Natural Athlete

[Anonymous]

p.s. for all the haters that think this post is wrong because their dd is playing defense. Look at the us naional tea, With the exception of the defenders who play in the middle, the defenders are, on their professional teams offensive players. Look skill is really important in soccer. You dont built that by playing defense in general. Again. there are exceptions but defenders tend to end up there because they cant quite play offense but are good athletes who follow directions. center d / stopper / defensive center mid exempted

[Anonymous]

Please dont p.s. my post that your didnt write. I agree with you in some ways BUT there are good defenders that like defense and play that position beause it suits their personalities (with a boys especially sometimes this is because of natural aggression. Boy defenders can be vicious). My point was that the skills in soccer that are needed at the next level are not developed by playing defense. You dont possess the ball. You dont typically use your skills to beat players, you are not looking for someone crossing to pass to etc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Natural athletes are not necessarily elite athletes. I have seen, at bsc at least, the best natural athlete fail miserably. She is a spectacular athlete but has 0 vision and the coaches gave up on her in the front where the best players play. She is now a wing defender. Spectacular speed, throws the ball in a mile but no training means she is not getting any better. Natural athletes should play, when they are young, where they get the most time on the field up front or in middle where they can learn to play and pick up skill. In a lot of ways the best athletes are the worst served by the win at all cost under 15 model

As it has been said countless times, they need to put in lots of practice on their own outside of team practices and games. A natural athlete on my DD’s team looked impressive two years ago is starting to look average because she lacks technical skills. She only relied on her speed/athleticism while everyone praised about how good she was.

[Anonymous]

Tom Brady was picked 199th in the 2000 NFL draft because he was deemed as lacking all the attributes mentioned in this thread. He just won his 7th super bowl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tom Brady was picked 199th in the 2000 NFL draft because he was deemed as lacking all the attributes mentioned in this thread. He just won his 7th super bowl.

Correct. And he is not what I would call a natural athlete either.

[Anonymous]

The 20 Least-Athletic Athletes in Sports

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/696784-the-20-least-athletic-athletes-in-sports

[Anonymous]

It’s not “American football”....it’s just Football

Soccer is “European Football”.

Chow

[Anonymous]

Coordination
Quickness
Explosive power
Speed
Strength
Stamina

In that order. The “natural” part is simply where a kid starts out. The motivation and drive and commitment determines where they end up. “Confidence”, i.e. the ‘walk’ that a few here have referenced is the mental frame that enhances the physical attributes and allows a human to get the most out of themselves. I think one great aspect of a coach is to make all of their players confident about their abilities. This is both thru repetitive training (muscle memory) and positive reinforcement. I.e. when a kid does something well, praise them loudly with a smile. Don’t just dwell on the mistakes, but rather celebrate the successes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:p.s. for all the haters that think this post is wrong because their dd is playing defense. Look at the us naional tea, With the exception of the defenders who play in the middle, the defenders are, on their professional teams offensive players. Look skill is really important in soccer. You dont built that by playing defense in general. Again. there are exceptions but defenders tend to end up there because they cant quite play offense but are good athletes who follow directions. center d / stopper / defensive center mid exempted

Lol USWNT plays a 9 as left back because of her athleticism. Another LOL for the term “defense” and “defenders”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coordination
Quickness
Explosive power
Speed
Strength
Stamina

In that order. The “natural” part is simply where a kid starts out. The motivation and drive and commitment determines where they end up. “Confidence”, i.e. the ‘walk’ that a few here have referenced is the mental frame that enhances the physical attributes and allows a human to get the most out of themselves. I think one great aspect of a coach is to make all of their players confident about their abilities. This is both thru repetitive training (muscle memory) and positive reinforcement. I.e. when a kid does something well, praise them loudly with a smile. Don’t just dwell on the mistakes, but rather celebrate the successes.

You literally need strength before power.
Force (strength) is mass x acceleration
Power (power) is force x distance / time

It’s great to train strength and continue power training to maintain consistency but you can barely grow power (so much is defined by your genes). You can test this via the deadlift (strength) and power clean (power).