S
occer is
described as
“the beautiful
game”, and has been and
always will be for the player‟s.
That is what I love about
Soccer. From the time I tied
the laces on my first pair of
„boots‟ I knew there was
something special about
„Football‟. As a player, I was
engrossed with every aspect, I
watched my childhood heroes
Paul Gascoigne & Gary
Linekar play every week, my
bedroom walls plastered with
posters of them in action.
drills and advice. Soccer was
our game.
My summers as a
child consisted of playing
soccer with a group of friends
from dawn „til dusk, using our
sweatshirts for goalposts,
playing without coaches or
parents to bother us with their
The game no longer
felt like it belonged to us, our
happiness was directly tied to
whether we made the starting
XI or impressed the coach to
make the team. My parents
would drive me miles to watch
me play (normally in the cold
As my friends and I
aged we began to play for
organized teams, with some of
us representing our regions,
and a few of us attending trials
for professional clubs. More
and more the game became
serious where results mattered
and performances judged and
analyzed. Training became
more focused, more intense,
and the coaches and managers
seemed to shout more often
than ever before.
and rain they would tell you)
and many weekends revolved
around soccer. I loved soccer
but the fun was being drained
from the game. My confidence
went up and down from week
to week based on whether I
scored or was deemed to have
played well.
Confidence is a huge
contributor to performance.
I‟ve always wondered how a
team from a lower division can
defeat the multi-million dollar
teams like Chelsea,
Manchester United, Barcelona
and Real Madrid. Technically,
these teams are much superior
– yet they still lose from time
to time.
One of the first steps
to developing the Girls‟ Soccer
program at Brooklyn Friends
School was to improve the