When Kids Dare to Dream

Today's blog was submitted by Bill Matthews. Matthews is a Play Like a Champion Research Trainer and a psychotherapist working with children, adolescents, and adults.  Matthews specializes in ADHD, anxiety, depression, trauma, and performance enhancement treatment.  In addition, Matthews has coached and umpired baseball and softball for all ages for several years.

Anthropologist Margret Mead famously said, "Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” She could have been referring to Play Like A Champion Today partners, had the program existed back when she said it, but would you believe that a group of boys in Thailand could also be the ones to do it? That’s the incredible story of the Panyee Football Club.

What makes this story special is that they were Southern Thailand Youth Soccer Champions in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. What makes this story amazing is that they accomplished that feat without having a proper “pitch” on which to practice and play!

Koh Panyee is a small fishing village built entirely over water. There is no land on which to build a soccer field. But that didn’t stop the kids of the Panyee FC. It started in 1986. Back then, the boys of Koh Panyee loved to watch international soccer matches on TV. None had actually played the game; all they were able to do was root for their favorite teams and players. That is, until until one of the boys had the courage to ask, “Why don’t we start our own football team?” Their goal – become world champions, of course!

Adults laughed, but that didn’t stop these enterprising young athletes. They gathered scraps of wood and discarded nails, and attached them atop some old fishing rafts they had tied together, creating their very own  floating mini soccer field. The rest, as they say, is history. Watch a film of their work here.

Do the athletes you coach dare to have such big dreams? If so, do they have the tools to turn their dreams into reality? If not, here’s some tips that will help.

First, if you find that one of your athletes’ favorite expressions is, “I/we can’t…”, make your favorite response, “Maybe not yet, but…”. Dr. Carol Dweck, Stanford University professor of psychology and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006) refers to this response as an easy way to start the shift from a “Fixed” (can/can’t) to a “Growth” (possible with more practice, effort, etc.) mindset. Without a growth mindset, no amount of motivation will make a difference.

Second, teach your athletes how to do “visioning.” Help them see what they want to achieve – what does it look like, sound like, and feel like? Have them imagine it as if it were occurring right now rather than in the future. Next, help them break their visions down into manageable steps that serve as the basis for process goals. Follow it up with some positive affirmations to help them over the inevitable bumps in the road (e.g., “I can achieve anything I set out to do as long as I keep working hard.” “If I believe in myself, others will believe in me.”), and you’re just about there.

What’s left is to have your athletes think about what resources (including relationships such as one-on-one tutoring  with a coach or teammate) they need to turn their dream goals into reality. Finally, give them ownership of the plan, monitoring and providing encouragement and feedback along the way. These few steps provide a winning combination that will produce results lasting far beyond what you can expect to see on any field, court, track or pool.

As for Koh Panyee, that first Panyee FC ended up finishing in third place in their initial tournament try, and the rest is history. More importantly, because of their efforts at fulfilling a dream, soccer has become the island’s number one pastime for both children and adults. Visitors travel from far and wide just to see and stand on Panyee’s new one-of-a-kind, over-water soccer field; the results of one child innocently asking, “Why don’t we start our own football team?” To quote Margaret Mead again, “The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends in large measure upon how children grow up today.” Coach your athletes to be big dreamers, and you’ll be preparing our next generation of adult problem solvers, guaranteed.