Additional Speed, Stamina, Strength & Stretch training have been well accepted in the world of professional sports.
If you talk about athleticism it’s assumed you’re talking about these qualities.
How good an athlete is at their sport is often put in a different category.
This model is incomplete.
The strongest, fastest athletes are rarely the best in most sports.
Why?
Because they lack skills.
Balance, Balls & Beats are the primary skills.
Most athletes aren’t progressing them.
The foundational game of an athlete is the game they take with them regardless of the team tactics or team mates.
It’s not the strategy and synergy with team mates or the psychology of performance which are also important.
Let me explain.
Soccer is one of the most strategic team play games.
Managers are revered for the style of play they bring and the formations they employ.
And yet the best players are still the best players regardless of the teams they play for.
How effectively are team systems actively expanding their players soccer specific abilities once they become professionals?
Is there a club that consistently recruits average players in their early 20’s and turns them into star players?
Is there a star player at 28 who wasn’t a standout player at 20?
Soccer one of the most complex sports because it’s played primarily with the legs rather than the arms.
Key plays are either made while standing on one foot or neither.
Most sports we use the arms and can use two feet.
One of the most persistent messages you hear from professional players is to practice more against the wall.
Marcello is known for mastering juggling with the tennis ball.
He’s commonly recognised as one of the greatest defenders the game has seen.
Touch is an obvious and key ability for soccer players to develop and yet most players aren’t aware of the best methods to actively progress it.
Practicing with the team lacks the creativity and freedom to ever create players like Marcelo.
But what abilities has Marcelo been blind to that future players will leverage?
For most beginner and intermediate players improving balance & beats is a better foundation than trying to build ball skills on a weak foundation.
Don’t build your mansion on sand!
I have more research to do on the behind the scenes in soccer.
In rugby league I have seen that most players aren’t active and aware about how they are building their foundational games.
1-2 specific weaknesses might be getting 2-5 minutes of extra work 2-3 times per week outside of team practice.
When you think about professional dancers or circus performers it’s hard to imagine that so little work is going into the individual.
Most of the emphasis is on the secondary game of strategy & synergies.
This type of training is important but can only be done in small volumes because of the physical demands and the need for several players simultaneously.
Game tempo, game specific skill execution rules practice while the foundation remains more or less where it was last season.
A big reason why the primary abilities aren’t being developed in professional athletes is because they haven’t been identified.
Coaches aren’t aware of them.
Players aren’t aware of them.
Training facilities aren’t designed for them.
The abilities are poorly assessed and quantified.
Some of the transfer is also very subtle and harder to measure than changes in force profiles.
But it’s the subtle skills that separates the best athletes from the rest!
Within days of building your primary skills you will feel subtle differences as an athlete.
Within weeks it’s very clear.
You can no longer doubt yourself in the ways you once did.
The path is clear.
Within months you are a new athlete who is more adaptable and ready to fire.
The progress can and will continue for decades.
The foundation can always expand.
The joy of expansion becomes greater as abilities increase and confidence improves.
This goes beyond any one sport.
It’s wired into your DNA for future generations.
You pass it to your children in action and in biology.
If you haven’t started yet make today the day…
The best investment you’ll ever make is in knowing yourself more fully.
Today we added the follow along section from level 0 to 5.
We’re reducing every skill to the ridiculous so anyone can get started and make progress in their first 5 minutes.
Go to newathleteproject.com to get started or DM New Athlete OR Me if you have any questions.
