by Leonard Marks, MD
When I initially read this I thought it was so-so; however, the more I thought about it, the more I enjoyed it. It grew on me. It hits a point – there are so many ways to view a situation. Do we want people who only agree with us or who put things in a different perspective?
In other words, ‘Do we want coaches who only agree with traditional methods or ones who put a different perspective into youth soccer?’
A young man applied for a job at a company. After the first interview, the owner of the company said, ” You are one of two applicants that I’m considering. I’m going to give you three questions and I want you to come back next week with the answers.
The first question is how many days of the week start with ‘T’?
The second question is how many seconds are there in a year?
The third question is how many “D’s” are there in Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer?”
The young man went home and thought about them over the weekend and came back the next week.
“Well,” asked the owner, “how many days of the week start with ‘t?'” “Two,” answered the young man. “Today and tomorrow.”
“That’s not the answer I had in mind,” mused the owner, but in a sense that is a correct answer.”
“How many seconds are in a year?”
“Twelve,” answered the young man.
“How do you figure?” asked the owner.
“Well, there’s January 2, February 2, ….” “Again, in a sense that is a correct answer, but not the one I was thinking of,” said the owner.
“How many ‘d’s” are in Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer?” “That was a really tough question,” said the young man. “I think it’s 114” “Could you explain?” asked the owner.
d…d…d…d…d…d… (sung to the tune of Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer). He got the job.
Coach… You can do the job by allowing your player’s the opportunity to experiment and fail their way to success without ‘points of refinement.’ …No Lines, No Laps, No Lectures.
Heck, who knows – the FUNdamental Soccer ‘ROUTINE‘ might work for you and your players too!!!’
