Building the player from the inside out

"67, Chevy Impala convertible. Vintage beauty, must see. Ready to roll!"


Old Blue was not quite this nice, but I always told everyone it's what's on the inside that counts...


Winnipeg
Once a group of us wanted to play in a prize money tournament in Winnipeg. It included the best club teams from Winnipeg, Ontario proper and Thunder bay. Anyone want to go? We enlisted 11 committed players, a keeper and 10 field players.

How do we get there?
The guys from the suburbs guys were going up together in one car. It was Thursday. We needed a ride for the other 6 by Friday afternoon.

My Brother Glenn, and I lived on Lake and Knox, famously right on the corner of Lake Calhoun in Uptown. It was August 1 and hot! they were rolling out the tents for the Uptown Art fair, it would be a good time to escape the city. So, Thursday night, still no plan for how we were getting to Winnepeg when we rented a movie called "Something Wild." In the movie, Melanie Griffith takes Jeff Daniels on a road trip to a high school reunion in a series of beater convertibles.

The next day Glenn called. "I have an idea, I saw a nice convertible for sale"

Nice?

I was at "Ron and Arnie's Used cars,"on east lake street, looking at the 67 baby blue chevy impala convertable, amble rust around the wheel wells, the sales man flashing his hand at me, "from the inside out baby! From the inside out!" He open the hood to show me the engine I knew nothing about, "and that's a rare z series electro-glide 2000 (or something like that) transmission. It's what's on the inside that counts!"

I handed over 9 one hundred dollar bills and rolled out of the lot.

It was 5 PM. At 6 PM six of us climbed in, three in the front, three in the back with room to spare, top down, to drive the 500 miles through the august night to Winnipeg.

"old Blue," was a good car. It got us there and back and served us well. Never quite the internal fortitude Arne sold me on, but that saying "from the inside out," stayed with me.

Just because Arne was stretching the truth dosen't mean he wasn't on to something...

What we CAN see is not important
So often the first thing we worry about is what we CAN see, uniforms, warm ups, equipment, marketing, elite team level, or whatever. The message we send is get the outside right and it proves the inside is solid. But what is really important? It's what's on the inside. Even skill and athleticism pail to the power of will, as Jose Mourinho says, you only need two things to be a player: you need to be able TO do it, and you need to WANT to do it.

The 11 of us who made that trip all wanted to do it. We were all were strong on the inside. We filled up Old blue with leaded gas, and each of us filled up our emotional fuel tank. And with a powerful inside engine, a little fuel goes a long way.

With kids, building that love of the game is our first and most important task. Much effort should be paid to balancing appropriate challenge and ability levels to help them find success. As they find success, however small, fill up that emotional fuel tank then set them off on a trip. Add the support and belief of others and they will get there.


How did we do?
Of 64 teams we ended up losing in the semi finals. Everyone of those players loved the game, they were solid people. Several of those players became the spine of the first Thunder team. To this day when we meet we chuckle over that weekend, the effort so beautifully pictured by our bench: 11 bags and no coach.

Keep working at it
The tournament director was at the podium, he was holding up 6 beautiful blue Adidas bags and 6 ugly brown bowling bags. He was announcing the sportsmanship award... "this goes to the best sports... eh, the ones who show us what soccer is all aboot!"

The beauty of Canadian tournaments is the sense of community and history, they always hold these big social Banquets. The DJ had stopped playing Madonna's "Holiday," the basement room of the Winnepeg Ritz was quiet with anticipation as the Director paused dramatically. The 11 of us watched and hoped.

"The award goes to the St. Paul Internationals!"

We rushed the stage, and in front of the entire tournament, wrestled between us over the 6 blue bags. So much for sportsmanship.

We do our best, but we all have things to work on. But with the inside set right we will do OK.