Studies in Siberian Ethnogenesis No. 2

by Henry Michael (Editor)

Overview

This collection of translations from articles by Russian scholars continues the valuable contribution to Western knowledge of the anthropology of the North which is being made under the sponsorship of the Arctic Institute of North America. The subjects treated include: "The Ethnic Affiliation of the Population in the Northwest of the Yakut A.S.S.R." (with related papers); "Ancient Petroglyphs and Modern Decorative Art in the Amur Region"; "Contributions to the History of the Buryat People"; "On the Origin of the Kirgiz People"; "The Origins and Ethnic Composition of the Koybals"; "Volga-Oka Place Names and Some Problems of the Ethnogenesis of the Finno-Urgic Peoples of the Nganasans," nomadic hunters of tundra and forest like many of the other tribes studied.

Volume II in the series Anthropology of the North: Translations from Russian Sources.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487591113
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication date:	12/15/1962
Series:	Heritage
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Henry N. Michael (1912-2006) was a scientist and senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology whose groundbreaking work in the application of tree-ring analysis revolutionized archaeological dating techniques. Previously, he was a professor of geography at Temple University and then Chair of the Geography Department from 1965 to 1973. He retired in 1980.

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THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER

A MANUAL

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By PEDRO ALVES

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2014 Pedro Alves
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-2324-1

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CHAPTER 1

IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER, YOU HAVE TO DREAM

We all have dreams, maybe forty a night when we are sleeping; sometimes we have nightmares that keep us awake and frightened at night. If you want to play football professionally one day, you should have a different kind of dream, and that dream should be being a football player.

As I have said in the past, every action begins with a dream, and every dream begins with an action. Dreams are the beginning of everything. Dreams are infinite and have no limits on how big or how crazy they can be.

I have read many books and seen many documentaries about athletes, and one thing they all have in common is that they all start with a dream of what they want to become.

Peter Schemeichel dreamed of playing for Manchester United from the time he was a little boy, and he did it—he played for Manchester United from 1991 to 1999. He played almost a thousand professional games as a goalkeeper for the Danish national team and for all the clubs he represented. He is regarded by many as one the best keepers of all time.

Cristiano Ronaldo as a child dreamed of playing for Real Madrid, and he has been playing for them since 2009. There is no doubt that he is one of the greatest players ever to play the game, a playing legend.

When you are a child, teachers, family and friends ask what you want to do when you grow up! Most likely when you were 5 or 6 or 7 years old, you answered politely and full of conviction, "I want to be a soccer player!" or "I want to be a football player!" They politely said, "Yeah, great." But as years went by and you were asked the same question, if you answered the same way, the reply probably became a bit different: "Come on, seriously? Grow up!" Probably that made you feel that if you keep your dream alive, you are nothing but a little child.

Many people dream that one day they will play in a stadium with 50,000 people cheering, that fans will wait and ask for autographs, that stories will be written about them in the newspapers, cameras will focus on them, media personalities will ask them for interviews, that they will travel all over the world, meeting many people from different countries and playing the game they've always loved. Don't be embarrassed by dreaming. Dream big—dream something bigger than yourself. Keeping that dream alive is not always easy when you are growing, but that dream belongs to you and is the fuel to your engine.

If you want to be a football player, then your first step has to be dreaming

CHAPTER 2

TAKE ACTION TOWARD MAKING YOUR DREAM REALITY

Now that you have a dream of playing the beautiful game, what is next? Do you sit down on the couch, watch TV all day and dream away?

Not exactly. Now is the moment when you take action. You must get up in the morning with the purpose of making that day count—today is one day closer to your game. Today is one day nearer to your dream. Today has to count more than yesterday. Yesterday is already gone, and today is here, so get up and move now!

It is always easier said than done. Dreaming all day and waiting for something to happen is not going to do it. Try it, and nothing will happen. A dream without action is just a dream like any of the forty dreams in a night's sleep. Don't let this great dream of yours be just a wish—nothing more than a wish.

"So what do I do?" you may ask.

STEP 1. BE PREPARED AND MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY

The first step is being prepared. When you are prepared, nothing will surprise you or catch you off guard. A prepared boy or girl is worth double! You must begin writing down your daily, weekly and monthly schedule. I know between school, TV, video games, studying, a part-time job (if you have one), cleaning your room, texting, Facebook, the million friends you probably have, and the obvious soccer practices, you can end up left without energy or time to do any extra.

Writing down your schedule and your tasks will give you plenty of extra time that you thought you did not have. For example, it might take you half an hour to an hour to come home from school. Preparing and eating a snack should take you 10 minutes, and washroom time another 10 minutes. Then you do your homework and, after completing it, spend at least 10 minutes extra per subject for review (reviewing the classroom subjects daily will save you hours of studying in the future and prepare you better for tests). Now you are free to train.

When you are making your schedule, keep in mind school, your regular training with your team, house chores, studying, a part-time job if you have one and "me time", which I will explain later. The day only has 24 hours, and you need to sleep between 9 and 10 hours. So if you need a few extra hours to train, eliminate or cut down TV time, video-game time and texting. The choice is yours—the dream is yours, not mine.

When writing down your schedule, remember that the schedule has a schedule too. Make time to write down your tasks every day at the end of the day so you will always be prepared for the following day.

STEP 2. SCHEDULE YOUR HOME TRAINING

Now that you have taken action and decided on your life's purpose, it is time to schedule your home training. For example, if you train with your team Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and have a game on Saturday, your own training should be Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Training on a game day is fantastic if done properly. If the game is at 6 p.m., then early in the morning you should warm up, do dynamic stretches, do a few sets of speed enhancement drills without the ball and then do the same with a ball. Mimic more less what is going to happen in the game. Make it realistic—acceleration, stops, sprints, long passes, short passes, jumps and headers. Cool down and do static stretches, go home and take a shower and then take a cold bath for 10 minutes, but don't put your head under cold water. Visualize how well you are going to perform and rest until the game. During the game, everything will be easier, and all the moves will be available to muscle memory. Sunday should be your day off to rest, but it is great if you do light stuff with the ball—keep-ups, free kicks, heading the ball, head-ups. This is just an example to help you understand how to schedule your personal training around your team training, and by now you should understand as well that you cannot expect to get away with just training with the team. That will not be enough to reach your goal of playing professionally.

STEP 3. THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME TRAINING

Most youth coaches of children 6 to 14 years old will develop your basic football skills, such as dribbling, passing, working as a team, shooting, defending, attacking and so on. The coach will eventually help you to apply those skills in a team environment and probably will tell you that there is no I in team. Well, I disagree as I will explain later. The coach is responsible for the team, not just you. He is responsible for the development of the team and its players, but you are responsible for your own development. It is very, very important that you understand that. Your home training is what will give you the edge you're looking for; it's what makes you one with the ball.

What to train during your own training time? It should always be something to improve you and help you become a better player, stronger, faster and more skilful. It should always include a warm-up, dynamic stretching, the scheduled practice, a cool-down and static stretching. Maybe you have been wondering what made the difference in others' journeys. Well, the difference is taking action, following through with the scheduled plan, making every day count for something. These things have had a tremendous impact on other players before you. Why would they not have an impact in your life?

CHAPTER 3

CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK

A few years ago, during the winter season, I was watching a soccer match between two youth teams. I could not help but notice the conversation between a few parents regarding their kids' futures. Part of me wanted to get involved in the conversation, but another part of me told me not to bother. Well, I got involved in the conversation by saying, "Nice group of boys playing. One of these days we will be buying tickets to see them play!" They laughed, and one of the guys in this little group said, "That would be nice, but I don't think so."

The lady beside him said, "So do you think these guys can become professional?"

Without hesitating, I replied, "Yes, I do. Why couldn't they become professional?"

The whole group gave me a thousand reasons why the kids couldn't play football professionally one day: the competition was too high, there were not enough opportunities, you had to be born with special talent, you had to have someone on the inside, scholarships were safer, these kids weren't even good enough, the odds were not favourable, you had to be extremely lucky, blah, blah, blah. After listening to all this negativity and excuses for why their boys were not going to make it for a good five minutes, I interrupted the lady who was speaking and said, "Speaking of luck, have you guys played today's lottery?"

They all at the same time said, "Yep, are you crazy? Today's jackpot is 50 million dollars!"

I looked at them and asked why. They looked kind of annoyed by the question. Before they could answer, I took a deep breath and fired away with everything on my mind: "Because you believe in it—that's the reason you play the lottery! You believe that you could be the winner of a 50-million-dollar jackpot even though there is more chance of you being struck by lightning twice—but you still believe it! But you won't dare to believe that your son or anyone's son here can be a professional soccer player! The odds of going professional are a lot better than the odds of winning the lottery." I laughed and left to continue to watch the match.

Throughout your life, there will always be people telling you that it's impossible, that you can't do it, that you are too small, too big, too fat, too skinny, not good enough. There will be more of them than there are people telling you positive things like you can do it, you are fantastic and you will make it. Our subconscious minds grab what we hear, see and feel without telling us. Unfortunately for us, it tends to be more negativity than positivity that is absorbed by our subconscious minds. You are going to see negativity on the TV, read it in the news and hear and see it on the street, on the bus, on the subway, on the way home—everywhere. You will find that those negative blocks will keep you from having success.

With all the flow of negativity in your life, your unconscious mind affects your conscious thoughts, and without noticing it, your attitude becomes negative as well. You start doubting yourself and start believing that maybe the dream of playing professionally is just a dream after all and you need to grow up. You begin to believe you are not good enough to make it and should keep your feet on the ground.

You don't have to lock yourself up at home or stop communicating with others to overcome all this negativity, but you will need to follow these steps.

STEP 1. TURN AROUND

In order to change the way you think, you must turn the negative input in your mind into positivity in order to have a positive mindset.

For example, if you think, "I can't shoot with my left foot," immediately turn it around by intentionally thinking, "I can shoot with my left foot." If you think, "I can only do this drill starting from the right," you turn it around by thinking, "I can do this drill from any side." If you catch yourself thinking, "I can't head the ball," change it to "I will head the ball." Results begin to appear when you change the way you think.

STEP 2. LOVE YOURSELF

When you look at yourself in the mirror to comb your hair or brush your teeth, you should take a better look at yourself and tell yourself, "I love you. I'm great. I am a champion, I am a winner and I'm successful," and smile. If you don't love yourself, how can you expect anyone to love you? Begin the day by telling yourself how good you are and how great you are going to be today! Take a deep breath slowly and smile to yourself, and your reflection will smile back at you. Try it! You will feel amazing.

STEP 3. THINK HUGE

You have to think huge, or you will always find yourself coming close to making it but falling short, almost doing it but falling short again. I know how it feels to almost reach the destination and not get there. So change and think big. If you don't think like a champion, then I am sorry but you won't be one. Tell yourself you're not just going to make it but are going to break a record as well.

STEP 4. PRETEND

Remember when you were younger and used to play pretend? Sometimes you would pretend you were an astronaut, and you would fly to the moon, and sometimes you would be a captain, a warrior or a superhero. That was fun; those days were incredible fun. And it always felt so real. Now just tell yourself that you are a soccer player, and it will feel real again. Tell yourself over and over again. Act like you are a soccer player. Wave toward the stands to whoever is watching your match like the professionals do when they are thanking the fans for coming to the game.

STEP 5. THROW YOUR OLD BELIEFS OUT THE DOOR

Those old beliefs you have are dragging you down. Some of those old beliefs include the following: only a few lucky ones make it; it is fate right from birth; no one ever makes it from here; this is a hockey country, not a soccer country; it is all in the genes; players are born different; I am too poor and can't afford to play; no rich people ever make it; they are bigger than me.

Stop! You have to stop and erase those thoughts from your mind—erase those thoughts completely. None of those beliefs help you or make any sense. Don't take them to heart or believe them. Bigger is not always better, and we all know about the odds and statistics of making it, becoming a professional soccer player. If Manuel Bento had paid attention to odds and statistics, he would have never played in the World Cup in 1986 or the Champions League.

Manuel Bento was a goalkeeper with the height of 1.74 m, much smaller than any of his competition between the posts, and that did not stop him from reaching his goal. Bento played twenty years for Sporting Lisboa Benfica. He gained the starting position at the age of 28 and accumulated an impressive and massive 636 overall appearances with only 447 goals allowed. He also had 63 caps for his national team, Portugal, including in the semifinals against France, the host country of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Euro in 1984.

Many of you reading this were probably born or are living in countries where soccer is less developed than in Europe and South America, but that should not give you the excuse to think that it is impossible to be a soccer player. Maybe in North America soccer is not as big as it is in Brazil, Portugal, Italy, England and Spain, but it is not impossible to make it. Many Canadian and American men and women before you have played professionally, and many more after you will turn pro. The Canadians include Atiba Hutchinson, Paul Saltery, Dwayne De Rosario, Craig Forest, Jonathan de Guzmán, David "Junior" Hoilet, Owen Hargreaves, Mellissa Tancredi, Charmaine Hooper, Sophie Schmidt, Chelsea Stewart, Desiree Scott and Christine Sinclair. The Americans include Brad Friedel, Claudio Reyna, Clint Dempsey, Brian Mcbride, Landon Donovan, Michele Akers, Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly, Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry, Hope Solo and Christie Rampone.

The feeling of having money is always fantastic, and it might help in a lot of ways; but being rich or poor does not necessarily make you a professional football player, so lose that old belief as well.

No one is born with magic genes or superpowers that will make them superstars; they were born more or less like you and I. When we are brought to this world, we are nothing but cute babies with our whole lives ahead of us.

STEP 6. GET RID OF NEGATIVITY

As much as you can, remove all the negative influences in your life. Get rid of all your negative sources and inputs.

Empty your cup of negativity and fill it with positivity, and that's what your subconscious will pick up. Until you make the unconscious conscious, you will call it nothing but fate. You must change the way you think. A changed mindset will bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

CHAPTER 4

Realize Where You Are Standing, What Type of Player You Are and What Type of Player You Want to Be

Change does not happen overnight; take your time executing your plan. Rome was not build in one day either, so be patient. Don't rush through your plan. Take it step by step.

It is never easy to accept the truth, but you have to know exactly who you are and who you want to be. If you leave your home without knowing where you want to go, you probably will end up somewhere you did not plan to. When searching for direction to something on the Internet, you have to type the starting location as well, don't you? Life works the same way—you must know where you stand and where the final destination is.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER by PEDRO ALVES. Copyright © 2014 Pedro Alves. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface, ix,
Acknowledgements, xi,
Introduction, xiii,
1 If You Want to Become a Professional Soccer Player, You Have to Dream, 1,
2 Take Action toward Making Your Dream Reality, 3,
3 Change the Way You Think, 7,
4 Realize Where You Are Standing, What Type of Player You Are and What Type of Player You Want to Be, 13,
5 Setting Goals, 25,
6 Visualize Your Future, 31,
7 Desire and Passion, 35,
8 Discipline, 39,
9 Me Time: Your Own Peaceful Time, the Importance of Helping Others and Gratitude, 49,
10 Live a Well-Balanced Life, 51,
11 Player Positions and Formations, 53,
12 Conclusion, 73,
13 Pictures, 83,