The Power of a Word

Today I'm going to speak about the most powerful word in the English language - 'can't'.

This year I have the opportunity to help coach my daughters soccer team.  She's plays both Spring and Fall soccer, so twice a week I get to yell at 17 12 yr old girls...talk about fun!!!  :P  The head coach asked my wife if I'd be interested as the previous assistant coach's daughter moved on to a select team and he noticed that the girls always seemed to work harder at the end of practices when I showed up.  I believe this is mostly due to me getting on my daughter to beat the girl next to her...creating competition by motivated yelling.  :D

At this mornings game...we had first field, so 9 a.m. and our team is traditionally not very 'in-tune' with morning play, so we always get off to a bit of a late start.  We've got a gal on our team, she's lighting quick, has great ball handling skills and can work her way through a field of defenders, but she's got one little hitch...she's a toe punter, and all she thinks she can do it toe punt the ball.  Well anyone who plays soccer knows that a toe punt is great for distance but not good for control.  As the final part of our warm-up this morning we had the girls two lining shots on goal with the shot coming from the left side.  This forces a right footed player to shoot on the uncomfortable side of the ball or to stumble enough to try and reset their position.  So the purpose of this drill was to get the girls to take soft line on the ball and gain control for a shot.  Well the shot itself needs to come off the inside of the foot as it's an in the box shot with a goalie, so control is important here.  She was the second to last player to take a shot, she toe punted the ball and it sailed left of the post and out of bounds.  'I can't do this' was what she said to me.

'As long as you tell yourself you 'can't' you will never be able to do it.'

'My brother played soccer for 12 years and he tried to teach me to kick like that, I'm just a toe punter.'

So I took her aside and we did a few kick drills...I won't get into specifics but we worked about 25 shots on a small goal on the sidelines as the game started.  There were a couple of 'I cant's' in the beginning but we worked outside of that mindset...we focused on what we needed to do and foot positioning.  For the first half this young lady got down on herself, with a couple of 'I sucks' and another 'I can't' or two as we rotated her on and off the field.  The last time she came off the field I told her she needed to change her attitude, her negativity was out of place and she needed to smile.  She sulked for a bit but started the second half with a better mental mindset.

For the second half we set her as right mid-fielder and her very first possession of the second half she dribbled the ball from 10 ft on our side of the field down the inside line, beat three defenders, got to the goal box and put a shot on goal WITH THE INSIDE OF HER FOOT!!!  She scored and ran back down field with a huge smile on her face...I asked her this 'What was that?'...her reply was just two words.

I CAN

Sometimes it does take a success for us to realize that we can do ANYTHING we set out minds to.  A little practice, some insight and help from a coach or mentor or even some encouragement from a friend or a family member can be all it takes to change how you think.

The next time someone tells you that you 'can't' do something, you have two choices.  You can tell them that they are right, agree that you can't and stop yourself short of doing something AMAZING or you can tell them they are wrong, show them the power of believing in yourself and let nothing stop you and simple be AMAZING by doing AMAZING things!!!!