Hola, or "bon dia" as they say in Catalan!
I'm still in Barcelona as I write this, at the end of an exhilarating week being an (international no less - lol) soccer mom. When this email lands in your inbox I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic watching movies to stay awake, or if I can get wifi, catching up on some work! After being immersed in soccer at the highest level both with talented youth and the insanely incredible FC Barcelona pros, I couldn't help but notice some things.
1. Like music, you start training at a young age and you devote so.much.time to it.
2. The boys had training every morning, and played "friendlies" each night - games with local clubs where they could put what they learned into immediate practice.
3. Individual skills were taught and practiced with high reps. Then corrections and adjustments were made before being implemented into a scrimmage within 1 training hour.
4. Periods of intense focus were delineated by water and rest breaks that were a time for fun and team camaraderie.
5. One day the kids had a career talk by a retired player one day who said: all of you dream of becoming a soccer star one day, but the reality is only a very small number of you will achieve it. Despite this, keep working hard, persevere and keep your mind open to possibilities. There are a great variety of jobs to be had in the field, and your soccer training carries over to anything and everything you choose to do.
6. The coaches emphasized playing with freedom, personality and h.e.a.r.t. One piece of feedback my son received was not to linger on his mistakes but keep moving forward and look for the next play or pass. Playing with personality means having fun on the pitch, and they were taught that the acronym for Barça's game values, "heart", stands for:
H - humility
E - effort
A - ambition
R - respect
T - teamwork
7. Finally, the teams were pitted against similarly-aged Spanish teams who routinely crushed our American teams. My son's team did win one match, but as the director of the program explained, "you have to open your eyes to the game at a global level", and learn from teams that are better than you!
Any of the above sound familiar? The parallels are obvious, but I wanted to hit you over the head with it, as we can't repeat these ideas enough! I might also add, the extent that the pro players feed their bodies nutritious foods, take care of their physical and mental selves, is astounding and should be a bigger focus for us as musician-athletes. Music-making is as much physical as it is intellectual & emotional.
Before I sign off, I'll leave you with a proud momma moment. Here's a clip of one of Max's goals. You can thank me for leaving out the audio of one of the other moms screaming. 😂
