Getting The Habit By Graham Ramsay   Do you want to get good? Do you want to become very good? If the answer is “YES” to either question, then there is only one solution – GET THE PRACTICE HABIT. All the great players possess this priceless asset in abundance, especially when they were youngsters. They had no coach. In fact, they probably thought a coach was a type of bus. By their early teens, without knowing it, they were their own best soccer coach. They had already developed a single-mindedness and dedication to their art. To give you an indication of what Maradona or Ronaldo did as children is to look at how they learned to play. Both were raised in a soccer culture. The game was all around them – 24 hours a day. Even when they didn’t think they were learning, they WERE learning. The ball may have been mainly on the ground, but the sport was always in the air. Now, unless you use this advantage of fertile soccer pastures, then it’s all for nothing. By pastures read streets, beaches, parking lots and a vast variety of games from playing alone to 20-a-side, etc. In all probability, they never played on a real, grass field until they joined a pro club or played with a real ball, unless it fell off the back of a truck! Often, it was an improvised ball. One day it would be an old ball stuffed with rags. Another day, it might be a tennis ball, or an old soda ca. So from day one, they had to learn to adapt and improvise – a great natural, learning environment. Fortunately, these two great talents caught a contagious disease and then set to work with applying the infamous “Practice Habit.” Nearly every day they practiced and/or played. Some soccer experts maintain that to get good, they had to be touching the ball well over a 1,000 times a day. YES, over 1,000 times a day! Another trait is their imagination and inventing different ways to practice. Even today, Ronaldo brings his “game” to every team he plays on. This game has followed him since his schoolboy days in Rio, playing in the streets, to now where he graces the greatest stadiums in the world. Great players are superb at inventing and playing games. They should be as they have invested so much time and devotion to them! How do you know if you have this “habit?” Answer these questions and find out: 1) Do you dream of scoring brilliant goals? Like dribbling from your own goal, beating all their team with a mazy dribble, leaving them on the ground like fallen trees after a storm, to “nutmegging” the goalie. Next day, you might feel like shooting from the halfway line as the goalie is too far out, leaving the goal unprotected … 2) Do you practice four or five times a week? 3) Do you plan your own practice and invent your own games? 4) Do you set high standards for yourself? 5) Do you keep a notebook / journal of your records and new ideas   If you can answer “YES” to all of the above questions, perhaps one day, you will be gracing the national team and playing your “game.”   GOOD LUCK & GOOD SOCCER, Graham Ramsay MSYSA Director of Coaching Education   For more information, refer to WWW.RAMSAYSOCCER.COM