It's been a while since the last post but a lot has happened since then. The new year will bring a new start with the promise of a lot more posts with golden nuggets of information to help you reach your dreams.

Untill then, Happy Holidays to every one.

But difficult doesn't have to mean impossible (especially if you're a parent of a future Asia soccer star).

Sometimes,  a little understanding and strategic communication is all it takes to get them on side. Soccer parents need to be on side to motivate and inspire their kids, but they also need to make sure the coach keeps the authority and respect to command the best from each member of the team.

May be you can recognize some of these traits being shown by parents at soccer matches or even at soccer training sessions. May be you recognize some of these traits within yourself:

• The dictator: This is someone who bullies and constantly demands. Deal with a dictator by responding to his or her tirades in a calming and disarming way. Change your method of communication - from apologetic or passive to firm and assertive, for example.

• The know-it-all: An expert who has an opinion on everything. But when found to be in the wrong  s/he will pass the buck. Know-it-all invariably enjoy making people feel insecure - therefore, you must affirm your self-confidence. Limit your responses and offer other considerations without necessarily totally disagreeing with a point of view.

• The yes person: This person will promise everything under the sun, but rarely delivers. S/he may be charming, but lacks any real credibility. Have them state a deadline and then point out a list of possible obstacles that may hinder the time scale.

• The wet blanket: The opposite of the yes person, the wet blanket is forever talking about why things don’t work. Negative and pessimistic, s/he is resistant to change. Pin them down to facts. Success in dealing with them means moving from emotion to fact.

• The passive: The passive never lets you know where s/he stands by avoiding controversy at all costs and never offering ideas or opinions. Ask open-ended questions that initiate conversation. Reassure that it’s acceptable to disagree.

Many times, difficult soccer parents pass on their triaits to their kids, who inevitably bring them to the soccer training sessions and matches through a spectrum of emotions from aggression to a complete lack of confidence.

So the message is clear to parents, if you want your child to become a future Asian soccer star playing professional soccer, you need to curb your behaviour and let the coaches do their job.

I suggest adding "the hunting and slaying of 'Yebuts' to the job description of everybody  involved in youth soccer.

'Yebuts' - pronounced "Yeah-but" are monstrous little beasts that inhabit the meetings and conversations that take place in every soccer team.

A 'Yebuts' purpose in life is to sap a team of its competitive strength by allowing the fostering of excuses and spreading them like a wild-fire through the whole team.  They do this by grabbing someone's tongue and making them say things like:

'Yebut' we tried that last season.

'Yebut' we've never done it like that before.

'Yebut' the other team were too good for us.

'Yebut' the rest of the team doesn't work as hard.

'Yebut' they (this is the ubiquitous "they" who control the world) won't let us.

'Yebut' it might not work.

'Yebut' the weather was really bad.

Be aware that when they crawl onto the pitch during a training session or swoop down during a competitive match, those 'Yebuts' sometimes don't look monstrous at all.

Often, they adopt the appearance of a cute, cuddly perfectly acceptable or even helpful contribution to the discussion.

But, if 'Yebuts' are not recognized and stamped out right away, they usually succeed in their deadly, negative missions. The positive flow during training sessions and matches is soon destroyed.

If qualities like motivation, responsiveness, flexibility, decisiveness and speed are critical to your success, then 'Yebut' hunting is one important daily activity that everyone should undertake as their own.

And beware, the bigger your team the more 'Yebuts' you'll find.

Happy hunting!

I want to get straight back into soccer training because I feel like i've lost valuable days and my fitness has gone down. But my coach and my family want me to rest a few more days and make sure I fully recover from the flu virus before I put my body through any stress.

I can understand where they're coming from because i've been fully briefed on how I may have got the flu in the first place, and how my immune system needs to be strong enough to fight off any more viruses and bacteria that might be around.

Travelling up and down the motorway, partying till late (at my cousins wedding), not getting enough sleep, intense training and not eating properly have all put a strain on my immune system. It wasn't strong enough to fight the flu bug.

I have to be very careful and look after myself because next time it could be the swine flu bug that attacks my system, and that I definitely don't want.

According to  my coach, fitness levels don't take much time to get back to optimal levels because the nervous system remembers the level I was at before.

I know this is true because when I broke my collar bone earlier this year, and was out for 4 months, it didn't take long for me to get my fitness levels back. Infact, I managed to get fitter than most of my team mates before the end of the season and score the most goals

So for now i'm going to rest and just kick the my soft ball around the house until my body fully recovers.

Things have been so busy, with soccer training, home education and loads of weddings, that I came really close to burn out.

I'm only 13 years old and getting the rest, relaxation and recovery has helped me both physically and mentally. I feel a lot less stressed and able to think a lot clearly.

I know that I will always get the best help, advise and gentle nudge in the right direction to make the right decisions, but at the end of the day, I have to live with the decisions I make.

This might sound wierd but when I decided to become an Asian soccer star, I made a commitment to myself, my family and to my coach. And I will stick to my commitment.

I have  to make some important decisions, the most important being whether I should stay in the Sunday league or concentrate on training for academy trials and playing in county cup tournaments.

The reason this is difficult is because I will have to leave my current Sunday league club where I enjoy playing Sunday soccer.

On the other hand, playing Sunday league soccer could put me at risk of injury which could affect my chances to get academy trials.

Anyway, I think I know what i'm going to do. I have to look at what is going to be best for my future career as an Asian soccer star playing professional soccer.

But over the past few days I feel that my training is actually made me sick. I feel tired, out of energy and have a splitting headache.

And before you say it, no it's not swine flu! I don't have a high temperature, which according to the new nhs pandamic flu helpline, is one of the symptoms.

I think it's more to do with being run down, I had a heavy week at my cousins wedding last week. It started on Wednesday and went through until Sunday with festivities every day.

So, I guess the late nights, dancing and soccer training has caught up with me. And it's all about to start again with another cousins wedding over the next few weeks.

I really need to take care of myself and get more rest so my body can recover and be ready for each training session.

Otherwise, i'll probably get 'burn out' and lose my drive to become an Asian soccer star.

I have a massive poster with a quote in my gym, where I coach Sobha and other future Asian soccer stars. The quote comes from the legendary fighter and sportsman, Muhammad Ali:

"Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion"

This is the last sentence, and most important part of a longer quote in which he says:

" I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' "

It's a very simple philosophy and either you'll get the message or you won't.

Generally, in life and especially in competitive sports, those that get the message will succeed. Those that think they don't need to suffer at all will never really get anywhere at all.

But lets see what the real message of suffering is. I believe it isn't about the physical, brutal nature of what the word implies and I don't think that Muhammad Ali meant it that way when he said " I hated every minute of training".

I think it's more about focused attention, about a state of mind.

Let's take the example of Sobha. Some days he wakes up and he's not in a state of mind for training… he doesn't want to suffer the physical and sometimes brutal endurance that he knows his young body has to go through for the next couple of hours.

But as soon as he gets focused on his goal and his training, his state of mind shifts to another level and he actually starts to enjoy the physical endurance knowing that he is getting closer to his goal of playing professional soccer.

He starts thinking like a champion. And in his mind that's exactly what he is.

Every one has different goals and some come easier than others. Champions understand this.

But champions regard the journey towards the goal as small battles that win the war.

So the message is clear.

"Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion".

But last week I learnt a really important lesson that will have a really big impact on whether I make it as an Asian soccer star or not.

The problem is that training hard and long can make you more likely to get an injury, as I learnt. I started to get a pain in my hip area everytime I kicked the ball or attempted to practise any skills. Luckily my coach knew that this could lead to problems and told me to rest.

After seeing the physio I learnt that it was an inflammation caused by overuse and my core muscles around my hip needed to be strengthened.

The important lesson i've learnt is that it's better to train with the right technique and build my strength and core stability rather than just my stamina. I had my induction at the gym and started going running by myself, away from my training schedule, which put extra pressure on my body.

So now i'm only going to train under supervision and work my programme which includes: functional strength and balance, core strengthening, agility and coordination and most importantly, flexibility.

Slight pangs of pain alerted us to an area around his hip which is prone to overuse in youth soccer players.

Coupled with another growth spurt his training program and schedule has been reevaluated and restructured.

The importance of monitoring, analysing and adjusting kids soccer training programs is so important that parents and coaches who overlook to put a safety mechanism in place risk the future soccer careers of their kids.

Here are a couple of articles that may help you understand more about soccer training overuse injuries.

How To Recognize and Prevent Overuse Injuries in Soccer
by Gary A. Levengood, M.D.

Soccer, one of the most popular team sports in the world with over 200 million registered players worldwide, is a game of nonstop action. Most injuries in soccer occur in the lower body, mostly to the knees and ankles.However, repeated or prolonged use (overuse) injuries are common problems, especially toward the end of a long and gruelling season. These injuries are the result of constant overloading and wearing down of a tendon (tissue connecting muscle to bone), muscle, bone or joint, resulting in the inability of that structure to perform its normal biomechanical duties….

more

How to prevent overuse injuries

by Steve Watson http://www.footy4kids.co.uk

Overuse injuries in children are increasing in frequency and you are right to be concerned.

I think that the key to avoiding overuse injuries lies in understanding the root causes. Most agree that these are:

• Growth spurts
• Inadequate warm up
• Excessive activity (for example, increased intensity, duration, or frequency of playing and/or training)
• Improper technique (for example, overextending on a pitch)
• Unsuitable equipment (for example, nonsupportive athletic shoes)

I would suggest that children who are coached by qualified sports coaches who understand the risks, teach correct techniques, use effective warm up activities and are careful to increase the intensity of training in a controlled way will not be at much risk from developing an overuse injury.

In addition, the careful selection of footwear will help prevent all injuries, including overuse injuries, to the foot, ankle and knee.

It is also important to make sure that children are physically fit before taking part in organised sport and that they are stopped from playing altogether if they complain of pain.

I would also recommend that young children do not play competitive sport - youth sports should always be fun and the "win at all costs" attitude of many parents, coaches, professional athletes, and peers can lead to injuries. A young athlete striving to meet the unrealistic expectations of others may ignore the warning signs of injury and continue to play with pain.

It really can make or break your dream.

It has been found that a common trait shared by very successful soccer players is their overall-winning attitude.

In fact, most of the professional soccer clubs have a team of psychologists and therapists whose sole purpose is to monitor players' mental state periodically.

Soccer players with a positive attitude fare much better during games than those with a less optimistic viewpoint.

Forrest Gump is the main character in a movie with the same title. The movie traces Forrest's life from the time he is a child through to early middle age.

Born with a below average intelligence, but an amazing ability to focus all his attention and energies on clearly defined goals, Forrest overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve great success.

His great ability to focus on a Table Tennis ball, gives him a talent for winning at world class level in Ping-Pong, it also leads him into money by way of product endorsement and he then realized a long held ambition (borrowed from a colleague in Vietnam) to buy a shrimp fishing boat that becomes the basis for great financial success.

The message of the film is very clear. Undistracted by extraneous happenings, Forrest focused on the few talents he had, and he rode them to great success and great happiness.

What a lesson for all of us in these days, when so many have such great anxiety and self pity, and when so many are so busy placing the blame for their unhappiness and "failures" on others.

In soccer, if we go into every training and match with a Forrest Gump-like focus and positive attitude we could develop to the maximum and enjoy a long and successful professional soccer career.