Doing the Little Things Right Makes a Big Difference

This weekend one of our teams, the U15 boys Tsunami plays for a State Championship.  While watching their training this evening with coach Matt Lucas, the emphasis was on doing the little things right;  Open your body when receiving balls, turn your hips, check for balls, and then check away, time your runs to goal and finish on goal.  Nothing they haven’t heard before, but making sure the focus was on doing it correctly every time.

This is not the time to introduce anything new, but rather to make sure the smallest details are reviewed and practiced with care.  When competing against similarly strong opponents this weekend, this attention to detail can be the difference in winning a State Title.  

It was good to observe Coach Lucas making necessary technical or tactical corrections or tweaking an activity to make sure the players always saw the right picture and remained focused on the exercise.

My simple message to these young men was to understand that, yes, you are a very good team, but so are the other three teams competing, and they all want to win as much as you do.  So make sure you are prepared to do all the little things that you’ve been training all season long correctly and leave it all on the field.  Because this is what it takes to win a Championship at this level.

This is a talented group of soccer crazy young men who have dedicated many hours to becoming elite players in their sport and will most likely pursue the sport at the next level.  They have an opportunity to do something very special.  The entire club is very proud of this group and wishes them Good Luck over the weekend.

(The Tsunami will play this Saturday, May 17, at 3:15pm in their State Semi-Final against Toms River FC United. If victorious, they will play the Sate Final the following morning, at 9:30am at the same facility. The drive is approximately 1:45 from CMCH. GPS: 93 Freehold Rd., Manalapan, NJ)