Seven Suggestions on Improving Soccer Performance

The 2018 World Cup is in full swing. If you haven’t caught any yet, you can stream the last few games here on Telemundo.

The world’s best players are out: Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar – unable to mesh with their national team, unable to pull those teams ahead on their own.

England’s national team, once a soccer powerhouse and the inventors of ‘football,’ has had abysmal international performance since 1996.

Apparently a missed shootout in 1996 has cursed the national team ever since.

Complicating the matter, that failed kicker from 1996 is now the head coach of England’s 2018 World Cup team.

Gareth Southgate isn’t letting his past failures define him. Instead he is using this as a stepping stone to teach his team about mindset and stretching past their comfort zone.

Persuasion is all about changing minds for better outcomes.

A friend recently asked how she could improve her own soccer performance. She felt that her skills were deteriorating and in need of a boost.

"IMG_1093" by Peter, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
“IMG_1093” by Peter, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

Here were my seven suggestions, based on self-persuasion.

Continue reading “Seven Suggestions on Improving Soccer Performance”

Why you Fail after you Win

Maths! Photo "Amherst63-012" by NealeA, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
Maths! Photo “Amherst63-012” by NealeA, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

In mathematics and statistics, Mean is one method to represent a data set with a single number. When we talk about “Average” we often refer to the “Mean.” The Mean is calculated by diving the sum of data points by that number of data points:

Add Data Points: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108

Sum of 108, Divided by 6 data points = 108/6 = Mean of 18

Mean is easiest to calculate with numbers and quantifiable data, such as your average (mean) nightly hours of sleep, or your mean cost of lunch. For example, the “Average Human” is either calculated from measurements, or it’s a general term people use without accuracy. Continue reading “Why you Fail after you Win”