PARENT Archives - Soccer Parenting Association - Inspiring Players by Empowering Parents

2024 ANNUAL REPORT

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:43:15 GMT

VIEW 2024 ANNUAL REPORT

40th Anniversary!

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 20:38:07 GMT

Today, March 17th, the Steamboat Soccer Club will celebrate its 40th anniversary, marking four decades of soccer in the Yampa Valley. We want to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported, contributed, or played for the club over the years.

The Steamboat Soccer Club has accomplished many great things throughout its history. Still, the true constant has been the amazing people who have come together to support the sport of soccer and, most importantly, to be involved in the development of our players both on and off the field.

Thank you for your support in helping the club. Thank you for volunteering during weekends, summer break, holidays, and most importantly, for giving your children the opportunity to play soccer and hopefully become better people!

We want to hear your stories and see your old pictures. We invite you to share your memories with us so we can celebrate all those who came before us and recognize the impact the game, coaches, parents, referees, and our organization have had on the youth in our communit y!

“It is just amazing to see the growth of the club. Both in the number of players and teams and in the coaching staff. So many coaches now that have played and coached at a high level.” Dr. Jim Dudley

We have planned a year-long celebration to highlight the impact of SSC and its people over the last 40 years. Check our social media and website for stories and events. Let us continue to grow and make an impact together!

Thanks

Steamboat Soccer Club

TOVO Tuesday - What's wrong?

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 20:37:59 GMT

What's wrong? - written by: Todd Beane - https://tovoacademy.com

What's Wrong?

What´s wrong with you?

We learn at a young age about being wrong. Our school tests are marked in red. We missed five questions. School essays highlighted in red. We misspelled five words. Red lights, red cards, red alert. Wrong answer. Wrong way. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

We teachers and coaches are actually trained to find what´s wrong. Look for the error, freeze the play and correct. We are determined to identify what´s wrong and rewarded with licenses for doing so.

We need only spend five minutes on social media to see that pointing out flaws has become a community endeavor. We need only spend five minutes on a field to verify that pointing out flaws has become a sideline endeavor. We need only spend five minutes at a youth tournament to hear a coach detail the negative quite vociferously.

What if this were not so?

What´s right with you?

Well, in the case of every child I have ever coached quite a lot actually. Our children show up, shake hands, compete and carry on. Our kids pass, shoot, dribble, attack and defend. Our kids try to win, deal with losses, and move on to the next activity. In school, they read, write, calculate, compute, act, sing, doodle and draw.

If we look at a child as a miracle, then magic emerges in abundance. Then stumbling is sensational. Then an error is a marvelous act. Then a positive intent is a positive, period.

For those just waiting in the wings to tell me of the value of critical feedback, I get it. Point conceded.

However, go with me here.

Imagine pulling out a green pen highlighting every word spelled correctly. A green check for every math problem answered well. Imagine every dance step, every note, every effort highlighted for what it is – amazing.

Imagine speaking to every pass executed, every shot made, every attack thwarted. Imagine how bizarrely radical that might sound on the training pitch.

We live our lives perched on many deep-rooted assumptions. So many modes of operation unquestioned. We train our children in ways that sprout from the soil of critique. But it need not be this way.

The next time we lead a practice, let´s catch a child doing something right. Let´s speak to the positive. Let´s detail the good and let our kids benefit from our keen eye and kind voice.

In the end, we are not blind to what´s wrong. There will be ample time to make the needed adjustments. But for one moment,

let´s focus on what´s right. Let´s pause and applaud. Let´s praise and play on.

Nothing wrong with trying that, no?

written by: Todd Beane - https://tovoacademy.com

Game Environments and Parent Expectations

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:42:13 GMT

Parent Expectations in Game Environments - Webinar from soccer parent resource center

Watch Webinar

Steamboat Soccer Club Youth Coach Receives Colorado Soccer Coach of the Year!

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:49:34 GMT

Congrats Bobby! We are lucky to have you part of our team!

Steamboat Pilot Article

4 Local Soccer Players have been invited to the 2024 West Region Camp

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:45:51 GMT

Congrats to Simon, Charlie, Will, and Sadie!

Colorado Soccer recently conducted the 2023 Colorado Mountain Select Tryouts in June. From this two-day tryout, 25 Steamboat Soccer Players were selected to be a part of Mountain Select teams for the 2023/24 season.

In January, these players represented the Colorado Mountain Select Program at the 2024 ODP Championships in Phoenix. Mountain Select took 10 teams (All Players from Colorado Mountain Towns) to the ODP Championships.

From that tournament, 30 Mountain Select players were invited to participate in the 2024 West Region Camp. This camp brings the best players from the Phoenix event together to compete for a spot on the Region team.

I am excited to share that 3 players from Steamboat were selected to be a part of the 2024 West Region Camp. The Girls Regional camp dates are July 6-8, and the Boys Regional camp dates are July 12-14 in Salt Lake City.

Congratulations to the following Steamboat players: Sadie Hartman, Simon Kaplan, Will Hall, and Charlie Weidel

6 Considerations for the Car Ride Home

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:21:00 GMT

Seasons are in full swing across the United States and, hopefully, you are finding positive ways to show up for your child during the post-game car ride home. We understand the challenge. As parents, our emotions are usually heightened as we watch our child and their team perform. Unfortunately, sometimes we watch with judgment, creating […]

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Emerson & Iron Strings

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:29:00 GMT

Emerson & Iron Strings

For years, I swallowed what conventional training had to offer. As an athlete, I would execute each drill energetically. As a coach, I collected certificate upon certificate. Drills and diplomas. I obeyed authority. I complied with the common.

I did so as a student as well. I drilled my way to honors. Worksheets and proms. I attended well-respected universities and earned my teaching credential in much the same way I earned my coaching “A” License. I obeyed, I complied and I played the certification game.

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

And then I suddenly stopped.

I wiped the slate clean.

I trusted myself.

“I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.” – R.W. Emerson

I ventured beyond conventional coaching and traditional teaching. And interestingly enough, as I began to find my own voice, I found the voices of others who accompanied me in an intellectual chorus. A coach in Connecticut, a teacher in Costa Rica, a parent in confusion all shared their stories. They unleashed a sentiment that we were not maximizing the potential of our children. The methods dominating the talent development landscape left us lacking.

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.” – R.W. Emerson

Emerson, Montessori, Gaudi, Socrates, and Cruyff ran forth to fuel the fire of exasperation and to turn it into a blaze of inspiration.

I did not see myself an equal to these philosophers. However, I did find myself worthy of wrestling with their thoughts and theories. These leaders become my sparring partners, serving to stun me out of stupor.

We have the privilege to commune with all knowledge that has ever been shared. We are afforded the thoughts of every woman or man who has shared an ideal. Are we not compelled to harness that wisdom and put it to use? If we are not tapping into great theory and effective practice, then what are we doing as coaches and educators? If we are not wrestling with the most innovative ways to maximize human potential what are we doing as parents and business leaders? If not for ourselves, should we not drive forward for those in our charge?

In the end, we each subscribe to the school of thought we trust will be most fruitful. But trust must be earned and tested and twisted to produce its greatest fruits. The end must promote learning and joy. Aspiration and inspiration.

“Anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy.” – John Dewey

Questioning the status quo has historically not proven to be the most prudent endeavor for those who have been silly enough to do it. And innovation in any field is a messy, error-laden process. But not to take that risk when your heart knows better is to dishonor the gift of our existence. We must place our complacency in jeopardy. We owe it to our colleagues to present our ideas on the ideal. We owe it to our student-athletes to implement the most dynamic, engaging, and effective activities.

In the end, we are just beginning.

“Else if you would be a man speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. Ah, then, exclaim the aged ladies, you shall be sure to be misunderstood! Misunderstood! It is a right fool’s word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood….”

– R.W. Emerson

The post Emerson & Iron Strings appeared first on TOVO Institute .

A Better Normal

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 13:06:00 GMT

A Better Normal

Jordan logged in as I logged out.

Up next for my son, a unit exam on writing. Up next for dad, a sofa.

My son comes to understand that stories of conflict and climax come to a resolution. As he musters his morning energy to multiple choose his way to literacy, I get lost in a bit of lunacy.

I lay back and wander through a labyrinth. At every turn of my mental journey, I hear it. In fact, today, like the past 43 days and counting, I cannot escape it. The new normal . Day in and day out, that phrase: New normal . Night in and night out that fear, that angst, that uncertainty.

New: appearing for the first time, having lately been brought into being

Normal: serving to establish a standard

The new normal will be a novel standard. And apparently, we will bring it into being. Yes, we. The 7.8 billion individuals living on one orb. And one individual, me, constructing a new normal one day in quarantine at a time.

As Jordan triumphantly clicks his way to a passing grade in class, I wonder what a passing grade is in life. Beyond the walls of imposed isolation, what is failure? What is average? And what, just what, might be exceptional as we journey forth?

We are so lucky. My family, I mean. Just south of Barcelona, we have the time, the resources, and the love to ponder post-pandemic aspirations. There is food on our table, a roof above us, and a bedtime story told to coddled children in cozy pink pillows.

It is that good fortune that affords me a couch upon which I contemplate and a laptop upon which I scribe. And suddenly, as Shae divides his decimals, Tali draws her daisies, and Alina draws ire from her mother, I find my hope buried in Jordan’s quiz answer: D. The resolution.

Why must this trying tale’s resolution be desolation? Why must I accept despair as normal? Why must I assume that new means dismal. It does not; I looked it up.

New can be transformative, uplifting and inspirational. It can release an energy I have never known and the world has yet to embrace. The new must be “brought into being.” We, as a noble race, can bring it into being. I, as a humble soul, can bring it into being.

And thus, my musings tickled me into optimism.

What if we emerge to establish a better normal?

Emerge: to rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition.

Establish: to build

Better: of superior quality, more virtuous

Normal: a standard

Is it possible that the new normal will be a phenomenal normal?

As I prepare lunch for the little ones, I now know two things. A story has a resolution. We write that resolution. Perhaps we must rise from this unfortunate condition to build a more virtuous life. Seen as such, this new standard is intriguing. It is empowering.

Jordan moved on to the next question as I remained committed to the last. I do not care so much about his passing a quiz online as much as us passing the next examination of humankind. He will be fine in class, and maybe for the first day in 43 days and counting, I believe we can craft a more noble resolution. Here in my home. Here in Catalonia. Here in Spain, and here on the one planet we share.

As Jordan logged out, I logged in to fashion a better normal.

The post A Better Normal appeared first on TOVO Institute .

A Sweet Smile of Approval

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 13:09:00 GMT

A Sweet Smile of Approval

As for most kids, change seemed to be a constant. My change was moving about the country
every four years or so. New states, new towns, new schools. Don’t get me wrong, we moved
from suburbia to suburbia and were blessed each time with a clean slate on clean streets in
quaint surroundings. I had no hardship to speak of other than pimples and prom dates.

And then there was Auntie Carolyn.

I would need 64 blogs to walk through the dynamics surrounding our immediate and extended
family. Who wouldn’t? Of course, this was before Instagram when all families
became perfect in pictures and poses. Perfection in my reality was not cropped, edited and
filtered. When we were joyous it was for us and when we cried, we did so sans selfies.

And then there was Auntie Carolyn.

Little League was not the Big League.
High school sports meant something.
And parents were silent on the sidelines.

I found soccer. I also found ice hockey, hiking, swimming, skiing and a prom date after
all. I found that growing up was growing beyond high school and that the world was bigger than
a State Championship season. Simsbury High turned into Hanover as the leaves of New England
turned to rose.

And then there was Auntie Carolyn.

You see, I write now as an aged man about a soothing soul. From birth to Barcelona and every
stop along the way, I have had Auntie Carolyn cheering me on. A note, a card, a photo. Not too
much these days as my journey has led me far from Hank’s Bakery in Stoneham. Her journey
kept her close to Beantown and close to my heart. She is that kind and that courageous and
that caring.

And I know now that soccer is about Auntie Carolyn. Literature and libraries are about Auntie
Carolyn. Love lost, rebirth and resilience are about Auntie Carolyn. Cupcakes and cousins. Every
achievement of mine rests in a smile of hers. She is the only family member still alive of the
generation that nurtured me. Nanny and Grampa, Nana and Grampy, Mom and Dad, and Uncle
Joe have long since moved onward from frosted donuts and frosty streets.

And then there is Auntie Carolyn.

She knows where I am. She understands why I teach. Why I coach. Why I love exploring the
bounds of human potential. And each time I venture for venturing’s sake I know there is a
woman with a peaceful perspective praying for me. I have an advocate. I have someone who
sees the best of me and sees safety in the stars.

I have an Auntie Carolyn and have for my entire life.

I hope that each child may be so lucky. Love without judgment. Pride without prejudice. Pure
advocacy. Perhaps each of us needs to see consistency, continuity and coherency manifested.

Perhaps, in the end, each of us needs a sweet smile of approval.

The post A Sweet Smile of Approval appeared first on TOVO Institute .

A Poem with a Passport

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:25:00 GMT

A Poem with a Passport

“What is the difference between youth football in the United States and Spain?”

This question I have tried to answer on many occasions in many conversations as an ex-pat living outside Barcelona. To be honest, my answer has always been woefully inadequate. Recently, a coaching colleague visited our humble Catalan village by the sea and provided perhaps the best answer to that question.

“You feel football here. You breathe it,” he remarked as we strolled through the narrow streets in search of coffee and a croissant.

A bit odd, no? After all, how bizarre to suggest that football can be more than chasing a ball and burying it in the back of the net. At the end of the day, two teams line up and one wins, no?

To “feel” football? To “breathe” football?

Surely, football is not the salty air of the Mediterranean Sea.

Surely, football is not an exquisite tapa at a sidewalk cafe.

Football cannot be a curbside conversation nor a cobblestone street.

It cannot be a cathedral perched upon glimmering waves.

It certainly is not “calabaza” on a corner stand.

Or is it?

What if football were a poem with a passport?

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees…

Or companionship?

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

Or a breath?

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

As tho’ to breathe were life!

Or a quest?

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

Perhaps football is indeed a calling: a commitment to sail beyond the known and to return triumphant. Maybe, just maybe football is a culture that cherishes every detail within and beyond the painted lines? Maybe football is more than you ever imagined.

Where would you go then?

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas.

…

Come, my friends,

‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

…my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

And what if this journey to extraordinary nourishes your heroic spirit?

…that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. *

I am still not certain what to answer the next time someone asks me to define football in Catalonia. How silly of us in Sitges, a humble village by the sea, to believe that one can actually “feel” or “breathe” football.

It is just a game, after all.

* Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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Rondos are the Tip of the Iceberg

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 17:28:00 GMT

Rondos are the Tip of the Iceberg

Above the surface you see a glimmering soccer drill.

Just below the surface of every activity is an assumption: an assumption that the exercise is of value.

Even deeper yet is a paradigm: a framework that supports those assumptions.

As we look out on the horizon, we see a sea of glimmering activity. For many that is enough. Brilliant cones, colorful training kits, and vociferous coaches as far as the eye can see. Icebergs galore.

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” – Jonathan Swift

The Surface and Below
US Soccer will see the failings of a Rondo as they want their voyage to be directional. Others will find it farcical that an exercise espoused by the best men’s national teams in the world has no place in the land of the free and the brave. Yet others will feel compelled to showcase a series of “Directional Rondos” to satiate both sides of a parting sea.

We must take note that the waves of discontent only splash upon the tip of the iceberg and our attention to the rancorous spray distracts us. What we see of an iceberg is merely a fraction of its identity. So, it is with the current debate on Rondos. We must examine below the surface to explore our assumptions. We must dive even deeper to the massive core that is the anchoring paradigm.

US Soccer Training
The anchoring paradigm for US Soccer instructors these days is that the game is directional. Thus, every glimmering drill in their portfolio they prefer to be such. This is not without logic or reason. Their anchoring paradigm is one of directional play and as a result Rondos do not serve their assumption well. Fair enough.

However, that assumption belies the reality that soccer is multi-directional . It fails to recognize that the game is populated with real-time Rondos. Of course, one who is looking for arrows to goal will not see the triangles and diamonds that the best players exploit. A paradigm can be as blinding as it is illuminating.

Traditional Training
The anchoring paradigm of traditional training from the Carolinas to California is a technical centric one. Its focus remains on the development of players who can pass, receive, dribble and shoot a ball. Above all else, proponents of traditional training see drills as a means to enhance skills. If they use a Rondo at all it will be to “warm-up.” And when they employ a Rondo it will be to help players learn to pass and receive. They see the Rondo merely as a technical exercise because their anchoring paradigm supports their assumptions on skill acquisition as they have come to know it. Fair enough.

However, traditional training has its well-documented and intensively researched shortcomings. The mindless drilling is curbing both our children’s enjoyment of the game and their understanding of how to play it effectively. That fact may not rest well in the predominate pockets of traditionalists but this approach has contributed to a deplorable drop out rate for young athletes. This method has contributed to our underwhelming performances nationally and internationally. The product of this paradigm is not good enough. A paradigm can be as debilitating as it is inspiring.

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas, I’m frightened of the old ones.” – John Cage

Geo-Cognitive Paradigm
What if we did not anchor our training with the philosophies above? What if football was more than the sum of its technical parts? What if football was not directional, but multi-dimensional? What if the game was a series of geometric forms navigated by good decisions and precise execution?

If our newly adopted paradigm sees the learning process as an ever-expanding journey from the self outward our trainings must be different. If we believe that the understanding of angles, distance and timing in the face of an adversary is critical to a footballer, our exercises must reflect this. If we believe that cognitive development is a process of perception, conception, decision, deception, execution and assessment in its entirety, then I must respectfully propose an alternative.

I do not need Rondo as a weapon in a divisive argument. I can respect others opinions without agreeing with them. I see clearly their assumptions as well the governing paradigm from which they surface. I do not need a Rondo as a tool of dissent.

I need a Rondo as it is one of the best ways to bring forth my players capacity to be players of great cognition, competence and character. When I place one defender in the midst of four (4v1) it is the first progression to perceiving the opponent’s position and finding a solution to outplay him. When I place two defenders in the midst of five attackers (5v2) it is a perceptual progression that tests my players’ ability to seek solutions with the confidence to know that there is one and the courage to execute it with a properly weighted pass.

When I transition that Rondo into a Position Play exercise, I am introducing the “middle of the fielder” (4v2+1) who must create mini-rondos in the context of a larger schema. And when I transition even further into a Training Game, I encourage my players to see the entirety as a collection of challenges to be solved. And when we line up on the weekend I have prepared my player to see the game as a series of Position Play exercises conducted all over the pitch. We have solved those problems so many times that the pattern recognition afforded to them by the use of Rondos enters the arena of automaticity.

I need a Rondo because it promotes cognitive development.

I need a Rondo because it promotes skill development.

I need a Rondo because it promotes character development.

I need a Rondo because it reinforces our principles of play.

I need a rondo because it reinforces our five elements of position play.

I need a Rondo because it lays the architecture for our system of play.

If our paradigm shifts so must the exercises we choose, the training s we conduct and the voice with which we speak. In fact, we must rethink and redesign talent development.

Not sure what you will do at training tonight, but I hope that you will take a moment to look below the surface. Our children beckon us to do so. And in the end, they are our greatest glimmer of hope on a turbulent sea of talent development.

The post Rondos are the Tip of the Iceberg appeared first on TOVO Institute .

A Pool of Failure

Tue, 28 May 2019 10:12:00 GMT

So much wisdom.

Very little comes from Dad. Most comes from the tiny voices in the back seat.

Thursdays are swimming days at the Olive Tree School. My little Tali packs her regular school bag with tiny books and a big snack. And on Thursday she fills an extra pack with a suit, towel, flip flops and a few trinkets that have nothing to do with swimming but just seem to go where she goes.

Typically for Tali each day is the best day of her life. I am not sure how that works but for the first 7 years of life each day has surpassed the previous, claiming the “best day ever” title.

“It was awesome, Dad.”

“Yeah, what was so great?” I probe.

In the pool they put these big things and we ‘hadded’ (past tense of ‘had’, of course) to get them in the deep end where it’s deep.”

“As opposed to the shallow end where it is shallow?” I query for clarification.

“Yeah, where there is a lot more water,” she continues.

She delves into detail now as I focus on the road.

“I tried and then I tried again. And I still couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it. I tried so much.”

Now if you are like me (foolish, I mean), you will expect a “failure to triumph” Disney conclusion. I fully expected her to explain that after tireless effort, she swam across the pool, collected whatever big floaty things she needed to collect and reached the other side of toil triumphantly. I wholeheartedly expected to reinforce her story with a standard Papa preaching wisdom affirming success as a byproduct of effort and persistence. I was going to give her the proverbial pat on the back for her conquest.

But then she said this.

“Yeah it was awesome. I never could do it. It was too difficult. It was so fun,” she beamed.

Beaming in failure. What kind of kid are you? Don’t you know that only winning matters. That failure is misery and joy only blesses the victors? Have you no shame, celebrating failure with a toothless smile?

Those darn big floaty things that neither of us can remember the name of (if they have one) needed to be recovered in the deep end and they are still floating there untamed. Those foam props triumphed and are gloating in a chlorinated festival of freedom at my daughter’s expense.

Failure is not awesome.

Or is it?

How many times as a father do I have to rewrite my instructional manual? Every time I think I have an idea of what to do or what to say, my kids change the rules and I am back to the playbook baffled.

How many times have I missed ‘awesome’?

How many times have I missed the point that missing is the point?

The sport and parenting purists will tell you that winning is the only thing. That losing is for losers. But then again those barking about succees do not drive my daughter to school.

Apparently for those taking notes (as I was in the driver’s seat), swimming is fun. Yup, awesome, really cool fun.

If you happen to collect the big foamy floaty things in the deep end where the water is deep, then good for you. If you don’t, jump in the back seat. Join us in Spain, where tomorrow is going to outpace today for the “best day ever.”

“Were you frustrated?” I asked, still in disbelief that failure was so frivolously fabulous.

“What does that mean?” little Natalia responded.

Exactly. What does that mean? How silly of me.

Like I said, so much wisdom.

The post A Pool of Failure appeared first on TOVO Institute .

Playing in the Future

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 13:09:00 GMT

It may sound odd, but I spend a great deal of time helping footballers play in the future. Many may think I am referring to paving player pathways and fulfilling scholarship dreams. I am not. I am working with players on the immediate future within the context of the game. Teaching players to play seconds ahead of their rival.

“Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.” – Johan Cruyff

Why?

I have worked with many players and there is one obsession they have that leads them astray. They play in the present. And the present in football is that round orb we call the ball. When a player has it, she works her moves until that prize becomes someone else’s gift. It is not a harmonious chorus, but a collection of individuals singing in a bewildering cacophony.

Visionary: a person of unusually keen foresight.

Nelson Mandela saw well beyond prison walls to a future unfathomable. Gandhi saw a new India. Martin Luther King envisioned a world of opportunity in the midst of despair. In politics Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, JFK. In business, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Bill Gates. In sport, Billy Jean King, Dick Fosbury, Muhammad Ali. The list continues deep into every sector of society. In every moment we call the present, there are those playing in the future.

“It always seems impossible until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela

Football?

Imagine being able to see what Cruyff, Zidane, and Xavi could see. They did not play in the present. They were masters of time. These players were one step ahead, one thought beyond.

The present is the ball. The future is space.

The ball is the present. The future is space. The moment a player understands this profoundly is the moment her potential is unleashed. The moment a coach embraces this wholeheartedly is the moment she rethinks and redesigns talent development. Everything changes when you play in the future, even the present.

The ball and its location define the present. But space is malleable, dependent upon the spatial relationships between teammates and the opposition. It is liquid and gels for only an instant before fluidly changing its dimensions. It is perhaps the most marvelous and intriguing element of the game. It is not a singular data point. To understand it is to understand angles, distance, timing, lines and situation. To read it is to see it and then see it again and again. To master it is to be the maestro of the northern lights. A wizard of liquid thought.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Not practical enough?

I know; the poetry of it all seduces me. The manipulation of time and space is that intoxicating. But football is first and foremost poetry and attempts to objectify the subjective lead us astray. The greatest poetry is always by its nature written in the present. But its power and poignancy scream deep into the future where the beauty of words take root.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

If you believe that football is merely a collection of its technical parts, you will teach it that way. If you believe that football is merely a collection of data, you will monitor as such. And if either of these are the schools to which you subscribe, then what do you get at the end of your journey? Kicks and stats.

“The man who has no imagination has no wings.” – Muhammad Ali

But if you believe that football bleeds well beyond periodization and passing data, you will embrace its poetry. You will see its entirety. You will begin to see the potential of your players. And at that moment you envision what might be instead of what is, you will be coaching in the future today. You will see so clearly the talent yet realized. You will grasp the hand of that child and you will want to show her the future and lead her to master it herself. And when she does, she will see the game like never before. She will understand the true power of perception and conception.

“It is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and hopefully we shall overcome.” – Rosa Parks

If our children are to excel on the field, they will tug the future into the present with vision, precision and pace. If our society is to excel, these same visionaries will tug on utopia and show us just a glimpse of what might be.

The post Playing in the Future appeared first on TOVO Institute .

A Case for Cognitive Fitness

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 16:42:00 GMT

Are your players cognitively fit?

If you are like most coaches that may be a tough question to answer.

But why?

I might suggest that it is not a question you have had to answer before. I know that it was not a question that I addressed as a young coach myself.

My task was to train passing, shooting, and dribbling to prepare my players technically, yes. My task was to position my players to prepare them tactically, yes. My task was to prepare players physically, yes. With technical, tactical and fitness training sessions, my federation smiled upon me. The license was in the mail. All was good between the lines and the coaching road was well paved before me.

Then something happened. I studied pedagogy, exploring the art and science of instructional methods.

Why would anyone do that, you ask? A fair question. In full disclosure, a question my worrisome mother asked as I ventured deeper into collegiate debt.

I wanted to become a better educator and thought that understanding how children actually learn might be useful information. Call me crazy, I know.

The revelations of my graduate studies…

1. There is no teaching without learning.
2. Those that teach in alignment with the way children learn are more effective educators.
3. You can recover from debt if you find a job.
4. Your mother still loves you.

Loosely defined, cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem-solving, and decision-making. From birth, we begin to actively learn. We gather, sort, and process information from around us, using the data to develop perception and thinking skills. Cognitive development refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains an understanding of his or her world.

Not surprisingly learning requires fitness. Cognitive fitness. Our players need to hone an ability that was gifted to them at birth. Our players, on the pitch and in real time, must perceive their environment, conceive of the options available to them, execute the best option and assess the efficacy of that decision.

A continual cognitive loop firing in milliseconds leading to decision upon decision for 45 minutes and another 45 after the break. That is a stadium full of cognitive processing.

As we learn how critical it is to master this process and to apply it to the field of play, we can no longer ignore its value. And thus we can no longer ignore it as coaches. In fact, if we are not training football intelligence, what good is the technique of kicking a ball, the tactic of pressing high or the ability to run deep into extra-time?

With my federation diploma in hand, I had to go back to the drawing board to ensure that my trainings were cognitively faithful to the demands of the real match. My players above all else, or at least on par with all else, should be cognitively fit. And I should dedicate myself to training them accordingly.

“In pretty much every area, a hallmark of expert performance is the ability to see patterns in collections of things that would seem random or confusing to people with less well developed mental representations.”

The research within and beyond sport abundantly confirms that we have only scratched the surface of understanding the full depth of the learning process. However, what we do know is often ignored on football pitches worldwide.

Perception is the ability to scan one’s environment and filter to the most relevant data.

Conception is the envisioning of possibilities within that environment. A Decision is for the player to make in real time.

Deception is to send misleading data to the opponents engaged in their own perceptive process.

Execution is to pass, to shoot, and to dribble with technical precision.

Assess is to evaluate the efficacy of the action taken and to loop back into perception.

Let’s loop back to my coaching.

If I ensure that each training exercise engages the player intellectually I am a better educator. It is that simple. Kicking a ball back and forth without thought – in the garbage. Tactical trainings without position play understanding – in the garbage. Senseless running – in the garbage.

Sometimes pruning can be liberating. Sometimes starting all over even more so.

To train players to be cognitively fit we must demand that they activate their brains in minute one of training and continue to think for as many minutes as possible within a session. Red cards to the drills that do not encourage thought. Red cards to the drills that numb the mind. Futile drills be gone. Enter intelligent training that trains intelligence.

Rondos nurture cognition, competence and character.

Position Play exercises nurture cognition, competence, and character.

Training Games nurture cognition, competence, and character.

It may have taken me a while, maybe too long. But I know now that my younger self did the best he could with the information available at the time. But times have changed and so must I. My task is to ensure that my players develop their intelligence so that they are capable of seeking space, finding solutions, and executing good decisions in the face of an adversary.

We train the brain now. Every session. All season.

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A Child’s Play

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 12:23:00 GMT

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A Little Girl, Oreos, and Why Coaches Get It Wrong

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 12:19:00 GMT

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#1 Way To Improve Technique

Sun, 03 Jun 2018 13:19:00 GMT

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Redefine Your Fundamentals

Sat, 02 Jun 2018 19:06:00 GMT

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Start Your Cognitive Clock

Sat, 02 Jun 2018 13:20:00 GMT

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Too Much Average Out There

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 15:15:00 GMT

Countless.

This is the number of children whose potential is not being realized. Countless is the number of people who are disgruntled with the current system. Countless is number of conversations I have had with those seeking more.

Boundless . This is the potential we have to enact change.

Profound . This is the type of mental shift it will require.

Resounding . This is the success we will have when we break free of the status quo.

I hear these concepts whistle through the wind of my imagination repeatedly.

Boundless potential, profound change, resounding success.

Boundless, profound, resounding.

But wind is just that. It stirs. It fades. Perhaps a few will be knocked off kilter and a few will set sail to escape, but most will remain steadfast and stubborn in the comfort of mediocrity.

I know. For far too long I have remained mediocre at many things because I did not heed the call to do more, to do better, to progress. I did not learn that last language, delve deeper into that last relationship, and challenge that last assumption.

But then I did.

I chose to unravel those assumptions. I chose to listen to a sage. I chose to make sense of that discontent nestled in my gut. I took notes. And when the breeze asked me to sway from my obstinacy, I leaned deeper into what might be and let go of what has always been.

How many of us cling to the common when common sense asks us to think differently?

When we need to redesign our approach do we? When we are encouraged to rethink our craft will we?

I have my doubts after hearing countless colleagues share their stories of deep frustration. Leaders who feel trapped by a system so anchored in the average that extraordinary appears a feeble zephyr. I have my doubts because these are good people, bright people and capable people. I have my doubts because there are so many economic benefits to maintain the system and so much politics restricting true development.

Doubt can lead to complicity; rationalization to submission and indolence to apathy. And that is not acceptable for anyone who cares about children.

We do not have to have all the answers to catch those winds of change. We can set course for a new world on a flat earth. To do so we must step from the shore on which the mundane has rooted.

Believe me, there will be chains we must break. There will be people we must offend by our ambition. There will be those aiming to drown the voyage before it begins. To kill the messengers before they sing.

But mediocrity beckons boldness.

We are too adventurous to adhere to “the way it has always been.” Just that paltry phrase should send us screaming. We know too much to teach the way we were taught. We are too intelligent to be sold the nonsense that perpetuates poor pedagogical practices.

We will bless the breeze and let it move us.

We will inquire.

We will listen.

We will research and read.

We will discover.

We will learn.

We will innovate and execute.

We will err.

We will evaluate.

We will collaborate and celebrate.

We are done with average. There is too much average out there already.

From this day forward only extraordinary will do.

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I wish Wiel Coerver got it right.

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 11:42:00 GMT

This blog may upset a lot of people in soccer. More than you may even imagine as it strikes a deep chord. Time to share it again, with renewed hope that change will come – for our children’s sake.

Having said that, this article may also resonate with some of you that somewhere deep in your gut feel what I am about to suggest.

Believe me when I say that I respect what Wiel, Alfred and Charlie put into the market 30 years ago. They have had a profound impact on so many players and coaches who still today can repeat the isolated moves attributed to great players. The “Cruyff Turn,” named after my own father in law, is still performed worldwide. And perhaps that is a good thing.

But it is not enough.

Johan Cruyff had not practiced that move. He perceived the variables at a given moment, saw the defender poised in assumption, and then decided to make the move that would form part of the Coerver curriculum. The move was born in real time, against a real defender and the match in flow. It was not a “move”; it was a solution.

A solution.

A Coach’s Paradigm

The Coerver conceptual framework is logical. It is based upon a deconstructionist model of education that travels well beyond the field and into the classroom. In many ways it is the base of why we have dissected material into subjects and subjects into chapters and so on. It is also why schools drill the way they do, test the way they do, operate the way they do and too often fail the way they do.

This deconstructionist model works for teachers and coaches trying to manage the complexity of educating children. Unfortunately, it does not work as well for the learner.

Life is not the sum of its parts. It is much more.

Football is not the sum of its technical parts; it is much more.

Do not confuse this statement with suggestion that technical skills are not important. They are and will always be. However, our shared aim is to develop creative and capable players. So let’s follow a road that will lead us there with deeper joy and greater efficiency.

A Learner’s Paradigm

If we seek to nurture solution oriented players capable of managing the complexity of the game then we need to change the road we have been travelling and to rethink our typical training.

As we learn more about how the brain works and how the application of skill works, we see that “cognitive fidelity” is critically important to applying skills within the demands of task we will perform.

“What we have discovered is that a key factor for an effective transfer from the training environment to reality is that the training program ensures ‘Cognitive Fidelity’, this is, it should faithfully represent the mental demands that happen in the real world.” (Daniel Gopher)

Have you ever seen children in a park run skill drills? Me neither. They play and as they play they develop so many critical skills. They make meaning from the whole. They understand intuitively that the end is their beginning.

In this natural process, they are honing one of the most critical elements of being a top player. They train their decision-making and they reinforce their ability to solve real time, real data issues. Children acquire skills when they are most motivated to do so, when they need to solve something important to them – like being better. If you have children you know this. If you coach children you have seen this. There is a reason why children do this. Because this is how they make meaning. This is how they learn.

We can better serve our young players by emphasizing rondos, position play exercises, and small-sided matches. “This is because in competitive team games, the opportunity to make a pass arises and dissolves according to the spatial-temporal relations established between competing performers.” (Travassos et al., 2012a).

“Design of practice tasks needs to represent opportunities to act, emphasizing the need for individual performers to explore the performance environment, as they would in competitive performance.” (Pinder et al., 2011; Vilar, Araujo, Davids, & Renshaw).

How many of you out there read all the instructions before you assemble the boxed gift? Be honest. If you are like most, you start and then go back to the instructions when you need them most. For me, I just yield to my much more intelligent wife, which I highly recommend to develop sustainable marriages. But I digress.

Too many current training sessions get it wrong. We use way too many isolated skill drills. We use far too few games that demand solutions in real time. “Practice task simulations may be simplified but still be designed to maintain action fidelity and achievement as in competitive performance. (Bruno Travassos, Ricardo Duarte, Luís Vilar, Keith Davids & Duarte Araujo (2012)

We can choose another road. We can completely reconstruct the way we go about training. As I said, this may not sit too well with the powers that be in soccer. Particularly, if you are a disciple of the prevailing methodology.

That’s OK. I am travelling the TOVO road less travelled and maybe a few of you might be inspired to join me.

I suggest that we must always respect Cruyff, Zidane, and Ronaldo for their moves that inspired us. And there is so much to learn from them. But if we are to develop creative players of the future, then perhaps we should allow our players to invent some moves of their own.

Abraham Maslow stated that “almost all creativity involves purposeful play.”

I tend to agree with him.

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How are your Ecological Dynamics?

Wed, 10 May 2017 18:45:00 GMT

Are you “combining key concepts from ecological psychology and nonlinear dynamic system theory in an attempt to enhance understanding of performance and learning in contexts in sport, to aid the acquisition and transfer of adaptive human behaviors”* at training tonight?

Or are you doing some more passing line drills?

Please don’t develop your training plan until you read further. And, if you are like me, you may want to read it four times to digest the research. If you are not like me, maybe once will suffice.

—

“How did you learn that?” I asked my son Jordan who is accustomed now to be my learning laboratory rat with all the love and Dutch cheese that title affords.

“I don’t know. I was going to shoot but the goalie was near the post and the defender was coming from my left, so I just pulled it back behind my leg and then saw Asier open in the center so I passed it to him instead,” Jordan replied in explaining an intriguing moment in his match.

“Fair enough,” I replied grateful that I did not persuade him otherwise with some idiotic parental ranting from the stands.

Sometimes solutions are merely speculations that only become solutions with a positive outcome. Nonetheless, the intent to process the myriad of variables in play and come to some reasonable proposition is evident. My son did what all children do. They read the environment and respond to it in some way they believe to be fruitful.

So, upon arriving home I fired up my research assistant – a MacBook Air and all things available through a sketchy WIFI connection. And here is what I found. No, this is not on my screensaver, but nonetheless I found it. And I encourage you to read this slowly for fear of contracting EES – Esoteric Exhaustion Syndrome – something I experience when reading all things beyond the latest Kardashian tweet.

“Organization in neurobiological systems is both facilitated and bounded by interacting constraints which shape the dynamics of emergent behaviors. Constraints on behaviors include task, performer and environmental factors. The unpredictable nature of the environment and the many individual differences that exist in personal characteristics and functions of athletes signify that indeterminate solutions exist for many tasks in sport. This idea emphasizes the circular causality of the relationship between each individual and a performance environment, mediated by brain and behavior, and processes of perception and action. The causality between brain and behavior, and between processes of perception and action, is not linear but cyclical, as the individual continuously constructs goal-directed interactions with a performance environment.

“From this perspective, expertise is the continuous functional adaptation of behaviors to a set of interacting constraints in order to exploit them to the fullest in achieving specific intended performance goals.”*

“Holy Moly,” I said. (Fully aware that I have no idea what “Moly” is or if it has any ethereal qualities)

But in the end, I translated this into nautical and football terms to make sense of it in Spain. One, because I live at the sea and, two, I love football. Here’s what I came up with and I hope it helps.

Survival: Cognition, Competence, and Character

Whether you paddle, sail or swim to shore is entirely dependent upon the sea, tide and wind. So, learn to swim, sail and paddle accordingly – and don’t give up in turbulent water.

Football: Cognition, Competence and Character

Whether you dribble, pass or shoot is dependent upon the opponent, your positioning, and your prowess. So, learn when to do what in context and execute accordingly – and don’t give up in turbulent times.

—

So, when you go out to train tonight ask yourself if you are indeed engaging Ecological Dynamics to facilitate learning. It may be a bit esoteric for all of us, but it may be worth it for our children’s sake.

If you plan to do some more ineffective passing drills, I have only the words of the late Stephen Covey to convey.

“To know and not to do is really not to know.”

*Ludovic Seifert, Keith Davids. Ecological Dynamics: a theoretical framework for understanding sport performance, physical education and physical activity. CS-DC’15 World e-conference, Sep 2015, Tempe, United States. CS-DC’15 World e-conference.

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The Architecture of Success

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 16:00:00 GMT

There is architecture behind education and any worthy endeavor for that matter.

As our student-athletes poised for photos in front of Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia I marveled at a cathedral over 100 years now in construction. In fact the mighty cranes that serve on site to complete the central spire were not available in the era in which the great Antoni Gaudi conceived of his creation.

And yet, the monument to our highest selves continues to soar upward. Can you imagine imagining? Can you imagine envisioning something ludicrously anachronistic? To make the unimaginable attainable is no easy task. To build for the benefit of a generation Gaudi would never know – imagine that.

“Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.” – Antoni Gaudi

As coaches, are we not architects of the future? Are we not imagining a young player as a mature cathedral of competence and character? We are. Well, those of us who consider the craft of coaching as such. It is easy to coach football. It is almost unimaginably impossible to do it to perfection – but that is what is honored most and should be. We must marvel at those masters who have inspired us beyond our bounds. We all have a Gaudi that took the raw material we were and fashioned us into something and someone more admirable.

You see there is architecture to our existence as there is architecture to every interaction we have with our young people. They are steel and stone, sand and space. They are protagonists of the future we imagine and they will stand alone well beyond our own years as a testament to that which we have created from the vast curiosity within our imagination.

A collection of drills is not a training program anymore than stone and stained glass is a cathedral. Blowing whistles and barking tactics is not coaching. We must become architects. We must scaffold our way to great heights. We must build with the materials before us today. We must work with the children in our midst and we must co-create the remarkable.

For those of us who drive to training without a vision, we build with dry sand. For those with of us with no cohesive and coherent training plan, we build alone and in discord. For clubs who send coaches out to the training grounds uneducated you send peril and lost potential to the fields of construction. And you do so with our most fragile and fabulous children.

I do not know what it takes to build a cathedral of such grandeur. But I know this truth. Gaudi did not just arbitrarily place stone upon stone in hopes of reaching the heavens. He was an architect of vision. He studied the science to make it stand. He studied art to make it inspiring. He built with passion and compassion. He built for a future beyond his own mortality. He built for the worshipers from which he would know no benefits.

So what?

As coaches, we need every ounce of Gaudi and more.

We need vision.

We need science.

We need art.

We need passion and compassion.

We need patience.

We need to build for a generation beyond our own, selflessly and proficiently.

“If we are a coach of convenience, we should not burden our children with our apathy.” – Todd Beane

If we are to create champions on and off the field of play, we must take accountability for who we are and who we are not at this very moment. If we are a coach of convenience, we should not burden our children with our apathy. If we are a coach of commitment then all else can be learned to fashion a program worthy of our players who trust us to be capable and competent.

I admire Gaudi. I admire those who innovate with integrity. And I can hear within those awe inspiring cathedral walls his words…

“Tomorrow we will do beautiful things.” – Antoni Gaudi

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Surfing, Soccer & Prototypes

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:43:00 GMT

I have six children and thus have personally funded a human laboratory in learning and chaos. Those of you with more than two children will understand this blog. I say more than two because once we have three or more children as a couple we are in a “numbers down” match and are just fending off disaster until the bedtime whistle blows. Mom and Dad can handle two kids just fine as they can play “1v1” minimizing damage and controlling the match.

In my family laboratory and on football pitches worldwide, there are some truths we hold to be evident about learning. Children do not learn the way we tend to coach them. Just observe young people and you will add countless examples to the ones I share here.

My oldest son wanted to surf at twelve years old. Oddly enough, he did not do drills on the dry sand simulating paddling. He took the board, threw himself into the open sea and gave it a go. He fumbled, tumbled and tossed about in full delight as I watched from the shore. Being a father and coach, I thought I should give him a few critical pointers first. He would have none of it and he proceeded to stand, surf and smile on his own. Iteration upon iteration.

My four year old started skateboarding. And oddly enough, he did not want to start with a series of Daddy’s drills. Surprise, surprise. Imagine how boring and unproductive that may prove to be. He took the board, went to the skate park, watched a few older boys, and gave it a go. A few scrapes later he dropped in and made his way around the curves to the delight of some far more experienced teenagers. Positive feedback, a new challenge and a deeper drop. Iteration upon iteration.

I share these two simple examples and I am sure you can add a million more. Our kids act first and then they seek the skills required to improve and to excel.

If this is such a natural process, should we not tap into it as coaches?

Prototypes and Iterations

Protos – “first”
Typos – “mold, pattern”

Children do not self-impose inane drills when they go to the beach, the skate park, nor the pitch. We do that. They build prototypes. They play, which in effect is their “first” “mold” of the game. It may be primitive, but they soon refine it. Iteration upon iteration. This is indeed the creative process at work. They make minor adjustments as the game they play resembles the more mature and sophisticated version they see the pros play.

If we can allow this process to unfold as we “train” the players then we will be exponentially better prepared to facilitate the guided discovery. If our exercises and activities ask the players to make these “first” primitive “molds and patterns” then we are constructing the game conceptually. We are reinforcing the fact that prototypes in their primitive nature are merely less sophisticated versions of the final model we hope to play on the weekend or in the years ahead.

We must ask players to build prototypes of the game and to think their way through the iterations required to build more sophisticated models.

We can line them up and pretend that children learn by us barking out instructions to execute thoughtless drills. It will feed our ego for sure. It may even appear to the parents that we are in charge of learning. If this is our aim, I suggest that we buy the latest training toys, put on colorful bibs and give onlookers the impression that deep learning is underway. Just to reinforce our authority, we may even want to shout out the word “hustle” every other breath just for effect.

But it will not nourish our young players.

If we want learning to take place, we must ask our players to do what they do best and do naturally. We must ask them to build prototypes of the game and to think their way through the iterations required to build more sophisticated models. Activities that are self-regulating and self-evident will give our players just the right feedback they need to rethink their models and to seek out the skills and knowledge required to build the next, better version. We may intervene as guides to challenge their assumptions and to applaud their discovery.

After all, we are in the business of player development. And if that still rings true, we have an opportunity to facilitate the learning process for every unique player in our charge.

Or we can have our kids sit on the beach for dry land training while the waves of life pass them by.

Surf’s up! Let’s let them ride.

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Dummying Down Downfall

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:46:00 GMT

This may not sit well with coaches, but it may be time to be honest as educators. How many of us are “dummying down” our trainings and then complaining about the lack of intelligent players?

Answer: Too many of us.

“My players do not understand football well enough to play that way,” a coach replied during a preseason training we offered in California. “We will be vulnerable in matches.”

This U12 coach was stunned when I agreed. He was even more stunned when I told him that he just made my argument for me.

“Exactly,” I replied.

“Your players do not understand football well enough,” I continued, “so who is going to change that reality?”

I went on to explain that if we lower our expectations we are dooming our players to mediocrity. What self-respecting coach would do that? All of us really. We do it week in and week out, year in and year out to avoid the short-term discomfort and potential weekend loss that reflects poorly on us as coaches. But what about the consequences of our cautiousness on our players?

If we seek intelligent, competent, and creative players at the age of seventeen, wouldn’t we want to do everything in our power to start developing that player today?

Let’s stop dummying down expectations and then expecting football wizards to emerge. It does not happen that way. Imagine watching a grade school teacher sticking with simple addition because multiplication is a bit too difficult for the students and errors may occur. Imagine that the teacher says he prefers guaranteed success, as it would reflect poorly on him if the children were to struggle with new concepts. Seems absurd when we put it this way, no?

Solution. Crank it up a notch. Introduce sophisticated concepts at young ages. At TOVO, we call this “ conceptual layering ” and we ask that the players train with joy, with energy and even with a fair amount of initial failure. Coupled with positive encouragement, you would be amazed at what high expectations can accomplish with our young players. They are challenged. They are inspired. They are treated with the confidence that they can learn. And interestingly enough, they do!

Please do not build systems of play that are the safest, least vulnerable and least demanding intellectually. That may serve us, but it does not serve our youth. Let them play in a way that requires constant thought. They may not master what we ask on day one, but will do so in the near future.

As my conversation continued with the U12 coach, I ended with one final comment, “Having your center back be more vulnerable today will make him a smarter and more alert footballer tomorrow.”

He was baffled by the apparent contradiction and I was thirsty for his response and the conversation to come.

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