistakes and strive for perfection.
Let me save you years of heartache and pain right here, right now. Perfection in soccer does not exist.
Coaches need to stop striving for perfection because inevitably they will fall short, very short. This applies to parents as well.
Screaming at the Ref
Gerry is a professional, white collar with all the trimmings, a beautiful family and potentially the next superstar. In his spare time he watches his son play with pride only a father can give.
The referee makes a mistake and the gentle giant loses his cool. He screams while punching his fist violently into the air. Every decision enrages him now and feels the ref is out to prove a point. He honestly believes the ref is losing the game for his son.
Does Gerry demand perfection?
The referee has made a mistake and as you can gather from the World Cup in South Africa, everybody makes mistakes, even at the highest level. Gerry regroups at half time and finds refuge in a cold beer.
The point I’m trying to make is this, if you strive for perfection or even demand it, you’ll get upset. Who wouldn’t?
The only sport you can strive for perfection is bowling. That’s right, ten pin bowling. Perfection is signaled by a flashing 300 on the big screen while everyone sits back and admires your misspent youth.
The challenge is to be your best while allowing others to make mistakes along the way. If you’re able to look at what’s happening in kids soccer today and say, “there’s a pattern” “that cannot be right” “what a disgrace”, chances are someone is trying to be perfect.
“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars.”
Your right, everyone makes mistakes, but its what you learn from those mistakes that is important.
Its impossible to become perfect, but I think the best players in the world have gotten where they are becuase they’ve strived to be.
Also, Good post. Im curious what plugin you used to get those “dig, tweet, share” icons on the top of your post. Please tell. Thanks.
Gday Dylan, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
As for the plug-ins, I’ll have to ask my designer.
Hi Dylan,
I haven’t used a plugin, the buttons are hand-coded into the theme.
I really think you make a great point with this article. Even though you like to do everything perfect, hardly nobody does. But you keep trying and learning. I really dislike coaches who blame the refs, they try to be perfect too. No refs comes to a game with the thoughts of blowing off one team.
@ Dylan, You can use the “digg digg” plugin for the icons, you can chose lots of social media websites icons.