Products of our enviroment

In his new book, OUTLIERS, Malcolm Gladwell takes on the question of what is behind great individual achievements. The conclusion briefly put is that we are all products of our environment.

Everything must be right. To this day Brazil puts out the most professional soccer players in the world. Soccer players are their second leading export behind sugar. But there is something interesting that many of the players have in common: 50% of all professional players in Brazil come from the "golden triangle," an area beginning in Sao Paolo and extending 75 miles north and west. Why do so many of Brazil's players come from this area? Everyone in Brazil loves the game. Street and campinho games are everywhere. What is it about this area that produces so many players? In the 1960's the coaches of the national team ever brought a Uruguay training technique to improve the play of Rivelino, Tosatao, Carlos Alberto and Pele and others. That game was Futebol de Salao. As the team found success and their training was scrutinized. The players loved it. At the 1970 world cup the National team had a "futsal" court built on top of their Hotel in Mexico.

The civic leaders of Sao Paulo were sold. If the pros liked the game the kids would play it. They built courts in the city. The initiative was quickly proliferated into the suburbs and cities as they were expanding north and west. Futebol de Salao became the game you had to play. Clubs sprang up. Kids played it in droves. This area converted to Futebol de Salao before and with more commitment then other areas in Brazil. This was their advantage. What might seem like a small advantage early is the difference in becoming a pro and club player. In Brazil if you want to be pro you had better play lots of Futebol de Salao. Now kids growing up in this area know someone who is pro, they see the pathway, they dive in and participate.

Players don't develop on their own, they are products of their environment. That environment handles our most precious commodity: our youth. Everything must be put into creating a fertile, nurturing community that supports the love of the game and the joy of play.

It's so much more than simple combinations of games and coaches and skills. It is contstant humility and learning. the devil is realy in the details of building the fragile

What does this mean? For players it means to redefine success as player growth and create a culture of skillful creative kids who love the game, are hungry for more and a pathway they can see. For coaches its education and enlightenment of a better model, and for parents it becomes the establishing of sound principles: that the child comes first, that soccer is creative, and the best soccer is played closest to home.

TK

Joy of the people

In Brazil, where superlatives take on a life of their own, "joy of the people," is the nickname for Garrincha, the storming, unstoppable right wing that many consider more vital than Pele in bringing in the 58 and 62 world cups. He was poor, from the favelas of Rio, he was born with one leg shorter than the other, he was smallish and tricky, Garrincha means "little bird." To practice he took a ball to the local schoolyard and challenged the kids to take it from him. He was temperamental and eventually saw his career and life cut short through poor lifestyle choices. But, no one, before or since, could move with the ball like he could. Pictures of him cutting the ball, flying in from the outside toward the goal show him darting at insane angles, bypassing defenders, 2, 3, and more. He was unstoppable, his movement was memorizing, and when he played the people felt the joy.

That joy is the joy of the playground, the innocence of youth, the return to the purity of sport. It is what we all hope to see in ourselves, in our kids. The creative, building, the new, the remembered. Well into his forties and coaching at Barcelona, the reporters asked the great Johann Cruyff why it was he continued to participate in the 6 v 6 scrimmage at the Barcelona first team practice, "because," he said, "sometimes, for a moment, for a brief moment, I am 25 again."

This Blog is about soccer development, not just kids but everyone, to adult and beyond. About learning. About joy. About making friends along the way. The things when all is said and done that we will remember.

What are the keys to growth in soccer? What Can these clues about soccer growth teach us ourselves and about learning in other ares? . What is it that makes us grow in sport? Learn? What can we learn from the pursuit of mastery? For over 30 years I have played, coached and studied youth, adult and now masters soccer development, how we learn, how and why we stop learning, things that help us progress, things that inhibit growth. I have seen players I would never have expected go on to National levels, I see seen players I thought would go on to national levels fall flat in the face of simple obstacles.

I have played with players from every country. I have made friends and rivals and now am working to help others do it better. The joy of the people? My hope is that this blog strives to discover that joy. Can we create an better enviroment that produces people, players and teams that play with that Joy? What about the great players? What were the keys to their development? Is it our duty to search for perfection as Valdano suggests? Of course it's never possible, but perhaps it's our duty to try.

TK