When I think back on my career as a soccer player, there were a few landmark events early on that were hugely impactful in my development.
I express this all the time: I had wonderful coaches and mentors growing up. This includes my parents, who both still do their training (usually weight lifting or running) every day--and during my 34 years on this earth, I have never once heard them make an excuse to miss a day; to my first coaches from Ashley’s Soccer Camp (including Ashley himself), who challenged me to master the basics. And there have been other key influences throughout my career.
There’s something incredibly empowering about that first moment you feel you have the autonomy and control to make yourself better. For someone with my personality, it was life-changing. But for anyone, I believe it’s hugely empowering to understand that you can impact your own destiny, and to be clear on exactly what to do to develop in whatever it is you’re interested in improving.
When it comes to soccer players, some have not yet experienced that crucial realization, because while they know what to do, they haven’t done it. And some have not yet felt that realization because they need more guidance, motivation and clarity.
Enter: Techne.
I was holding a webinar recently as part of the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Urban Soccer Symposium. One of the questions at the end was about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, and how to get players “hooked” on training. I basically said, at Techne we believe in both types of motivations. I firmly believe -- even as someone who has always been extremely intrinsically motivated -- that you need to do anything and everything you can to help a player find that hook.
With Techne, we throw out all the stops in order to help players get to the point of intrinsic motivation. We offer the plan for those who simply need the guidance on what to do; we offer score tracking and graphs to visually see improvement; we allow players to listen to music to make training more enjoyable; we have competition on leaderboards for players who are motivated by seeing what others are doing; and we’ve gamified the process by having players work their way through our training sock system (like the belt system in martial arts), for those who are motivated by reaching milestones and receiving cool gear.
The bottom line is that ideally every player would be motivated enough to feel that first moment of true individual improvement, and the power that comes with it. But not every player is willing to go out and try to get there, and stick with the process until they get there. So all of what we offer through Techne, as well as the work we do with our coaches and parents to help reinforce positive training habits, is geared towards getting players to that first, impactful moment. And then we trust that the feeling is powerful enough to ignite their inspiration.
My mentors gave me this wonderful gift that I’m now hoping to pass along. Through that first time I completed 10 juggles, or when my coach showed me how to train to properly strike the ball with my laces, I was being equipped with much more than a soccer skill. I was learning the feeling of empowerment, which transcends a sport and impacts one’s life. And particularly for a young girl, and now a grown woman, I understand that there are not many more valuable gifts a coach or mentor could have given me.