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Mental Skills Toolkit:

Become a Better Soccer Player by Doing This ONE THING

Published: October 14, 2021
Updated: February 20, 2023
By: Jenn Ireland

Category: Growth-Mindset, Individual Training, Leadership

The absolute number one thing that you can do, to become a better soccer player, is this:

BE INVESTED. Truly, deeply, passionately invested in every piece of your game.

Being deeply invested in your team, in your individual development, and in your game at large, is the very best thing that you can do to improve your soccer game. Regardless of where you are in your soccer career and on your soccer journey, regardless of what team you are on or who your coach is or how good your team is – you can become a better soccer player VERY QUICKLY by choosing to be invested.

Be deeply invested & you'll get better at soccer, 100%

Why is being invested the most important piece of becoming a better soccer player? Isn’t ball mastery, technical work or actual soccer SPECIFIC things the best thing that you can do to get better at soccer?

Well yes and no. Yes, those are all very important, NECESSARY, elements of the game. But that stuff comes along WITH being invested. Being invested in your growth and development is WHY you are doing all of that.

Having a very clear sense of purpose is what keeps your motivation and drive high, that's why being invested in so important.

When you are deeply invested, you progress forward because you are very clear about where you are going and what you want. You want to grow, improve and get better at soccer. And you’re willing to put in the work.

That is being invested. That is how you get better at soccer.

Dedicated to self-improvement

To be deeply invested in your soccer game means that you FREELY & WILLINGLY give a lot of time, energy and effort to the process of improvement. Being deeply invested means that you care very much about your development and your growth. It also means that you care very much about yourself and are willing to do the hard things required to reach your goals.

Here’s the awesome part – and WHY being an invested player is the number one way to get better at soccer: when you are invested, doing the work comes easy. It’s not a problem to stay motivated and put in the effort when you are invested.

But when you are NOT a very invested player, you might be able to consistently train on your own for a few days, but it quickly becomes hard to stick with. Without an underlying true, deep investment in your development to drive you, it is very hard to get through on willpower alone.

Being invested elevates EVERY part of your game

When you are an invested player, you WANT to put in the time to work on SAQ (speed, agility, fitness) and ball mastery. You WANT to set a new juggle record. You WANT to go for that extra long run. You WANT to spend time studying tactics and style of play. You WANT to figure out how to communicate better, support your teammates better and lead better. Being invested is the fuel that keeps all of this going.

What does it actually mean to be invested?

What does it mean to be an invested soccer player? To be invested means to be accountable. It means to take responsibility for your development and to WANT to do the things needed and required to push forward and get better at soccer.

Being an invested soccer player means:

to be involved
to be committed
to be willing to work hard even when others aren’t
to be a leader, to not always follow the crowd if what they are doing doesn’t align with what you need or want
to listen and learn
to be confident, to have a positive view of yourself while also knowing where you have room to improve and grow
to be willing to take on challenges, do hard things, and work to overcome obstacles
to be a good teammate, to be encouraging, kind, helpful & trustworthy
to be someone who asks questions, seeks out information and is truly interested in learning and expanding their knowledge of the game
to watch soccer and study soccer, both your own game film and professional matches as well
to be coachable
to be openminded to new ways of looking at things
to go above and beyond and do the extra things because you WANT to

Grow your confidence through preparedness.

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Actions always speak louder than words

This is HANDS DOWN the most important piece of advice I have for you today: don’t be the soccer player who SAYS they are invested, but then their ACTIONS SHOW THEY ARE NOT.

Words and intention mean nothing without action behind them. Be accountable. Don’t make excuses. Don’t tell your coaches/teammates/parents/etc. that you are invested, don’t SAY you want to work hard to reach your goals, and then go out and do NOTHING. Don’t do it. It won’t get you anywhere except feeling bad about yourself.

Being invested and becoming a better soccer player requires personal integrity, which means doing the things you say you are going to do.

Make the choice today to show up for yourself. If you truly want to become a better soccer player, show up for yourself.

Just do it. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Nobody can talk you into ‘being invested.’ Your parents can’t make you do it. Your coach can’t either. Besides, it’s not their job. If you want this, you have to seize control and do it for yourself. You are in charge of how good you get. YOU.

When you realize that you, and only you, are in charge of your forward progression, you feel a sense of empowerment and thrill. And this is when you really start to flourish: when you truly understand that you are in charge, that the ball is in your court.

Truly being invested requires self-awareness and an ability to reflect and analyze yourself while viewing things with a healthy striving mentality and growth mindset.

Coaches love players who are invested

As a soccer coach, my absolute favorite type of player is an invested player.

I love working with invested players who want to get better at soccer because their growth-mindedness and enthusiasm for the process is inspiring and invigorating.

I am a very invested coach myself, I give a lot of time and energy to my teams, so when I see my players start to get invested I am thrilled. I jump right in, asking them what I can do to further help them and eagerly go out of my way to provide them with whatever they need in their pursuit of improvement.

When your coach knows that you are invested, you’ll benefit even more from them because, honestly, they will coach you better and put more energy into you as an individual player. It’s usually not a conscious choice the coach makes, but instead a thing that naturally happens. Coaches will invest more in you as you begin to invest more in your game because they KNOW it’s time well spent.

(BTW you should read this, it’s great. OL Reign’s Bethany Balcer talks about how a soccer coaches favorite type of player is an invested one.)

Being invested and becoming a better soccer player is actually really, really fun

Along with becoming a better soccer player, being more invested can also help breathe new life and joy into your game. Taking ownership of your development is actually quite fun and exciting because it gives you a new mindset and fresh perspective and really can help your game come alive.

To sum things up, if you want to be a better soccer player, be invested. Don’t hope for someone to discover you, sitting around wishing you were on a higher level team, go out and make things happen. Be so good that nobody can ignore you.

Make things happen by taking a deep dive into your development and exploring every angle of your game with an open mind. Trust in yourself and have love for the process and all the amazing things you’ll get to experience along the way.

This is how you become a better soccer player. This is how you experience your greatness. This is how you dominate.

Hi everyone! I’m Jenn and I create content to help female soccer players and coaches maximize individual and team potential by developing healthy mindset skills. Join other subscribers and sign up for the newsletter for all my best tips and advice!

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Hi everyone!

I'm Jenn, a USSF C-licensed youth soccer coach, mental skills coach & founder here at Expand Your Game. I created this site because it is the site I needed when I was a soccer player.

About me: I am a former newspaper photojournalist who loves downtempo electronic music, guacamole and books of every sort. And of course soccer! On days off you can find me researching tiny farms in Portugal , tossing a frisbee for my dog, or tending to my growing collection of indoor plants.