Have you ever noticed or admired the legs of a soccer player?
Their function is to produce force and cause motion. There are 2 types of muscle fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.
The story of muscles so to speak, can be traced back to the Olympics in Ancient Greece. An Olympic wrestler by the name of Milo was regarded as the strongest man of his time.
Milo wore the Olympia crown on six occasions and was undefeated and undisputed. He competed until the ripe age of 40 and became a legend in Ancient Greece.
Many Greeks at the time questioned where he got his strength from and the tale that still circulates today goes something like this.
Milo grew up on a farm and spent his early days helping his father. Milo’s father placed a new born bull in his care and told him to protect the bull at all cost.
After these initial instructions, Milo’s father asked him
“How big is the bull today?”
Milo not wanting to disappoint his father quickly ran out and picked the calf up and carried him inside to show his father.
Each day, Milo’s father asked him the same question and each day Milo carried the bull to his father. This continued every day for a number of years. As the bull grew, so did Milo’s strength and muscles. After several years of this Milo could carry a full grown bull on his shoulders.
The legend was born and the rest is history.
So what’s the point to this tale?
Firstly, Milo didn’t begin to try and lift a full-grown bull. He began slowly when the bull was young and small. Not only that, he carried the bull every single day for years.
Could the legend of Milo carry a full-grown bull from the start? I strongly doubt it.
What would have happened if Milo attempted to lift a full-grown bull from the start? Chances are he would’ve got injured and frustrated only to give up.
You should always begin slowly and gradually work your way up. Don’t tackle the impossible from the start. Instead, establish a reasonable goal and then keep progressing towards it at a pace that is suitable to you.
Also, Milo became progressively stronger because he lifted a heavier weight each day.
Could this be achieved if he lifted the same weight every day?
Had he lifted the same sized bull ever day, he would not have become stronger because there would have been no need for his muscles to adapt to make him stronger.
To effectively strengthen your muscles you need to gradually overload them with more weight over time. If you want to increase your soccer performance, you need to ask yourself if your muscles have received a new stimulus in the form of more repetitions, drills, sprints, weights or even exercises.
Don’t get impatient with your strength or your soccer training results. Remember the words of Milo’s father,
“How big is your bull?”
Is your training today hard enough to prepare yourself for tomorrows training?
Stop wasting your time and get the elbow grease out, roll the sleeves up, grit those teeth and work your arse off.
Before you know it you could be at the steps of Anfield or Old Trafford carrying your own bull.
“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”.
Tony Everett says
Wonderful story, I love myths and legends. As a coach, how do you go about getting your players to buy into this? It’s ok talking about it at practice and getting them to nod their heads in approval, but how do you monitor, track their individual results? It’s got to be intrinsic on the players part, right? And then goals can be formed and monitored?
Thanks
Gerry says
Great Analogy….
Thomas says
Gday Tony, thanks for the feedback.
Myths, legends, urban legends, heroes and the list goes on, always have a story attached to them. The beauty of stories is that when you hear them you cannot help but replace the hero with yourself. Stories don’t need to be sold and sometimes you don’t even need to believe them. Stories need to inspire. Inspire you to become a better player, coach or person.
Most myths talk about the inferior becoming the superior. The weak becoming the strong. The poor becoming the rich.
Basically stories talk about adversities overcome. Progress in players can be recorded and measured. Record performances, sprint times and physically show them the improvements. If you have to, use graphs and pie charts. Nothing motivates more than progress and momentum.
Thanks for the question Tony. Would have replied earlier but didn’t see the comment.
Keep the questions coming…..If you have a topic/problem don’t hesitate to ask.