Leading Soccer Expert Sam Snow on A Pathway For Success in Youth Soccer
Anything worth achieving is worth working for, but having expert guidance can make a huge difference, especially in the highly competitive world of American youth soccer. Here is SoccerToday’s youth soccer expert, Sam Snow’s proverbial Right Stuff.
Sam Snow is the former longtime Technical Director of US Youth Soccer and now is the founder of American Made Soccer Consultants. Snow has over forty years of experience as a coach, player, and administrator in soccer in the USA.
The following four-step formula evolved from interviews and discussions with top-performing soccer players conducted over a period of ten years.
- Step 1: self-discipline.
- Step 2: self-control.
- Step 3: self-confidence.
- Step 4: self-realization.
Success in Soccer – Step 1: Self-Discipline
Everything worthwhile begins at this level.
It simply means doing whatever you have to do.
Make whatever sacrifices are necessary to get the job done the best you know how.
It’s hard work; it’s giving up things you like in order to achieve a higher goal.
Success in Soccer – Step 2: Self-Control
Self-discipline leads directly to self-control.
As you discipline yourself, you experience steady increases in self-control.
Control of what you do, what you think, and how you react.
Without self-control, being the best you can be as a player is nothing more than a fantasy.
Success in Soccer – Step 3: Self-Confidence
Self-control leads directly to self-confidence.
What tracks are to a train, self-confidence is to the player—without it, he or she can go nowhere.
Self-confidence, that unshatterable belief in yourself, comes from knowing that you are in control.
Self-confidence, without it a player can go nowhere.
Success in Soccer – Step 4: Self-Realization
Self-realization is simply becoming the best you can be, the manifestation of your talent and skill as a player.
It is the fulfillment and the ecstasy of sport.
Self-realization follows directly from self-confidence.
Once you believe in yourself and feel good about yourself, you are opening doors to your fullest potential.
Spend some time thinking about this simple formula. Think about how it relates to you within the realm of soccer as well as outside it.
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
– John Wooden
