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...For
the young players reading this, you should realize that
to be great, your practice has to be lifelong. No one
really ever stops needing the work: ask Zinedine Zidane
or Mia if you don’t believe me. Obviously, to be
considered one of the most skillful players in the world—who
was so crucial in helping France win the 1998 World
Cup—Zidane didn’t get that way in his sleep.
And Mia, the highest goal scorer in international women’s
soccer, still works on finishing every day in practice.
I’m in the same boat. In fact, before the Olympics
the coaches with the National Team talked to me about
the need to improve my 1 v 1 defending, and together
we decided that whenever possible, 10 minutes before
or after every training, I would practice with a couple
of attacking players, letting them dribble right at
me as I work on my footwork, balance, judgment and patience.
Or sometimes I need to do other things, such as just
yesterday, our last training on US soil before heading
off for the 2004 Olympics, I worked on long balls with
Kate Markgraf. And during a recent scrimmage, April,
our coach, walked over to my side of the field and gave
me pointers while I played.
It’s
not any different than Mia working on her shooting.
“Watch this,” she said to Joy and me one day
recently at practice. She shot ball after ball, all
of them flying over the post. We told her what we were
seeing, and she made slight adjustments. She groomed
her shot and eventually found her rhythm.
Practice
is most effective if you’re surrounded by players
who are better than you, at least in certain areas,
but one of the nice things about practice is that like
a wall pass it can involve a lot of give and take. Mia
is a great goal scorer, and Julie has a savvy understanding
of the midfield, so playing against them forces me to
improve. And like Mia asking us to evaluate her shot,
working together helps us all to be on the top of our
game.
If
I could offer any advice for players who really want
to raise their level of play, I’d say always put
yourself in situations in which you are teetering on
the edge of success or failure, so you won’t be
afraid of a challenge in the game. In a game situation,
you may not want to take certain risks, because a result
is on the line. Practice is the best time to take the
chances that come with honing your skills. In one of
my clinics we were doing a drill in which I was trying
to get kids to embrace the fact that soccer is a contact
sport. I asked everyone to get a partner, but one of
the smallest girls didn’t find one. So, I became
her partner. She looked up at me with these big eyes,
questioning how she was going to go against me. We battled
while she managed to shield the ball for a few seconds,
getting better each time she tried it. If she had been
paired with a smaller player, she likely wouldn’t
have explored the art of shielding, footwork or balance—let
alone the sense of confidence and satisfaction she got
from going up against a bigger, stronger player...
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