The challenges of becoming a professional footballer are hard to overstate. The levels of dedication that young players must maintain, for the merest chance of ‘making it’, are huge — and sometimes the expectations of players and parents do not align with the reality. But, as coaches, we have a responsibility to educate them around the difficulty of this journey. Below, A-League winner Stefan Mauk provides some assistance, as he discusses the demands of the professional game, and the obstacles he overcame to get there….
adversity
After making his professional debut in Australia, Stefan Mauk embarked on a career that would see him win the A-League and play in multiple continents. But his pathway to professional football was not easy. In this article, Mauk, now playing in Japan for Fagiano Okayama, reflects on his childhood playing football, the biggest factors in his development, and how adversity helped drive him to become a professional footballer. In This Article A Sporting Childhood Mauk traces the origins of his career back to a childhood…
Ben Garuccio is an A-League winner with two different clubs. But his career hasn’t been without challenges. In this article, the Western United fullback reflects upon the setbacks he faced in youth football, moving to Scotland as a professional and suffering a major knee injury, and how he consistently overcame adversity to develop as both a player and person — and, ultimately, build a successful and fulfilling career in the game. In This Article From Youth Football to the Professional Game Garuccio’s career can be…
How can sport help build resilience in people? Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Staffordshire University, Dr. Martin Turner shares some examples of failure and success in sport from football, golf and tennis outlining the value of learning from these challenges as players and coaches. Sport has been called a natural laboratory for examining the psychology of human behaviour. It is also a perfect place to learn and craft how to respond to life’s adversities. Sport, as in life, provides many highs and many lows for…