Developing Elite Soccer IQ and D1 Confidence Through Cognitive Training

The economic or financial aspect of it, that's where you really need to think, like, what does your player want? Does your player want to play at a higher level? Does your player need that extra push? It's not just more dribbling techniques and moves that you're gonna do on a field, like, this is what's going to take your child to the next level, whatever that might be. My child's two years out from college. She wants to play at a D1 level. She wants to get a scholarship, and I feel like this is where she needed improvement. And so for my family, it's something that I felt was a priority. Hi, I'm Stephanie Darling. I live in California. My daughter has been playing soccer for 12 years. My daughter has always been driven, wants to be a very elite player, high-level player, but normal training, normal practices with her team wasn't really pushing her. So we were trying to think of what areas of growth she needed, and we realized that this was a perfect fit because it was more of the thinking aspects of the game. She had the skill, but she needed to work on the soccer IQ. She's a very confident player, but she plays on a few different teams, and depending on the coach, she would start questioning herself as to is she doing the right thing? Is she not doing the right thing? So I think that learning soccer and discussing it, not just being out of field and playing it, really helped her develop confidence, no matter who the coach was. This program came to us because the man behind it actually coaches my daughter in our Olympic development program. I think because of his soccer knowledge, his compassion, just who he is as a coach, and he wants the best for every single one of his players, then when I heard this program is something he was involved with, we were obviously very excited to try it out. This is one of the easiest programs I've ever seen. My daughter, she has very rarely ever had hiccups on the communication aspect, how to access the videos, how to make the meetings. It is very, very easy for a player. She schedules her meetings, makes her meetings, does her own videos. Also, what I love about it is it's extremely self-paced. So my daughter can go to school, she can go to soccer practice, and then she'll check on APDA that night. So it's all your own schedule, which I think is great for all players, all families, 'cause we all have a lot going on. If it was rigid on, "Okay, you gotta be here at 5:00" in the program, it would be very difficult. It's very-- I mean, like, no stress for me at all, and I actually find extreme joy in listening to her in her Zoom meetings. Hearing the conversations she has really make me very proud of her, and you really see the growth in the program. I think it's really cool that she's seeing the game in a completely different way. She understands there's more than one way to do something. Having her problem solve which decision was best, and it's like the amount of caring that is on the part of the people running the program, it's not just, "Okay, cool. Do these modules, and we'll see you next week." They actually wanted her to perform well in her game, and they reminded her, "These are the things we should be working on," and it was very fresh in her mind, and so it's just making her on the field more calm, more collected. I just think that sometimes these kids are driven by, "I messed up," and then that mentally takes them out of the game. But this just builds up their confidence. You let them find the answers, and I love that that's what this program's all about. They find the positive, but then they help the child themselves build their way up to, "Dang, that would have been a better choice." You learn so much more by figuring out that yourself, and I think that's what I value most in that as a mom, as a teacher. My child is growing and getting there herself with their guidance. I really, truly thought learning soccer was actually being out on the field and doing it, and when he told me, "No, it's 100% online," I was intrigued to think, how is my player going to grow as a player unless she's actually doing it? And I think that to have conversations, point out the good, point out where you could grow as a player, actually focusing on you and positives and rooms for growth, it's just not done. I love the term soccer IQ because in my child's brain, she sees the field in a way that isn't just, "I'm out there playing." Like, she can start picturing those next steps, and this program keeps soccer in your brain, not just out on the field running around, and I think her thinking aspect of it has grown. I don't think my child would ever have progressed in the way that she is.