When you look at a lot of great players, like Mezuit Ozil of Arsenal, Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich, or Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Paris Saint-Germain, it’s easy to think they got where they are simply by talent alone. You don’t think about the amount of time and effort they had to put in to get where they are. While all of these players are obviously talented, the way they got to where they are is through hard work and persistence. They spent countless hours working, practicing, and training to be successful.
In the same way, when you train, you need to realize that success will not come overnight or easily. You will have to put in hard work. Sometimes things will go wrong. Sometimes you will fail when you try new things. It’s easy to think that other players who are successful got there easily, and that their path to success was all fun and games. This is not the case. Even Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer to ever live, hated training. Someone asked him once how he felt about training. This was his reply, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”
What will separate you from the players who don’t succeed is whether or not you keep at it. Franck Ribery spent 4 years at Galatasaray with no pay before finally seeing success. Success takes time, and a lot of people approach the sport with the wrong expectations. They think if they just go to practice and show up at games, that’s enough. Then, when things get just a little difficult, they quit. These people will never truly succeed.
Don’t be one of these players. Instead, when things go wrong, train harder. You’ll be in pain. You’ll want to quit. It will be difficult. However, as Eric Thomas says, “You’re already in pain. Get a reward from it!” Don’t quit when things get hard. Instead, be like Muhammad Ali, who said “Don’t Quit! Suffer now and spend the rest of your life as a champion!”
– Justin
If you’re looking for somewhere to start with your individual soccer training, check out our 5 day training plan.
Image Attribution – Evening Soccer by Katie Brady
