A few months ago I wrote about my experiences coaching my daughter’s U7 soccer team. Specifically, I shared how lots of practice and hard work resulted in our girls winning their indoor league championship.

Well, I’m very excited to announce that these same girls successfully defended their crown this past weekend winning the indoor championship for a second time as they defeated a very strong team who, earlier in the season, clobbered us 12-4!

Now, while we did make a few positional tweaks to the way our girls played this team the biggest difference between the two games was related to one thing and one thing alone – dancing.

Changing our Focus

You see, after we lost that game 12-4 we were all a bit bummed – coaches and players.

Additionally, my coaching style and my assistant coach’s style had become a bit too intense and, as a result, the girls were playing tight and scared to make mistakes.

Sensing this I decided to make a BIG change to the way I approached practices and games. And this change was to simply loosen up and focus on the most important aspect of soccer for girls this age – HAVING FUN!

Let’s Dance

This change started at the practice after we lost 12-4. Our indoor team practices indoors where music is always playing… so, during some of the fun games we play to teach soccer skills I told the girls they could only pass the ball if they were dancing to the music.

To really mix things I up I joined in and started to dance with them. That, my dear friends, was enough to nearly draw tears from the girls as they were laughing so hard!

From a soccer perspective the beauty of all this dancing was the girls had “busy feet” and were in perfect position for their “first touch” and were able to pass the ball perfectly.

From a fun perspective the girls had a blast and the mood was immediately lifted.

We kept this “dancing” theme alive for the rest of the season. During warm-ups before games I, and the girls, would dance like fools. The other teams watched us like we were nuts… but we didn’t care. We kept right on laughing and dancing.

The results spoke for themselves. We played much better the rest of the season and most importantly I am pretty sure these little girls never had more fun playing soccer in their lives.

How this Relates to Us

Now, you might be thinking that this is a nice story for the these 6 and 7 year old girls… but wonder how it applies to you and those you work with day in and day out.

I propose it matters A LOT.

You see, we grown-ups often take ourselves far too seriously. Many of us would do well to loosen up while striving to truly enjoy the people we work with each and every day.

Many LSS Academy readers teach people about lean and six sigma. My question is how hard do you work to make people smile and laugh during your training sessions?

If you find yourself sounding like a boring professor and wonder why people’s eyes roll back into their skulls 30 minutes in… perhaps you can change your approach.  You may even try Gettin’ Jiggy With It as shown in the image to the right!

Many LSS Academy readers also manage people. My question is do your employees “work scared” or “work loose?” If they work scared and without passion perhaps you can change your style.

Now you may not choose to “dance” as this may not be appropriate in the corporate world but perhaps you can find other ways to lighten the mood.

What do you think?

With all this said, I am supremely confident injecting a little fun with all the seriousness of life and business will do nothing but help.

Have you worked in fun environments and not so fun environments? If so, where did you do your best work?

What do you think?

A few months ago I wrote about my soccer coaching experiences with my daughter’s U7 team. To conclude that article I mentioned we were about to start playing indoor soccer.

Well, that indoor season ended Friday night… and I’m happy to announce that our team of 6 and 7 year old girls won the championship!

I mention their ages since the team we played in the championship game was made up primarily of 8 year olds so winning the game was no small task. 

As an aside, the picture to the left is me and my daughter in her championship t-shirt that she won’t take off now!  

Anyhow, as is usually the case, I personally learned many things this past season. But one particular lesson stands above all.

Hard Work & Practice

The main lesson I was reminded of is that nothing is more important than hard work and practice.

You see, we’re not a club or academy team… yet in preparation for the big championship game we practiced twice a week.

During those practices we worked on fundamentals and scrimmaged. At this age, nothing is more important than increasing the number of “touches” the girls have with a soccer ball.

Additionally, all our girls had homework to do each night including things like doing at least 50 “toe taps” before they went to bed.

In other words, these little girls worked very hard.

Life Lessons

Immediately after the championship game I asked the girls, “Do you know why we won?” I then went on to explain that we practiced so hard and worked together as a team… and that’s why we won.

You see I find that many people, including grown-ups, fail to grasp the importance of hard work and why practice definitely makes perfect.

I’ve known people with amazing intelligence… yet they fail to meet their own life expectations because they’re not willing to put the work in. Instead, they expect their “talent” to carry them to success… which it rarely does in the long run.

So, while winning championships is great… the most important life lesson I hope to teach these young girls is that anything is possible with hard work and practice.

It’s 4:37 AM Right Now

What’s interesting about this story is that it’s 4:37 AM as I type this sentence in the parking lot of the indoor soccer facility my girls play at. Why am I here at this ridiculously early time?

Well, with more than 50 teams vying for practice time for the next indoor season that starts this Saturday, you have to arrive early to grab your practice slot unless you want to practice at 10:30 PM Sunday night.

When family and friends learned I was planning to be at the facility this early almost all said I was crazy. They simply couldn’t grasp why I’d be willing to sacrifice sleep for 6 and 7 year old girls.

But, to me, nothing is more important than giving these girls the opportunity to continue the life lesson that practice and hard work are the only way champions are developed, in sport or life.

Besides… if you could have seen the looks on their faces after they beat that team of 8 year olds – who incidentally clobbered us twice by 7 and 8 goals earlier in the season – you’d realize why I’m so committed to them.