The 2023 soccer season is approaching in the United States and for NJ Teamsterz FC (NJTFC). Preparation for the new calendar includes confronting players about their physical, technical and mental abilities. Players must be prepared to face a large number of matches, and preseason training is a responsibility that falls under greater importance to both clubs and players, and should be a main fundamental factor.

During preseason training, the body and mind gets exposed to intense coaching, with the aim of ensuring players can maintain a high level of physical performance throughout the season. This is why preseason is thee most important time of the year for coaches.

Building a good physiological base will put the footballer at a competitive advantage, not only in front of his teammates – with which he will have a competition for ownership – but against rivals. And a good preseason will increase their strength, the resilience and elasticity; which will be of great help for the improvement in technical, tactical, cognitive performance and, no less important, to have a greater protection against injury. It is essential that the player is aware that performing good training sessions before the first league game is the ideal opportunity to improve the player’s qualities and correct their weaknesses.

I am one of those who draws on other sports, to watch football aka soccer from other perspectives. Have you ever heard the coach and uncle of the tennis player Rafael Nadal – Toni Nadal, talk about the value of effort? In that talk, he emphasized self-criticism, in knowing how good one is, to really know where one stands in front of others and especially in front of oneself. That statement made me understand that this is the starting point to be able to achieve personal goals in sports. With the talent and skillset that you were born with, training and hard work is what it takes to get to the next level. The soccer player has to push himself and build from the stress and from mistakes, to improve day after day. Character is formed with difficulty, there can be no excuses to not train, and not to improve!

Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Alex Morgan, Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer have two words in common, hard training. Only then can players remain focused, and mentally strong, for the fulfillment of the goals, season after season. That is why the motivation is found in the question, “What does competition mean for the athlete?”. The goal is going to be the inspiration for training.

Today, technology has arrived to help solve problems and make life easier. Now you can learn how many good passes a player has made, how many miles per hour traveled, their heat map, and his or her ability to demonstrate the probabilities he or she has hitting “x” or “y” target, in a match. However in football, as in sports in general, the players who possess perseverance, sacrifice, discipline and hard work are the ones who will reap the rewards at the end of the season.

So get training, a new season is about to begin. As the motto goes at NJTFC, stand ready to strike!

*Original article was written in Spanish by Ricardo Bejarano