Long term development is a journey where the individual will face many challenges, rewards, and set backs, but the development comes from the experiences along the way and how they use these experiences to evaluate, analyse, and adjust the challenge they face.
Development is not a perfect trajectory of constant improvements, it’s a continuous pathway of peaks and troughs with many obstacles and challenges to get you out of your comfort zone. It takes time, dedication, commitment, and a strong personality to face challenges and conquer them. Today we are too quick to move away from challenges, to find the easiest pathway, or just completely stop when it becomes difficult.
Long term player development isn’t just about an individual athlete becoming a good soccer player, it is about the life lessons learned along the way, and positive personal traits gained from the journey.